Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join in the welcome to the families here today. I join with the Taoiseach, the Government and all of us who are privileged enough to sit in the House in issuing a full and unreserved State apology. It is right and fitting for this Chamber to offer, however late in the day, whatever solace we can.

Like so many others, I remember that day. I was only six years old at the time but had three teenage sisters. In north Dublin, the Stardust was one of the main places to go. I can still remember not fully understanding at the time what happened, or the scale of it, but knowing that my parents were extremely quiet, as was my community. Their worst nightmare had been visited upon 48 other families.

In responding to the Stardust tragedy, our State did not live up to the principles of justice, to its core values, or to the decency we owe every person. The victims, and their families, friends and community, were let down. This failure is a matter of deep and lasting regret and shame for our State and all of us who represent it. The State response was utterly lacking in compassion and understanding. Even worse, it compounded the trauma with grievous mistakes, including the baseless findings of probable arson that cast scurrilous aspersions of guilt on an entire community; the paucity and complexity of the State compensation; the sheer amount of time it has taken us to get to today's apology; and a process wrung out through the gimlet eyes of a system blind to suffering. We owed all of you so much more.

The depth of this tragedy is still so hard to fathom: red flame and black smoke engulfing a heaving club, knocks on parents' doors in the dead of night, desperate phone calls, and the red-eyed visits to the city morgue at Store Street. It was a moment of despair that stretches across decades and across the generations. A nation was cast in gloom with shock. Whole communities were silenced and quietened for years.

In the face of such horror, there were also stories of courage and compassion. Dublin Fire Brigade personnel made their way through a thicket of darkness and smoke and ran into danger against every instinct except bravery. Gardaí arrived at a scene of chaos and helped where they could, ultimately carrying the victims and survivors out of the ashes to worried and grieving families. Medical staff fought desperately to save as many as they could, with the trace of smoke heavy in the wards. Taxi drivers, neighbours and the community helped the survivors. Religious communities put the victims to rest in the days and weeks afterwards, offering what comfort they could across multiple funerals a day. The bravery, compassion and commitment of those men and women speaks to the best of us during the worst of our moments.

For many, that night has never left them. They grappled with the bleak memories bereft of support other than the support of each other. The searing scale of the tragedy has not dimmed over time. The sundering of families, the unfinished lives, the incomplete stories, and the paths closed forever can never be healed. The grief cut deep and it endures still. Its sharpness is felt and carried every single day.

The families and friends gathered in the Gallery and watching are a living tribute to those who passed. We can only imagine the toll you have paid to keep their memories alive and to pursue justice over the decades without the support of this State. Added to that weight are the family members who have passed in the years since, under a dark pall of injustice and grief. The matter was never settled for them. Questions were left open. The survivors have taken on their burden as well.

We all risk being overwhelmed by the worst events in our lives and buried by the sheer scale of a tragedy. It is a testament to the courage and conviction of all the families that they refused to be. Time and time again they refused to be knocked down by indifference and took up their cause anew.

Your dignity and grace is humbling. I hope this moment offers some small measure of solace and vindication, a long-awaited measure of justice for you and your families, friends and community.

Today is not the end. There is a pressing moral demand for further steps now. The inquest's recommendations on building standards and inspections need to be implemented and they will be. They will be implemented in full and in full consultation with the families because this can never be allowed to happen again. A fitting memorial and engagement with the families, survivors, local schools and communities will be needed to ensure that night is always remembered by generations to come. I want to commit to working with families directly to address what next steps need to be taken. Justice demands not just words but deeds. Your voice has to be the beating heart of that process.

Today is a moment for the families whose lives have been changed and shattered forever, for the tightly knit, hard-working communities of north Dublin where the streets went silent, for those touched by the terrible events who were never the same again when they escaped the smoke and the flames and for those who never got out into the cold air of the early hours of 14 February 1981. Their names are in the record for time immemorial.

Let us all remember them: a St. Valentine's weekend brimful of excitement and possibility; competition night in the Stardust; pleading with parents for permission to go out; Blondie blasting on the radio as they jostle with brothers and sisters; lipstick applied carefully and a new blade for every sharp shave; black boot polish out and dancing shoes at the ready; freshly pressed shirts and bright dresses; the usual row over borrowed clothes; the tie grabbed from the dad's wardrobe for the boys to get past the bouncers; a few bob scraped together from the week folded into the wallet; a last glance in the mirror and leaping down the stairs with a fleeting goodbye as the cold night opens to them; the whiff of perfume and aftershave caught in the air when the door shuts behind them. In the full bloom of youth, their futures stretched ahead to a bright horizon. They never came home but they are vindicated now. Their families are vindicated. We failed them and we are truly sorry.

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