GOVERNMENT ‘HOPED YOU WOULD JUST GIVE UP FIGHT’
THE Government hoped the families of the Stardust fire victims would “shut up, give up and go away”, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has told the Dáil.
As she remembered the 48 people who went to the Stardust fire in February 1981 and “never came home”, Ms McDonald told the Dáil that “instead of the State standing shoulder to shoulder with the Stardust families, they lined up against them again and again”.
With Taoiseach Simon Harris delivering a State apology yesterday, Ms McDonald made her own speech in which she paid tribute to the families — as she said that the ordinary people of Ireland had “always been on their side”.
“The hope of Government was that the families would eventually stop,” she said. “Eventually shut up. Eventually give up. Eventually go away.
“Well, those Governments forgot one very important thing. You don’t mess with Dublin mas. You don’t mess with Dublin das. You don’t mess with Irish mammies and daddies and families.
“Not when they’re fighting for justice for their children, because you will lose and they will win. Even if it takes them 43 long years, they will win.
Lesson
“When they know they have right on their side, ordinary people keep going.
“That’s a lesson that those in power would do very well to remember.
“Today, finally, the State apologises for all of it. The families of the Stardust victims didn’t stop.
“They didn’t shut up. They didn’t give up. They didn’t go away. They are here today in the public gallery of the Dáil and they are here in victory.
“I want to say this to you – to the ordinary people of Ireland, your loved ones always mattered.
“The ordinary people of Ireland were always on their sides, always had your backs. Mourned with you, shed tears with you. They saw your suffering and they never abandoned you.
“They never forgot what you had lost.”