Stardust victims’ families complain over ‘degrading treatment by state’

FAMILIES of the Stardust victims yesterday lodged a complaint with the Irish Human Rights Commission over their “degrading” treatment by the state.

The families are angry there has been no criminal investigation of the fire that killed 48 young people in the Stardust Nightclub on Dublin’s northside in 1981.

They claim that the way they and their injured and dead loved ones had been treated showed that the state had fundamentally failed to protect and defend their human rights.

Last January an independent inquiry threw out the original tribunal verdict that the St Valentine’s night disaster was caused by arson. Shortly after the inquiry was published, the Dáil voted in favour of a motion acknowledging that the arson finding was hypothetical and that none of those present on the night of the fire could be held responsible for it.

Because of the arson verdict the families had been prevented from suing anyone, despite clear breaches of fire safety regulations, including padlocked doors and barred windows that blocked escape routes.

The owners of the nightclub in Artane pursued their claim for compensation because of the arson finding and were eventually awarded over €700,000.

Stardust Victims Committee spokeswoman Antoinette Keegan, who lost two sisters in the blaze, said they wanted someone held responsible for the 48 deaths.

“The state has treated us in the most degrading way possible,” she said. “They said it was arson for 28 years and we had to overcome every obstacle put in our way to prove our case.” Ms Keegan said they had expected a criminal investigation would take place after the arson verdict was thrown out. “The Government gave us a tribunal we never asked for instead of allowing us to go to court and fight our case for compensation.”

Ms Keegan said the committee wrote to the Garda Commissioner last July asking if there was going to be a criminal investigation following the publication of the inquiry and were astounded when the commissioner asked if they could produce new evidence.

“The Department of Justice, its forensic science laboratory and the gardaí were all involved in the inquiry. Why are we being asked to produce new evidence when they have it,” she said.