{"id":298297,"date":"2026-02-14T20:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298297\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T20:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:30:09","slug":"stardust-families-seek-justice-on-anniversary-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/298297\/","title":{"rendered":"Stardust families seek justice on anniversary of fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of the family members and friends of the 48 victims of the Stardust tragedy gathered at the site of the former nightclub in Artane for the 45th anniversary.<\/p>\n

They were joined by representatives of the emergency services and defence force veterans who laid wreaths at the memorial wall<\/p>\n

The wall holds the pictures of all 48 victims, who were aged between 16 and 27.<\/p>\n

Maurice McHugh whose only child Caroline was one the of victims, led the service.<\/p>\n

Music was played by the Dublin Fire Brigade pipe band and musician Eddie Sherlock who delivered a rendition of the Stardust inquest song and “They Never Came Home”.<\/p>\n

Claire Bird, the wife of the late RT\u00c9 journalist Charlie Bird who campaigned for the Stardust families for years, read out the names of all 48 victims.<\/p>\n

Members of the emergency services and the defence force veterans laid wreaths at the base of the memorial wall.<\/p>\n

Poems were read and a 48-second silence was held before ‘The Last Post’ rang out in rememberance.<\/p>\n

Survivor of the Stardust fire and longtime campaigner, Antoinette Keegan said it was a lovely day, but that “it is always sad when you are standing here, particularly sad because this is where they all died.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThe names of those who died were recited at the vigil in Artane in Co Dublin<\/p>\n

It comes as An Garda S\u00edochana confirmed a garda review into the deaths is being “actively pursued” by the Serious Crime Review Team at the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.<\/p>\n

In a statement garda\u00ed said the team “continues to actively engage directly with families” and that the thoughts of the service are with the families of the victims and the survivors on the 45th anniversary.<\/p>\n

On St Valentine’s night in 1981, 48 people died in the fire at the Stardust nightclub while more than 200 others were injured when the blaze broke out.<\/p>\n

In April 2024, verdicts of unlawful killing were returned at the inquests into the deaths of the 48 people.<\/p>\n

Some family members of four of the victims retraced the steps they had taken 45 years ago to what was then the City Morgue – today Dublin\u2019s Coroners Court.<\/p>\n

They called for justice for their dead relatives.<\/p>\n

\"Gertrude
\nGertrude and her daughter Carol want justice for their son and brother Michael Barrett<\/p>\n

Carol Barrett and her mother Gertrude carried a black and white photograph that was taken of them as they arrived to the morgue 45 years ago, to try to find their brother and son, 17-year-old Michael.<\/p>\n

Today they returned because, they say, justice has not been served.<\/p>\n

“We want accountability. When someone has been unlawfully killed, then somebody has unlawfully killed them”, said Carol.<\/p>\n

\"People
\nCandlelight vigil at the former site of the Stardust nightclub in Dublin<\/p>\n

The sister of 27-year-old Murtagh Kavanagh, Terry was there along with the brother of 24-year-old Eugene Hogan, David and Pat Byrne, the brother of 19-year-old Paula Byrne.<\/p>\n

They say they just want justice for their dead siblings and have called on the Minister for Justice to do more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of the family members and friends of the 48 victims of the Stardust tragedy gathered at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-298297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}