Stardust: Taoiseach "deeply sorry" families and survivors of Dublin fire tragedy were made to fight for so long

Simon Harris today (Tuesday) apologised on behalf of the state to the families of the victims who died in the Dublin Stardust fire tragedy in 1981.

Forty-eight people including three from Northern Ireland, were killed when the blaze ripped through the nightclub in 1981.

After a more than 40-year campaign for justice, last week an inquest found that the victims had been unlawfully killed.

The Taoiseach Simon Harris said the state failed the families of the Stardust tragedy when "you needed us the most".

Politicians and others gathered in the Irish parliament applauded and got to their feet to welcome the Stardust families who gathered in the public gallery.

"I know there have been many times when you thought this day would never come," Mr Harris said.

"I know you were forced to endure a living nightmare which began when your loved ones were snatched from you in a devastating fire.

"Their unfinished stories became your story. The defining story of your lives and the lives of your parents and other family members who left this life before ever seeing justice.

"I am deeply sorry you were made to fight for so long that they went to their graves never knowing the truth.

"Today we say formally and without any equivocation, we are sorry.

"We failed you when you needed us the most, from the very beginning we should have stood with you but instead we forced you to stand against us."

Family members gathered in the distinguished visitors' gallery and public gallery in the Dail chamber to listen to the Taoiseach.

Mr Harris said he hopes the apology and statements in the Irish parliament help the Stardust families heal.

"I truly hope that the days since last Thursday have marked a turning point and here today in Dail Eireann we finally begin to put things right," he said.

"To bring you in from the cold and end the neglect of 43 years waiting and fighting for the only thing you ever wanted, the truth. Nothing else. No other agenda, just the truth."

A previous finding in 1982 said the fire had been started deliberately, a theory the families never accepted.

That ruling was dismissed in 2009, leading to the latest inquests for the victims, who were aged from 16 to 27 and mostly came from the surrounding north Dublin area.

Last Thursday, the jury in the inquest returned a verdict that all 48 victims were unlawfully killed.

A majority decision from the seven women and five men found that the blaze, which broke out in the early hours of Valentine's Day 1981, was caused by an electrical fault in the hot press of the bar.

Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien said it is right and fitting for the Irish parliament to apologise, "however late in the day".

"In responding to the Stardust tragedy our state did not live up to the principles of justice, its core values, nor on the decency that we owe every person," he added.

"The victims, their families, their friends, and their community were let down.

"This failure is a matter of deep and lasting regret and shame for our state and all of us who represent it. The state's response was utterly lacking in compassion and understanding.

"Even worse, it compounded the trauma with grievous mistakes, the baseless findings of probable arson that cast scurrilous aspersions of guilt on an entire community.

"The paucity and the complexity of the state compensation, the sheer amount of time it has taken us to get to today's apology. We owed all of you so much more."

After delivering a State apology to the families the Irish premier shook hands with the families present.

Before and after the apology, Simon Harris shook hands with those in the distinguished visitors' gallery - including Antoinette Keegan, Gertrude Barrett and Brigid McDermott.

After the apology, and while Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien and Transport Minister Eamon Ryan spoke, Mr Harris left the Dail chamber and entered the public gallery above it.