An “emotional” Christy Moore expressed his solidarity with the families of the victims of the Stardust disaster on Wednesday in Dublin where he read the 15th “pen portrait” to the inquests into their deaths.
The singer had been asked to read the portrait of Richard Bennett (17) by his mother, Helen, who was ill. In it she described her oldest son as “extremely protective of his family” and “a great support” to her following a difficult break-up with her first husband.
Moore said he had been “very happy to hear from Richard’s mother, Helen, who hasn’t been well... So when I got the call I didn’t have to think twice about it.
“I know many of the families. I have met them over the past 40 years so I am happy to speak the portrait this morning, in memory of Richard.”
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He said the “terrible loss” 45 families had suffered in 1981 had been compounded by the manner in which they had been treated in the intervening years. “Their suffering has gone on and on and on – the way they have been talked down to.
“Maybe finally [with the start of the inquests] the healing process has begun and maybe when this is over they will be able to have some peace of mind and not have all this stigma that has been passed upon them over the past 40 years.
“It was very moving to read those words this morning, to recall that young life, a young man whom I didn’t know and just to hear his mother’s recollections of the young 17-year-old lad who died so tragically.
“I’d be feeling quite emotional after it. I have been reading it for the last few days but, for some reason, after reading it this morning, it gives it in a different context – the families there in front of me, but I am glad to have done it,” he said.
Three other portraits were read into the record on Wednesday – those of Brian Hobbs (21) from Whitehall, Eugene ‘Hughie’ Hogan (24) from Artane and Michael Griffiths (17) from Kilmore.
On Thursday the jury of seven women and eight men are due to hear the portraits of sisters Mary (19) and Martina (16) Keegan from Coolock, read by their siblings Lorraine and Damien.
Their sister and leading campaigner for the Stardust families over the past four decades, Antoinette Keegan, will read the portrait of their friend, Robert Kelly (17) from Raheny. Mr Kelly’s brother, Eugene, who had been centrally involved in the Stardust families’ campaign, died suddenly in 2020, aged 62.
The “pen portraits”, which are a key aspect of inquests into deaths in contested circumstances where article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights has been invoked, are scheduled to continue until May 18th. Evidence is scheduled to commence being heard on June 7th, with the inquests expected to run until the autumn.
The fire at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin in the early hours of February 14th, 1981 claimed 48 lives from a total of 45 families.
