Families of the 48 Stardust fire victims have vowed to “do them proud” and “give them back their identities” as the inquest opens today.
Michael Barrett, 17, was the last to be identified after the St Valentine’s disco in Artane and his story will be the first to be told at the inquest. His mother Gertrude Barrett told the Irish Mirror: “The inquest begins with pen portraits [of the victims] and I’m doing the first reading.
“Michael was the last to be identified but the pen portraits are going in alphabetical order, so Michael is first. We are all apprehensive. It has taken a long time to reach this stage. We have been on a mission for the last 42 years.
Read more: Stardust tragedy: Jury to be selected for inquest as relatives of 48 victims to address the hearing
“It is an absolute shame that it has taken this long. I will be very emotional. It’s going to bring me back to those days of waiting in the morgue for him. But I am going to do him proud, we all are. We’re going to give them back their identities.”
The St Valentine’s Day fire in 1981 at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Co Dublin, began at around 1.30am on February 14 and claimed the lives of 48 people. They were all aged between 16 and 26, while hundreds more were badly hurt and left with life- changing injuries.
The families have campaigned for decades to have an inquest into their deaths. It is more than three years since the Attorney General’s office ruled that the original inquests in 1982 were insufficient and called for the inquest that begins today.
Former attorney general Seamus Woulfe’s office stated in 2019: “The holding of fresh inquests is, on balance, in the public interest and in the interests of justice.” Funding issues delayed the inquest until an announcement in October 2020 when €8million was allocated from Budget 2021 but a firm date was not scheduled.
As the delays continued, Gertie told the Irish Mirror on the 40th anniversary in February 2021: “My mission for justice started in the morgue.” After three years a jury was last week finally confirmed for the inquest so that it could begin today.
Stardust survivor Antoinette Keegan, 59, lost her sisters Martina, 16, and 19-year-old Mary when the three siblings were trapped in the fire. Antoinette revealed yesterday that the victims’ families will meet today at 9.30am in the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin and will walk "hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder” in “solidarity for justice” on the opening day of the historic inquest.
Read more: Stardust survivor Antoinette Keegan to run for election and launch new political party
Relatives will carry photos of their dead loved ones and pen portraits of each victim will be read into the record. It is estimated that the opening proceedings, including the pen portraits of each of the deceased by their bereaved family members, could take three weeks.
Dublin District Coroner Myra Cullinane said: “This will be a very important part of the proceedings.” Ms Keegan said in a statement: “This will be a very emotional day for the families reading their pen portraits and also for the families in attendance listening.
“It is a national disgrace that it has taken us, the families of the 48 victims, 42 years to get to this point of the inquest being reopened. The families are asking the public to come and join them and support them throughout this inquest.”
The Stardust inquest is being held in the Pillar Rooms in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin.
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