Stardust families cautiously welcome state apology and call for criminal investigation

A survivor of the Stardust tragedy has called for a criminal investigation into the fire that killed 48 people.

While families cautiously welcomed Taoiseach Simon Harris’s apology, 43 years after the Artane nightclub fire, many were left wondering why it took so long for the state to recognize the struggle they had experienced since the 1981 fire.

Antoinette Keegan was 18 when she survived the fire that claimed the lives of her two sisters Mary and Martina.

READ MORE: Taoiseach remembers 49th victim of Stardust tragedy as he apologizes “unreservedly” to families

She said Tuesday that she would like to see criminal proceedings and has always believed that should be the case.

“(There are) 48 deaths. Someone has to be held accountable,” she told reporters.

“That’s my opinion and that’s always been my opinion. I will never change it.

“Someone must be held responsible for 48 deaths.”

When asked if she would like to hear from Eamon Butterly, Stardust’s former manager, Ms Keegan said she would not and that she has “nothing to say to the man”.

“He has no empathy, he has no sympathy. He has never said sorry in 43 years.”

Ms Keegan said Mr Harris’s apology was “sincere” as she welcomed his acknowledgment that they would not have to go through the “most difficult time after losing loved ones, through grief and sorrow” without support from the state.

She continued: “The truth should have been told, but the truth was hidden. It was swept under the rug.

“I have been trying to tell the truth as a living witness for the past 43 years. I was called a liar. I was called an arsonist. But the truth has been told.”

However, Carole Barrett, who lost her brother Michael in the fire, says she is done with the courts.

“They have to provide. There are no more courts. We’re ready,” she said.

Asked whether the state should provide compensation, Ms Barrett said it was “never about that” but that some sort of responsibility must be taken for the long wait the families were subjected to.

Margaret French, whose 18-year-old son Michael died in the fire, said the apology “meant a lot” and she was “very happy to hear it”.

“My old heart was broken for Michael,” she said.

‘But I told myself: I can’t do anything. He’s in the right place

“Every night when I go to bed I think about him. Not a night goes by that I don’t pray for him.

“Today I am happy and I know he is happy. I know he would be. If I’m happy, he’s happy too

“I’ll go to bed and think about him and say a prayer for him. I hope he’s in heaven. I will never forget him.”

Jimmy Fitzpatrick spent more than three and a half months in the hospital with third-degree burns from the fire.

He described the apology as “robust and sincere”.

“I felt the apology was exactly what we asked for,” he said.

‘There was more to it than an apology from the state. It let the nation know what had happened

“They (the government) know what time it is coming. Yet (the Taoiseach said): ‘We have got this so wrong’.”

June McDermott’s three siblings Willie, Marcella and George all died in Stardust.

She acknowledged that she was still trying to process what had happened, as she noted that the verdict and apology all happened very quickly.

“There’s a part of me that says it’s great to receive an apology from the state, and another part of me says we don’t need to be here,” she said.

“An apology is the least they can do. It is easy. It doesn’t have a big impact.”

Siobhan Kearney, who heard her brother Liam’s name read out by the Taoiseach, said she believed he had “delivered” and “listened” to what the families had said when he met them on Saturday.

“He’s younger than Stardust, but he’s done his homework,” she said.

“I thank him for that as the first minister who ever listened to us. I went to visit the graves this weekend and it was the first time in 43 years that I could go there without feeling guilty and saying, ‘We did it for you’.”

Lisa Lawlor was orphaned at 17 months old when her mother and father Mary and Francis died in the fire.

She said she felt honored to hear the apology in the Dáil.

Mrs Lawlor said: “It was bittersweet. It was real. I’m very happy with the apology.

“My parents are not to be blamed for their own deaths and the whole country now knows that.”

Hugh and John Muldoon remembered their sister Kathleen after the apology.

John noted how both of his parents died in the past thirteen months and were not there to see justice done.

“It’s been a difficult year,” he says.

“(The fact that they’re not there) is the hardest part now. They didn’t see the day her name was cleared.

“At the end of the day, if you don’t have your name, what do you have?”

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