Taoiseach remembers 49th victim of Stardust tragedy as he makes "unreserved" apology to families

Taoiseach Simon Harris has issued a state apology to the victims and families of the Stardust tragedy in the Dáil.

In his speech, Mr Harris said that the families were failed by the State “when you needed us most”.

As he told the Dáil that those who lost their lives “were much, much more than numbers”, the Taoiseach read out the names of the people who had died during the fire. He read out the ages of each victim and gave several lines of information about each.

This included 17-year-old Caroline Carey, a talented Irish dancer and Dublin City Council clerical officer, who was pregnant when she died in the fire. Mr Harris said that her family had asked him to mention in the Dáil that her baby was the 49th death in the Stardust fire.

“I know that you are forced to endure a living nightmare,” the Taoiseach said.

“Loved ones were so cruelly snatched from you in a devastating fire.

“Their unfinished stories became the defining story of your life and the lives of your parents and other family members.

“I am deeply sorry that you were made to fight for so long that they went to their grave, never knowing the truth.

“Today we say to you formally and without any equivocation, we are sorry.

“We failed you when you needed us the most. From the very beginning, we should have stood with you, but instead we forced you to stand against us.”

The Taoiseach added: “The families gathered here today and their loved ones who perished, the family members who are no longer with us, and all those who suffered horrific injuries, were the victims of a mass tragedy.

“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 and eternal shame that far from the warm embrace of a caring State, the Stardust families experienced a cold shoulder, and a deaf ear, and two generations of struggle for truth and justice. Instead, it is to our great shame that State processes heaped misery upon tragedy for the Stardust families.

Errol Buckley holds a photo of his brother Jimmy Buckley, who died in the fire, as he arrives at Leinster House, Dublin, ahead of Taoiseach Simon Harris issuing a State apology to the families of the victims of the Stardust fire

“I am so deeply sorry your first bid for justice ended with suspicion being cast on those who had died or survived on that catastrophic night. With your pain and grief compounded by stigma and rejection, 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.

“For all of this, as Taoiseach, on behalf of the State, I apologise unreservedly to all the families of the Stardust victims and all the survivors for the hurt that was done to them and for the profoundly painful years of struggle for the truth.

“I apologise to the families that those present on the night of the fire were wrongly criminalised through the allegation of arson which was an attack on their reputations.

“I say today every person there was innocent. I say today the truth is now known. Not only were they innocent – they were unlawfully killed.”

Both the public gallery and the distinguished visitors gallery in Leinster House were filled with the families of those who lost their lives in the fire. The Taoiseach left the Dáil chamber during speeches by Minister Eamon Ryan and Minister Darragh O’Brien and went to the public gallery to shake the hands of all the victims’ families.

Before his speech, Mr Harris and several other politicians, including Finance Minister Michael McGrath, Labour leader Ivana Bacik and Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney and former Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan spoke to the families.

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