FAMILIES OF THE Stardust fire victims have described today’s State apology as “bittersweet” after decades of grief and campaigning.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said in the Dáil that they endured “a living nightmare” and that it is the State’s “eternal shame” that it took two generations for truth and justice to be achieved.
He said the families were forced to fight for decades to “obtain the vindication you won last Thursday when the inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing in the case of your 48 family members”.
Patricia Dunne, whose brother Brian Hobbs died in the Stardust fire, described the apology as “good, but not great”, saying that Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald’s speech was “brilliant”, while Harris’s was “fine”.
“I told the Taoiseach on Saturday that he needed to read all the pen portraits himself, not his scripts to understand where we were coming from and to feel my hurt, which I think he did,” said Dunne.
“We will see how the next few days pan out and have they taken it fully on board or are some of them going through the motions again.
“There are things promised and people will keep in contact with us. We will see how it goes.
We have had promises for years.
Damien Keegan, brother of Mary and Martina Keegan, said it was a “bittersweet” day for the family.
He said that members of their family “broke down” when their mother Christine Keegan, a leading campaigner for the Stardust families who died in 2020, was mentioned during Dáil statements.
He said his fifth birthday was in the April after the Stardust tragedy in February 1981.
“All I knew growing up throughout my whole life was looking at my mother fighting for justice,” he said.
“The State turned its back on all of us.
The State has done absolutely nothing so far apart from the apology for us.
“Follow it up and show us what you mean, you’re sorry,” he said.
“Show us your commitment, what you’re saying in there you’re going to do for us. Show us.”
He said that Harris delivered a “good apology” and that he seems “genuine”.
“I’d be very interested to see what they come back with.”
Louise McDermott, whose brothers William and George and sister Marcella, all died in the Stardust fire said that the Taoiseach’s apology was “sincere”, but that the family has “mixed emotions”.
“He did hit some of our points and went through some of the things we wanted,” she said.
“We will wait to see if they do a commemorative day for them, which I think they should and there will be something put up to always remember them. They only thing we have is the wall at the Stardust site.
“For my two brothers and sister, yes we didn’t think this day would come but it’s here. We have to go back now and process the last week and hopefully what they promised us, we will get.
She said her mother, Brigid McDermott watched proceedings from her home, and that she was “so happy” that someone stood up and apologised.
There was a standing ovation for the families as Leas Cheann Comhairle TD Catherine Connolly welcomed them to Leinster House.
The Taoiseach said that the institutions of the State let the families down and said they should “never have had to walk alone”.
“We should have offered counselling, we should have provided answers, and we should have ensured the truth came out,” he said.
“In such shattering circumstances, the expectation must surely be that the State comes to the aid of its citizens and supports them in the terrible aftermath.
“Instead, it is to our great shame that State processes heaped misery upon tragedy for the Stardust families.”
You can read the full State apology here.
With reporting by the Press Association
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