How geography and class prolonged wait for Stardust justice
SOCIAL class and location have always been factors in the shameful 43-year delay in delivering justice for the 48 victims of the Stardust fire, their families and friends.
This week the Stardust inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in all cases. The verdicts, though universally welcomed, must have a bitter-sweet taste for families who have been forced to campaign for justice for all this time.
First there was the tribunal report by Judge Ronan Keane in 1981 which devastated victims’ relatives by finding that the fire had been caused maliciously by possible ignition of newspapers under seats at the nightclub. Working people in northside Dublin were told the tragedy had most likely been caused by one or more of their own.
Then the government had to have a compensation scheme for victims dragged out of it, with the loss of a child worth IR£7,500 (€8,800 at current rates). In total IR£10.5m was paid out in compensation to more than 820 people.
In 2008 senior counsel Paul Coffey, now a High Court judge, carried out a review that found
Judge Keane’s conclusion wrong. The government accepted the Coffey report, which also said there was no point in a new Stardust inquiry.
What appeared to be the final blow to the families’ hopes for justice came in 2017 when a report by retired judge Pat McCartan dismissed any grounds for a new inquiry. However, instead of fading away, the Stardust campaigners got a second wind.
And then the breakthrough. Who could have anticipated that barrister Séamus Woulfe (correct: the same Woulfe who battled his way out of Golfgate to retain his seat on the Supreme Court) would be appointed Attorney General in 2017? The most significant thing about that is that Woulfe was raised in Raheny, speaks fluent Northside and obviously perfectly understood the injustice still being felt there. So the northside insider ordered the holding of new inquests which this week finally delivered respect, and restored dignity, to people who have had to wait much too long. Now who said class and geography played no part in the working out of this extraordinary heartbreak?