For more than forty years, the families of the 48 young people who died in the Stardust tragedy have fought for the truth.
This afternoon, Dublin Coroner’s Court has returned a verdict of unlawful killing.
This is a huge moment for the victims’ families, and an important day for the country as the Stardust tragedy is seared on the collective consciousness of the Irish people.
The tenacity of those families and their success in securing this verdict at inquest has been a service to all.
Nothing will take away the pain and loss that that families experience to this day, but I hope that this process and verdict will, in due course, be of help to them.
I want to thank Dr Myra Cullinane and her team for their stewardship of what has been the longest running inquest in our history. I also want to pay tribute to and thank the jurors for the sacrifice they made over the course of this lengthy process.
But today is first and foremost about those 48 victims and their families whose lives changed forever as a result of that loss. I, in common with the entire country, am thinking of them today.
