DAIL ADDRESS
Stardust redress scheme plan update before Taoiseach Simon Harris makes official State apology to victims’ families
The inquest revealed that 48 people were unlawfully killed
TAOISEACH Simon Harris will deliver an official State apology to the families of the victims of the Stardust tragedy in a Dail speech.
However, the details of a new redress scheme have yet to be finalised with the Government keen to work with the families of the 48 people who died in the fire to establish the scheme.
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A new inquiry into the tragic St Valentine’s Day 1981 fire found that the blaze was started by an electrical fault in the hot press room which spread to the rest of the building and killed 48 young people.
The jury ruled that the victims were “unlawfully killed” in the blaze with a number of issues contributing to their deaths including the fact that some exits were blocked or locked.
The new inquiry into the shocking tragedy comes after four decades of campaigning by victim’s families who were distraught at the finding of a separate probe which ruled that the fire was arson – despite no evidence to back this up.
The State repeatedly blocked and delayed the families’ attempts to get the truth and justice for their lost loved ones.
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Taoiseach Simon Harris met with some of the victims’ families in Government buildings over the weekend and issued personal apologies to them for the State’s role in delaying justice.
Tomorrow, the Taoiseach will stand up in the Dail before Leaders’ Questions and issue a full State apology to the victims, their families and friends.
Over the weekend, Tanaiste Michael Martin said that the Government will give “serious consideration” to establishing a new redress scheme for the families of the Stardust victims.
However, the Irish Sun understands that no details of the redress scheme have been agreed by the coalition yet with the State apology coming first before any new redress programme.
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Speaking at the Fianna Fail 1916 commemoration in Arbour Hill yesterday, Tanaiste Martin said: “We will give it very serious consideration.
"We have to do what’s right by the families, and I certainly will be proactive in that regard.”
'Stardust baby' Lisa Lawlor, orphaned after both her parents were killed in fire, reacts to unlawful killing verdict
During his speech at the event, the Fianna Fail leader said: “During this week the verdict of the new inquest into the Stardust disaster vindicated the quest of victims and their families for acknowledgement of what happened on a night which is seared on the memory of our country.
“The disaster led to major changes in many laws and regulations, but the inquest and subsequent inquiry clearly failed in acknowledging the full truth.
“The government will respond fully and comprehensively respond to the findings of the new inquest.
“We will address the failings of the state then and in the years which followed.
"And we will make a formal and complete apology to the victims and their families for those failings.”
DECADES OF HELL - STARDUST TRAGEDY TIMELINE
THE families of the Stardust dead were forced to begin campaigning just days after the fire. They knew then, and would be reminded for the next 43 years, they would have to fight with everything they had.
FEBRUARY 14, 1981: A blaze rips through the Stardust nightclub, in Artane, north Dublin, killing 48 young people and injuring more than 200 others. It remains the worst fire disaster in the history of the State.
NOVEMBER 1981: A tribunal of inquiry into the tragedy, chaired by Mr Justice Ronan Keane, finds the blaze was “probably” caused by arson. The families reject the finding and start a decades-long campaign for a new inquiry.
MARCH 1982: Original inquests found that all 48 died from a combination of smoke inhalation and cyanide poisoning.
SEPTEMBER 1985: The government establishes a Compensation Tribunal to give ex-gratia payments to victims’ families and survivors. 823 people received just under £10.5million. The lives of the dead were valued at £7,500 each.
MARCH 2006: Campaigners march on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s office demanding new evidence be considered in a public inquiry.
APRIL 2007: The bodies of five victims — Richard Bennett, Michael French, Murtagh Kavanagh, Éamon Loughman and Paul Wade — are finally identified using DNA techniques.
JULY 2008: The Government appoints Paul Coffey SC to conduct an independent examination of the case for a reopened inquiry.
JANUARY 2009: The report rules out a new inquiry — but dismisses the probable arson verdict. Families declare a “victory for the dead”.
2013: Gardai open a criminal investigation into alleged perjury over evidence given by several witnesses at the 1981 tribunal.
FEBRUARY 2014: Two representatives of the Stardust families end a 24-hour occupation of Government Buildings after demanding to see then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
JANUARY 2016: The Director of Public Prosecutions says it will not mount a prosecution into alleged perjury by several witnesses at the 1981 tribunal.
FEBRUARY 2016: Families hold a protest at Dublin Coroner’s Court calling for the inquest into the 48 deaths to be reopened, saying they were given a cause of death but no verdict.
MARCH 2017: The Cabinet appoints retired judge Mr Justice Patrick McCartan to conduct a probe into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy and to rule whether a commission of investigation into the fire is warranted.
NOVEMBER 2017: Families reject the McCartan report’s recommendation that there should be no new inquiry, describing the tone of the report as “rude, aggressive and irrational” and they continue to demand a new inquest.
NOVEMBER 2018: Families say they have found new evidence and will petition the Attorney General for a new inquest. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tells the Dail the AG will give full consideration to their request.
FEBRUARY 14, 2019: On the 38th anniversary of the tragedy, a new plaque is unveiled at the site of the former Stardust nightclub, with the inscription “They Never Came Home”, and listing the names of the 48 dead.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: Attorney General Seamus Woulfe contacts families of the victims to say an inquest will be held because of an “insufficiency of inquiry” in original inquests.
APRIL 25, 2023: After delays caused by Covid and a judicial review taken by the club owner Eamon Butterly in the High Court, the new inquest finally begins in the Pillar Room at the Rotunda Hospital, in Dublin.
APRIL 18, 2024: Verdicts are announced after the longest inquest in the history of the State.
Stardust survivor Antoinette Keegan, who lost two sisters in the fire, said the families’ fight was always for justice, and not compensation.
She added that the focus is on the State apology due to be delivered by the Taoiseach on Tuesday.
She said: “This has always been about truth and justice, and we got that last week.
"We are now focused on the State apology, and we are not going to be jumping forward into anything else until everything is agreed with our solicitors."
The Irish Sun will this week launch a new podcast about the Stardust tragedy that will tell the story of the fire and the aftermath in an eight part series and give voice to the victims’ families and friends.
PODCAST TO TELL OF JUSTICE FIGHT
THE Irish Sun has spent months putting together the Stardust Tragedy podcast that will be released this week.
The eight-parter exploring one of Ireland’s worst disasters is brought to you by the team that made the hugely-successful podcast series The Kinahans and Making of a Detective.
Giving voice to families and friends, survivors, Stardust staff, emergency services and politicians centrally involved, it will bring listeners to the heart of a story 43 years in the making.
Damien Lane narrates, as he did The Kinahans, which has been downloaded over 1.5million times around the world since it was launched in 2023.
Irish Sun Editor Fiona Wynne said: “The scale of the loss, the grief, the sadness is difficult to comprehend. Forty-eight young lives robbed in minutes, with broken families left to pick up the pieces.
“But living alongside that pain has been the inspirational courage, tenacity and grit of those left behind, driven for over four decades by love, stopping at nothing to clear the name of their son or daughter, brother or sister, family or friend.”
The Stardust Tragedy will be available wherever you get your podcasts.