Fight for justice: The long road to the Stardust inquests

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The longest-running inquests in the history of the State have ended. As lengthy as it was, the campaign to get them established has been longer, writes Conor Hunt.

The longest-running inquests in the history of the State have ended with verdicts of unlawful killing in the case of all 48 victims.Relatives of the dead have been campaigning for years, for a lifetime.

They also illustrated the 43 years that had passed and the sheer length of time that has elapsed to get to the point of these fresh inquests. Where the disaster happened though is significant, as the families will tell you that if it had happened south of the River Liffey, they believe it would have been handled differently and not have dragged on as long as it did.As these inquests finally got under way in April last year, there were two questions commonly asked by those who were not overly familiar with this case.The answer to the first question is both simple and complex.

"The scale and the horror of the tragedy was such that was that it was and remains the greatest such disaster to have occurred in the history of the State ... I am satisfied that fresh inquests should be held," he said.It began its hearings two months after the fire, sitting for 122 days. In 2009, Keane’s conclusion on the cause of the fire was expunged from the record by an act of the Dáil.For the families, the fact that it was gone was not good enough, it needed to be replaced.

The families wanted the Stardust back in the spotlight and the public to know about their loved ones who lost their lives in such an appalling way.Ever since the deadly blaze, relatives have said the victims were regarded merely as numbers. They are just five quick summaries illustrating the heartbreak of the disaster, there are another 43 stories, equally sad and equally worth listening to.

The court heard how Lorraine took her own life the night before she was due to collect a compensation cheque. Those despairing journeys would eventually lead to the Dublin City Morgue, which the inquests heard, was overrun with bodies. Jimmy Buckley’s remains were identified by his wife by his wedding ring. The couple had been in the club together that night.

That was particularly poignant, the jury heard, because Caroline’s mother, Phyllis, had left the clothes out for the disco before she travelled to England for a family wedding.There was distressing evidence also from the survivors of the night, as they broke down recalling the horrors of the nights.

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