A CEREMONY HAS taken place to commemorate the 48 victims of the Stardust nightclub fire in 1981, on Valentine’s day.

Family members of the victims laid wreaths of remembrance into the cruciform pool at the Garden of Remembrance on the Northside of Dublin city, and the President Michael D. Higgins placed a wreath there on behalf of the Irish people as well. 

Family members also read extracts from the pen portraits that they wrote for the inquest into the 48 young people’s deaths, which concluded this year. 

In one of the many emotional moments of the ceremony so far, Maurice McHugh, who lost his 17-year-old daughter Caroline in the fire, told the attendees: “I have a feeling we have the presence of the 48 victims here with us today”. 

In April of this year the jury of the Stardust inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing as the cause of death for each of the 48 victims who perished in the nightclub fire. 

It also determined that the fire started in a hot press on the premises, and that it was caused by an electrical fault.

The verdict was hailed as a breakthrough by family members and others who have fought for justice for those who died, were injured, and those who survived that night. 

Maurice, in his pen portrait which he made alongside his wife Phyllis, said that the couple often wondered if their daughter “called out for her mammy and daddy for help as the flames burned her body”. 

He said that after 40 years of waiting, they wanted justice and truth for their daughter.

The author Roddy Doyle read a piece he was written especially for the event, entitled ‘Names’. 

He said that at the start of his career, he used to find names for his characters from the phonebook. 

This year, with the phonebook long gone, he hit a wall trying to find names for his characters. 

With the verdict of the Stardust inquest having been recently reached, he had the idea to look up a list of the victims names. He started writing down their first names in a notebook – these would be the names that would inspire his characters.

He felt “desperately sad and angry” writing out all of the young people’s names.

“They were the names of people I grew up with, names I could trust,” Roddy said. 

He thanked the Stardust families for working so tirelessly to keep the names of their loved ones alive, for ensuring that they would never be forgotten, or “hidden away”. 

In his welcome remarks, the Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “So many people here today, and many who sadly did not live to see it, never gave up fighting for the memory of their loved ones. Today, your fight sees them properly commemorated by the State”. 

Christy Moore performed his song ‘They never came home’. The song, which he was found in contempt of court over, and which wasn’t played publicly in Ireland for decades, contains the lyric: “The families were abandoned year after year, it seems like our leaders shed crocodile tears”. 

The State ceremony was live streamed on RTÉ TV. 

The commemoration was c0-designed with the families of the victims. It will comprise of spoken word, music and song.

The Artane Band and the Dublin Fire Brigade Band performed, and performances were given by Christy Moore, Mary Byrne and more.

The Tánaiste and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and Mary Lou McDonald also attended. 

The majority of those in attendance were the family members and friends of those who lost their lives in the fire, survivors, and first responders who worked on the night.