The Government today announced it has appointed Paul Coffey SC to conduct an independent examination of the Stardust Victims Committee’s case for a reopened inquiry into the Stardust fire disaster.
The committee withdrew its support from the independent inquiry in March of this year when it was discovered that the appointed investigator had acted as junior counsel on the Garda legal team during the inquests held after the fire.
Forty-eight young people were killed and more than 200 injured in the Stardust fire, which engulfed the nightclub in Artane, north Dublin, in the early hours of February 14th, 1981.
Dublin North East Labour TD Tommy Broughan welcomed the appointment of Mr Coffey.
"I would like to congratulate the leaders of the Stardust Relatives and Victims' Committee, Ms. Antoinette Keegan, Ms Chrissie Keegan and Ms Gertrude Barrett for their longstanding and steadfast campaign to achieve a resolution of the reopened inquiry into the Stardust tragedy of 1981.
"I hope that Mr Paul Coffey SC will now bring the investigation to a swift conclusion and that justice will finally be achieved for the Stardust fire victims and relatives."
The families of the victims have never accepted the findings of the original inquiry into the tragedy, chaired by former chief justice Ronan Keane, which found that the fire was probably started deliberately.
Ms Barrett, whose son Michael died in the fire, and Ms Keegan, who lost two sisters, staged a sit-in at Government Buildings for the day and promised not to move until the new chair was officially named.
Mrs Barrett said the Stardust families have been treated appallingly. “They would have had to remove me by gardaí before I left this building,” she said. “I’m tired of being dismissed and our intelligence undervalued.”
Ms Keegan said families felt they were being treated no better than in 1981.