A number of relatives of 48 people who died in a Dublin nightclub fire in 1981 have called for a government apology after a jury found they had been unlawfully killed.
The jury in the inquests delivered their verdict after 11 days of deliberation.
It was met by cheers and applause from relatives in court.
About 800 people had been attending a Valentine’s Day disco when the fire started.
Jurors also found it began in the hot press of the main bar and was caused by an electrical fault.
The original inquest, in 1981, ruled the fire started because of arson, a theory which was never accepted by the families of victims.
That ruling was dismissed in 2009.
After years of campaigning by the families, the then-attorney general granted a fresh inquest in 2019.
The event was an unimaginable horror for the victims and their families, but the situation was made worse by the state’s handling of the inquest and continual deflection of blame. It should not have taken over 40 years for the truth to prevail.
In July 1985, Christy Moore was found guilty of contempt of court after writing and releasing a song, titled “They Never Came Home”, about the plight of the victims, seemingly damning the owners of the nightclub and the government. The song was released on the Ordinary Man album and as the B-side of a single in 1985. The song claimed, “hundreds of children are injured and maimed, and all just because the fire exits were chained”. Mr Justice Murphy ordered the Ordinary Man album to be withdrawn from the shops, and costs were awarded against Moore. Via Wikipedia
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