STARDUST CAMPAIGNER AND survivor Antoinette Keegan is to contest the upcoming general election for the National Party.

Keegan will stand as a candidate in the Dublin constituency of Fingal East.

She said one of her reasons for contesting the election is to “highlight the decades-long struggle of the families affected by Stardust for the government to take responsibility”.

The Stardust fire claimed the lives of 48 people on 14 February, 1981.

Keegan’s sisters Mary, 19, and Martina, 16, died after the fire broke out at a Valentine’s Day event at the popular nightclub.

In April, an inquest concluded that the 48 victims who died in the fire had been unlawfully killed, after which Taoiseach Simon Harris delivered a State apology to the families in the Dáil.

In a statement, the National Party said Keegan is “committed to implementing the National Party’s pro-Irish position, particularly with regards to immigration policy”.

Speaking to PA, Keegan said: “My life has literally run around politics, through this Stardust tragedy, because it was always against governments and fighting the campaign for truth and justice.”

She added: “We knew it was wrong from day dot one, and the government knew it was wrong, but the government shut the doors on us and what we had to do for 43 years… my parents both should still be alive today.”

Keegan’s father John died aged 49 and her mother Christine died in July 2020 aged 84.

She added that there are many issues important to working class communities, including to housing, hospitals, and hospitality.

“I know it’s not going to be sorted overnight, because it’s a long time that these problems have been ongoing. But the fact of the matter is I want to make a change, if I can, and that’s my reason for running,” Keegan said.

Though the government announced in August that there will be a redress scheme for the Stardust families worth €24 million, Keegan said this has not yet been paid over to the families or the survivors of the tragedy.

She said there has also been no update on progressing the unlawful killing inquest verdict.

Among her other campaign pledges are to end homelessness, provide a more transparent and updated social housing list, increase the number of affordable homes, invest in hospitals and provide healthcare for the elderly.

She will also call for building regulations and recommendations to be implemented and for more funding for the Dublin Fire Brigade.

The three sitting TDs in Fingal East are Housing Minister and Fianna Fáil TD Darragh O’Brien, Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell and Labour TD Duncan Smith.

Asked if she thinks the government would be intimidated by her running for election, she said: “I don’t know about that, but I’ll rattle their cage anyway.”

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper