Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The truth shall set you free, or so they say. What we heard last Thursday was, indeed, the truth. We can only pray that the truth has begun to set the families of the 48 free – free from the campaigning, the meetings, the closed doors, the trauma, the criticism and the lies, free from 43 years of seeking the truth, free from the disgusting suspicion that the phrase “probable arson” hung around the entirety of north Dublin for two generations, free in the knowledge that the souls of the 48, or 49 including Caroline Carey’s unborn baby, can now rest in peace and in freedom.

Growing up in north Dublin, the Stardust was an open wound that never healed. Spoken about in hushed tones, the very word “Stardust” reminded us of unspeakable horrors – young people lured into a deathtrap, their lives and futures stolen from them, their families bereft with grief, all for the hands that fumbled in a greasy till. My granny lived in Donnycarney, my father spent his teaching life in Whitehall, my brothers went to school at Chanel College. When they spoke of Stardust, it was not just about the loss of life, but also the stench of injustice. The finding of unlawful killing should have been made 43 years ago. The reasons it took 43 years are inescapable. It was because of where the fire took place and the background of many of those who attended – a prominently working-class community where lives were just not as important. It is an insult to the very concept of a republic that anyone should live a second-class life or die a second-class death, but it is an undeniable truth. In this Chamber, the symbol of that republic on this day of all days, we must speak the truth because the truth shall set you free.

None of us can possibly comprehend the loss of a child in a fire. To know that one’s child, sibling or parent could have escaped if the exit doors were not hampered is a heartbreak. To learn that the immediate tribunal’s findings were of probable arson and that the owner of the nightclub was the one to be compensated would surely push one over the edge. Many were pushed over the edge. In their book, They Never Came Home: The Stardust Story, which I must have read ten times, Mr. Neil Fetherstonhaugh and Mr. Tony McCullagh referred to the number outside of the 48 who succumbed to the darkness in their minds caused by their loss or by their experiences and did not live to see this day. Our hearts break for them and their families today. We hope that the truth has set you free.

We must reflect on the darkness within Irish society that thinks the worst of those who need us to hear the truth and on a society that thinks the best of those who wear a suit and tie and lie – not just the nightclub owner who oversaw a disaster waiting to happen, but the developers who have constructed firetrap apartment blocks with the full blessing of the political system. We have to ask about those second-class lives that are still not worthy of the truth and other cases of injustice affecting those from the wrong side of the tracks. For example, I think of the family of Terence Wheelock, a healthy young man who walked into Store Street Garda station almost 20 years ago but came out in a coffin. These things just do not happen to middle-class men. I also think of the families of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, who still seek the truth.

To the families here today, you have given this country the truth. You have given hope to all who yearn for the truth. You were inspired by the Bloody Sunday families in Derry and the Hillsborough families in Liverpool. I know what you were told – that there was nothing to be achieved in pursuing this campaign, that all evidence was lost, that you needed to move on, that you were difficult, that you could not accept the truth – but you did not accept those words because they were not the truth. You have the truth now. The truth is setting all of us free.

There are many who need to be mentioned: those family members who never grew up; the firefighters on the scene that night; journalists like Charlie Bird especially, in whose eyes the truth endured even when his voice was gone through illness; the truth in the words sung by Christy Moore; the classmates with empty desks in their classrooms; the gardaí, teachers, nurses, doctors and all those other public servants for whom Stardust is not a topic of discussion, but a moment when their hearts broke forever; and those in this proud northside community whose hearts were broken and are still broken.

If those you loved were unlawfully killed, someone unlawfully killed them. It is time for the Garda, the DPP and the Minister for Justice to do what is right, and what would happen in any other case of corporate manslaughter in any other part of the city. There must be another day in court.

Stardust will always be a scar: a tale of greed, recklessness, horror and poisonous lies, but also a tale of resilience, hope, campaigning and truth. The Stardust families are heroes of this Republic. We are honoured to be in their presence today. They would much rather not be here. They would much rather have seen their loved ones grow older in the last 43 years but they have all made us want to be better, to work harder, to campaign more, to listen more, to judge less and to speak the truth.

The truth, we hope, has set the families free and set free the souls of Michael, Richard, Carol, James, Paula, Caroline, John, Jacqueline, Liam, Michael, David, Thelma, Michael, Josephine, Michael, Robert, Brian, Eugene, Murtagh, Martina, Mary, Robert, Mary, Mary, Margaret, Sandra, Francis, Maureen, Paula, Eamon, George, Marcella, William, Julie, Teresa, Gerard, Caroline, Donna, Helena, James, Susan, David, Kathleen, George, Brendan, John, Margaret and Paul, all of whose faces rightly hung up on the wall of the Rotunda inquest hall.

An injustice on this scale can fester and make you feel that you can never trust the State again but earlier I saw a rose in the Gallery. From this darkness, maybe something can grow - truth and hope. Truth will always set us free.

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