The past four weeks, in the historic Pillar Room at the Rotunda hospital in Dublin, a significant and profoundly moving process has unfolded.
For the first time in an Irish coroner’s court “pen portraits”, in this case of the 48 young people who perished in the 1981 Stardust fire, have been read into the record.
The families and friends of those who died have shared private memories of their children, siblings, cousins, friends. They have recounted joyful anecdotes and tender moments from their brief lives in portraits that have been in turn funny, affectionate, angry, hopeful, and, ineffably sad. The portraits’ purpose – to reclaim the identities of the 48 Stardust victims – has been achieved with immense dignity by those who penned them, and those who read them.
We heard harrowing accounts of parents left broken by the loss of their child or children, and of the enduring trauma of siblings, some of whom could not face reading portraits they had written and which were read instead by the nieces or nephews of the deceased.
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Four decades on there was, in some cases, just one family member left to deliver the portrait. In the case of Gerard McGrath (21), from Coolock, no family remained and his portrait, written by his late sister Liz McKeon, was read by her brother-in-law, Gay.
The 48 came from 45 families. That just 14 of their 90 mothers and fathers are alive reminds us of how long their families have waited for a robust investigation. It is difficult to argue with the contention that successive governments have failed them, and that they were the children of working-class families somehow made it easier for successive governments to do so.
The families have now, figuratively, entrusted their children to the care of Dublin coroner’s court, under the sensitive direction of Dr Myra Cullinane. We have been privileged to hear how deeply loved and grieved the 48 young people who never came home that night, remain. The very least they are owed now is the truth.