President to lead State ceremony honouring Stardust victims
Cate McCurry, PA
A State remembrance ceremony is set to take place in honour of the victims, survivors and those affected by the Stardust fire.
The ceremony of commemoration will be led by President Michael D Higgins in the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin City Centre on Sunday afternoon, honouring the 48 people who died in the 1981 disaster.
Co-designed with the families of the victims, the ceremony will also remember all those who helped victims and their families on the night and over the years since.
Lord Mayor of Dublin Daithi de Roiste, Taoiseach Simon Harris, Taoiseach Micheal Martin and other senior Government members will be in attendance.
The president will lay a wreath on behalf of the people of Ireland, and the ceremony will include spoken word, music and song.
Music will be provided by the North Dublin Gospel Community Choir, the Artane Band and the Dublin Fire Brigade Band, with solo performances by Christy Moore, Zoe Conway, Kevin Rowsome, Mary Byrne and Eddie Sherlock.
Roddy Doyle will read a piece he composed especially for the ceremony entitled Names, and Fr Joe Jones will read a prayer.
The majority of other attendees will be the families of those who died, survivors and first responders who worked on the night of the blaze.
The families will lay wreaths in the cruciform pool and read out the names of those who died, along with extracts from pen portraits of the victims.
After more than 40 years of the families campaigning for justice, an inquest in April found the 48 young people had been unlawfully killed.
The ceremony will begin at noon and will be televised live on RTÉ 1.
