A remembrance ceremony in honour of the victims of the Stardust fire will commemorate the “absolute tragedy and the horror of the loss of life”, the Taoiseach has said.
The State remembrance ceremony in honour 48 people who died in the 1981 Stardust disaster will take place on June 23rd.
While the details of the ceremony are being finalised with the families, the event will be held at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin.
Simon Harris will lead Government attendees at the event.
After more than 40 years of the victims’ families campaigning for justice, an inquest in April found that the 48 young people had been unlawfully killed.
Days later, Mr Harris apologised on behalf of the state to the families of the victims of the Dublin nightclub fire, who were aged between 16 and 27, and said the State “failed you when you needed us the most”.
Speaking in Dublin on Friday, Mr Harris said a remembrance ceremony is the “right thing to do”.
“One of the first things I did when I became Taoiseach was to delivery a state apology to the Stardust families, to the victims and to the survivors,” the Fine Gael leader added.
“It’s the right thing to do and is a really important thing to do. But also, it’s not the only thing we need to do.
“When I met with families I was very clear that government would continue to work with them on a range of other issues.
“One of those issues was this idea that the state would have a national commemoration ceremony, where we would commemorate, in a very public state fashion, the absolute tragedy and the horror of the loss of life, but also the impact that actions on behalf of the state after that had on families and survivors on their wellbeing, on their own health too.
“So we have been working very much with the families through their representatives to design a national commemoration.
“I am conscious that we’re still working with them on the detail of that and it will very much be led by the families.
“I want this to be something that they are proud of, that they co-designed. But what we have decided is it will take place on June 23rd in the Garden of Remembrance.”
By Cate McCurry, PA
Keep up to date with all the latest news on our website Beat102103.com.
