‘Serious consideration’ for Stardust redress settlement as survivor says fight was for ‘justice’ and focus on state apology

A NEW compensation plan for the families of the 48 people who lost their lives in the Stardust tragedy is being “seriously considered” by the government, Tanaiste Michel Martin has revealed.

It comes as the Taoiseach prepares to make a formal state apology to the families of the victims after a new inquiry into the 1981 nightclub fire ruled that each victim died by unlawful killing.

The government is considering a new redress program for the families of the 48 people who died in the Stardust tragedy.

After a 40-year campaign, the families of the victims of the Stardust fire were vindicated by the jury decision at Dublin Coroner’s Court last week.

Taoiseach Simon Harris met with the families on Saturday and is expected to deliver a full apology from the state on Tuesday for their long and painful wait for justice.

Mr Martin revealed today that the Government is also considering introducing a new compensation scheme to benefit families as part of the apology.

Speaking at the Fianna Fail 1916 commemoration in Arbor Hill, he said: “We will think about it very seriously.

“We have to do what is right for the families, and I will certainly be proactive in that regard.”

Speaking at the event, the Fianna Fail leader said: “This week the verdict of the new inquiry into the Stardust disaster confirmed the search by the victims and their families for recognition of what happened on a night that stands out in the memory of the people are engraved. our country.

“The disaster led to major changes in many laws and regulations, but the inquest and subsequent investigation clearly failed to identify the full truth.

“The government will respond fully and comprehensively to the findings of the new investigation.

“We will address the state’s shortcomings then and in the years that followed.

And we will issue a formal and full apology to the victims and their families for these shortcomings.”

DECADES FROM HELL – TIMELINE OF THE TRAGEDY OF STARDUST

The families of the Stardust victims were forced to campaign just days after the fire. They knew then, and would be reminded for the next 43 years, that they would have to fight with everything they had.

FEBRUARY 14, 1981: A fire 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 state’s history.

NOVEMBER 1981: A tribunal investigating the tragedy, chaired by Judge Ronan Keane, ruled the fire was “probably” caused by arson. The families reject the finding and launch a decades-long campaign for a new investigation.

MARCH 1982: Original research found that all 48 died from a combination of smoke inhalation and cyanide poisoning.

SEPTEMBER 1985: The government sets up a compensation tribunal to make ex-gratia payments to the victims’ families and relatives. 823 people received just under £10.5 million. The lives of the dead were valued at £7,500 each.

MARCH 2006: Campaigners march to Prime Minister Bertie Ahern’s office demanding new evidence be taken into account 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 inquiry into the matter with a view to a reopened investigation.

JANUARY 2009: The report rules out a new investigation, but rejects the likely verdict of arson. Families declare a “victory for the dead.”

2013: Gardai launched a criminal investigation into alleged perjury following 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 he will not prosecute over alleged perjury by several witnesses at the 1981 tribunal.

FEBRUARY 2016: Families stage a protest at Dublin Coroner’s Court calling for the inquest into the 48 deaths to be reopened. They say they have been given a cause of death, but no verdict.

MARCH 2017: The Cabinet appoints retired judge Patrick McCartan to investigate the circumstances surrounding the tragedy and decide whether a commission of inquiry into the fire is warranted.

NOVEMBER 2017: Families reject the McCartan report’s recommendation that there should be no new investigation, describing the tone of the report as “rude, aggressive and irrational” and continue to demand a new investigation.

NOVEMBER 2018: Families say they have found new evidence and will ask the attorney general for a new investigation. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tells the Dail the AG will fully consider their request.

FEBRUARY 14, 2019: On the 38th anniversary of the tragedy, a new plaque will be unveiled at the site of the former Stardust nightclub with the inscription “They Never Came Home” and the names of the 48 dead.

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: Attorney General Seamus Woulfe is contacting the victims’ families to say an inquest will be launched due to an “inadequate investigation” in the original investigation.

APRIL 25, 2023: After delays caused by Covid and a judicial review by club owner Eamon Butterly at the High Court, the new inquest is finally starting in the Pillar Room of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital.

APRIL 18, 2024: The verdicts are announced after the longest inquest in the state’s history.

Stardust survivor Antoinette Keegan, who lost two sisters in the fire, said the families’ fight was always about justice, not compensation.

She added that the focus is on the state’s apology which will be delivered by the Prime Minister on Tuesday.

She said: “This has always been about truth and justice and we got that last week.

“We are now focusing on the state’s apology, and we will not take any further action until everything has been agreed with our lawyers.”

Sinn Fein’s Lynn Boylan – who has been deeply involved in the Stardust families’ push for justice – said the government must work with the victims’ families on any recovery plan.

She said: “What is absolutely crucial is that the Government must engage with the families and their legal teams and on the terms of reference of a compensation plan because they cannot tolerate any more abuse.”

There is a lot of pressure on the state’s apology to the families, with opposition parties calling on it to acknowledge the role the state has played in denying justice.

Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said: “The suffering of the Stardust families is an issue of human rights and access to justice. For more than forty years, the state has used the legal system and its institutions to deny them precisely those rights.

“Successive governments systematically blocked, delayed and avoided delivering justice and truth to a community already burdened with unimaginable grief. Justice delayed is justice denied.

Patrick Kielty Remembers All 48 Stardust Victims as Audience Gives Standing Ovation in Poignant Late Late Show Scenes

“The Stardust families and their supporters have been forced to fight for decades for access to the truth about what happened that terrible night. An apology from the state is the least the government can offer.”

Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan agreed the delay in justice for these families is unacceptable.

He told RTE: “I think it comes down to the fact that the families have been campaigning and seeking justice for 43 years and in my mind in particular there was an injustice done at the first immediate hearing: it was an arson that clearly not now.

PODCAST TO TELL ABOUT JUSTICE

THE Irish Sun has spent months putting together the Stardust Tragedy podcast, which is released this week.

The eight-part installment explores one of Ireland’s worst disasters and is brought to you by the team who created 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 at its heart, it will take listeners to the heart of a story 43 years in the making.

Damien Lane, like him, tells The Kinahans, which has been downloaded more than 1.5 million times around the world since its launch in 2023.

Irish Sun editor Fiona Wynne said: “The scale of the loss, the grief, the grief is difficult to comprehend. Forty-eight young lives are taken in a matter of minutes, while broken families are left to pick up the pieces.

“But living alongside that pain has been the inspiring courage, tenacity and perseverance of those left behind, driven by love for more than forty years, and stopping at nothing to save the name of their son or daughter, brother or sister, family or friend. purify.”

The Stardust Tragedy will be available wherever you get your podcasts.

The fire happened on Valentine’s Day in 1981Credit: PA: Press Association

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DECADES FROM HELL – TIMELINE OF THE TRAGEDY OF STARDUST

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