Bittersweet vindication for Stardust families

The 26 County state has finally acknowledged a multi-generational trauma it inflicted on a community following a verdict of “unlawful killing” for all those who died in the Stardust Ballroom fire.

On St. Valentine’s morning in 1981, a blaze from an electrical fire ripped through a nightclub in Artane in north Dublin. As the club filled with flames and thick, black, toxic fumes, the emergency exits were found to be chained shut. Forty-eight young people died in the mayhem that followed, mostly from smoke inhalation, and more than 200 were injured.

Ireland woke to the biggest tragedy of the era, surpassing even the horrors of the conflict, only for the political establishment to pass the buck by falsely claiming it to have been an act of arson, transferring blame from the club owners and government officials onto the victims themselves.

After a battle of 43 years, the survivors and the surviving relatives of the victims have finally won the redemption and vindication they sought over the course of a lifetime when a jury, who had sat through the year-long inquests into the deaths, returned a verdict of unlawful killing for all 48.

In a poignant moment ahead of the verdict, the campaigners walked arm-in-arm from the Rotunda Hospital up to the Garden of Remembrance carrying a large banner featuring the photographs of the young people who died – many of them under the age of 18. It bore the legend: “They Never Came Home”.

Most of the dead and injured came from working class backgrounds in Artane, Kilmore and Coolock, and half of the deceased were aged 18 or younger. In the classist politics of the day, the victims were sidelined, ignored and neglected.

Following an initial inquiry, the wealthy owners of the nightclub received a substantial compensation payout, but truth, vindication and justice for the victims would take decades longer.

A long campaign by the relatives and survivors was consistently supported by republicans and progressives over many years, notably singer Christy Moore, whose 1985 song about the tragedy was banned.

The campaign saw a sit-in in the Leinster House grounds by protesting relatives in 2009, and countless other protests against governments headed by either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.

After the verdicts were delivered last week, family members hugged their legal representatives. Others wiped away tears, and one member of the jury became visibly very emotional.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane thanked the jurors for their service, stating that “the passing of years hasn’t diminished the horror of some of the evidence that you have heard”.

At that point, families of the victims stood up in unison and applauded the jury members at length, with one person shouting “thank you”.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the verdict “confirms what survivors, victims’ families and Dubliners have always known.

“The forty-eight young lives that were taken in the Stardust tragedy night will be forever missed by those that love them. Now each family has the comfort of knowing the truth of that night and why their loved one died.

“It has been a long and heartbreaking road for victims’ families and survivors. They have overcome countless, cruel obstacles and diversions, including those put up by the Irish State.

“They have overcome. We salute them. The forty-eight young people who died on St. Valentine’s morning 1981 will be forever remembered.”

On Tuesday, the current government in Dublin – a coalition involving both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael – issued a State apology to the dead, the injured and the relatives.

Speaking in the Dáil, Taoiseach Simon Harris apologised “unreservedly” to the families of the 48 victims.

“The families gathered here today and their loved ones who perished, the family members who are no longer with us, and all those who suffered horrific injuries were the victims of a mass tragedy,” he said.

“Instead, it is to our great and eternal shame that far from the warm embrace of a caring State, the Stardust family experienced a cold shoulder, a deaf ear and two generations of struggle for truth and justice.

Mr Harris named and described each of the 48 victims in the apology, as survivors of the tragedy and families of the victims looked on from the Dáil gallery.

Ms McDonald became emotional as she spoke of the last remarks of youngsters to their families: “See you in the morning”, “Love you Ma, Love you Da”.

She said the hope of the State was that the families would eventually “shut up and give up and go away”.

But “you don’t mess with Dublin mammies” because “they will fight and they will win even when it takes 43 long years,” she added.

Ms McDonald said the Stardust family broke the heart of Dublin city and took the breadth of the nation.

“Justice was kept out of reach for those left to bear unimaginable loss,” she told the Dáil.

She said the moment was for the victims and the families who have lived with the ghost of unanswered questions and “the sorrow of the empty chair”. She said the truth had finally prevailed “and now let justice flow like a river”.

Ms McDonald noted family members speaking of people falling into addiction and depression because they could not cope with what happened while many parents died “without the comfort of vindication”.

She paid tribute to John Keegan who established the Stardust victims’ campaign group who died a year later on the day he lost a Supreme Court compensation case.

Ms McDonald referred to what happened on the night noting the flammable carpet tiles, the black smoke, people falling as they could not breathe.

“Survivors recalled the inferno looking like a monster, a living thing coming after you with frightening ferocity,” she said.

Other members of the Opposition spoke in the Dáil after the apology was given, including Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns, who said there is “justifiable public anger” that it has taken so long to reach this point.

Independent TD Catherine Connolly said it would only be meaningful if it determines the next steps and looks back as to “how we were in this position”.

She told the Dáil that State institutions “actively contrived to prevent the truth coming out” and sought to “defame families”.

She said it must be uncomfortable for the families to sit in the Dáil but it should be more uncomfortable for the State.

“What’s happened here is absolutely class distinction and if you don’t face that, and begin to learn from that, we have learned nothing,” she said.

Earlier, a Sinn Féin senator who has worked closely with the Stardust families has said that if there is a redress (compensation) scheme for survivors and relatives of the victims, the government needs to engage with them about it.

Lynn Boylan said that the previous compensation scheme was “deeply damaging” to people because it contained non-disclosures and there were threats that people could lose their homes if they took any legal action.

Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, she said their campaign has never been about money and has always been centred on truth and justice.

“What is absolutely critical is that the Government must engage with the families and their legal teams and on the terms of reference of a redress scheme because they can’t take any more mistreatment,” she said.

But Stardust survivor Antoinette Keegan, whose two sisters Mary and Martina died in the blaze, said the families had “been listened to after 43 years”.

“They were real people, they weren’t numbers, like they were in 1981 and 1982,” Ms Keegan said.

“They were bagged and tagged for 43 years. This inquest has opened a big chapter for us. They’ve gotten their identity back, they’ve got their good name back.”

Three of Brigid McDermott’s children were among the dead: William, 22, George, 18, and Marcella, 16. Brigid, who is now 87, said: “I’m proud of myself and everyone and all the mothers, fathers who went through what we did. God bless and thank everyone, especially the public – thank you all.”

Asked what the apology would mean to her, she said: “It’s just to hear they’re sorry – but it’s a bit late for me.”

Urgent Appeal