George McDermott (18), from Artane, was known for the mischievous twinkle in his eye and his ever-present cheeky grin. Alongside his love for a good joke and a game of cards, Georgie was a devoted supporter of Tottenham Hotspur.
Introduction
Our brother George was only 18 years of age when he died.
Background
George was very good looking with black wavy hair and the most amazing hazel eyes. He always had a cheeky grin on his face and our mother used to say "Oh, God, what's he up to now" whenever she saw that grin.
George was the joker of the family; he could get up to anything. The family home was always so full of music and laughter. I don’t know how our poor record player never blew up because it was full on, all the time. And no better man than our Georgie to have a little bop around the house.
George was a gentle person who hated arguments and falling out with people, he would walk away if he thought trouble was coming, he just liked to get on with everybody.
He was a Tottenham Hotspur supporter, which didn’t go down very well in the house, and he used to get a terrible slagging. Although, he would have been proud of them now, he’d have the last laugh, because they have since got Harry Kane to play. George would have been in his element.
But most of all he loved playing cards, he would bet on anything. He would play cards with his pals out on the green. He always had a pocket full of change, you could hear the pennies rattling in his pockets before you saw George. Himself and his pals would only bet for pennies, and they would give all the money to the younger kids on the road.
George loved going up to Howth, he loved the freedom up there and of course meeting his pals in the Cock Tavern for their game of cards. When he would come home late, he would say "ahh sure luck wasn't with me tonight so I had to walk home".
One day I had to bring them all down to Dollymount beach, and of course what does our Georgie do, he buries his shoes. We couldn’t find them, and I had to give him a jockey back all the way home, it took me hours to get home and of course it was all my fault.
He was such a gentle soul but when him and my Dad would have words, he would come up to my house, I only live two doors away, and he would just come in and sit there and we would just laugh.
On that awful night George called to down to me to show me the new clothes that my mother had got him to go to the Stardust, and he said "well what do you think of this June", and I said "ah, would you not, stay in and babysit and let us go out", Georgie said "not a chance, I have a date." I never ever thought that’d be the last time I would see him.
Since then
All of the kids that night had so much to live for and they left so much behind. We still wonder what George would be like now, would he be married and would he have children. Imagine having another Georgie.
When we think of George, what he would be like now, what his children would be like, and he’d probably be running Paddy Power’s bookies now. A family of his own and heading across the sea to support Spurs. We wish we had them all with us here now, but it’s not to be.
Conclusion
George was so funny and one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He was a young fella, so full of life and we will always keep his memory alive.
Now that we have come this far, our Georgie has his identity back. Georgie is no longer number 30, he’s George McDermott, our George, our brother.
As I said, the dead cannot cry out for justice, it is the duty of the living to do so for them.
McDermott Family’s impact statement regarding the loss of Marcella, George and William McDermott in the Stardust fire.
This is an impact of the Stardust fire on our family.
The Stardust. God, how we hate that name. The 14th of February 1981 changed our lives as a family forever. Nothing could have prepared us for what was happening or what was about to happen. We went to bed as a family of eight siblings and woke up as five.
When they told our mother that they had found Willie, she knew that George and Marcella wouldn't be coming home either. She knew in her heart that they were all gone.
It wasn't until we went to the funeral home and saw the three coffins laid out that we understood what was really happening.
Our mother was banging on the coffins, "Let me see my children!". Which wasn't an option given to my mother, or father, or our family. In the church that day, we thought we had not only lost Willie, George and Marcella, but also our mother. She kept saying, "why did he take three?" From leaving that church, our mother doesn't even remember burying her children.
The eruption of chaos was in our home. It was like not knowing where to start. The crying, the wailing, the fighting, and the blaming. But most of all, it was the emptiness in the house.
The next five years went by in a total blur. Like all of us, our mother received very little help from anyone. No counselling was ever mentioned. In fact, our mother was sent to a day centre for people with mental health issues and disabilities. They put a white coat on her and told her to sew little square parts of material together.
But she kept on saying, as strong as she is, I'm not sick or mad, I’m just grieving for my children. And thank God. She never went back there.
Her life after the Stardust has been one of the most unimaginable grief. How do you wake up from a nightmare like this? Only it wasn't a nightmare. She would still leave a key in the door, in the front door, for years, hoping one of them would walk through at any minute.
Although there was still five of us left, our mother really struggled. There were occasions where we would find her in the alley o, with her packet of sleeping tablets, ready to end it all. But luckily, someone always found her. This was when we thought she had truly given up. After this, I went up to her room with a picture of the Sacred Heart and I asked my mother, because I knew she wanted to go,
"Did you love them more than us?"
But that's when something changed in my mother. She started to get her strength back. Our father was a fireman and was off duty that night. His watch was D watch, and they were called out to Stardust that night. He kept saying he could have saved them if he was there. But deep down he knew. He knew they were never coming home. He would often say, being a fireman, "I know the death they had".
And this haunted him for his short years he had left. He did go back to work at Tara Street and was put onto the phones, but he just couldn't do it. It was too much. They gave him early retirement. The Fire Brigade were very good to him and to our family and especially to my mother and we can't thank them enough.
But life was becoming quite difficult at times as we were all dealing with our own grief in our own way. Our mother, blaming him for not being there to save them. And my father blaming my mother for not knowing that Marcella wasn't babysitting. Eventually life was unbearable for the two of them and they separated.
June and Bred were still young and married and had children of their own. They lost their pals that night as they were closer in age and went out together. They also still had to look after us, myself and my sister Louise. And then to come to terms with their own grief. And then you have my brother Jim, who still to this day won't talk about it and can't talk about it.
From the 14th of February 1981, Willie, George, Marcella, being taken from us that night, tore our family apart. People used to say that life will go on, but what use would counselling have been without any closure about what happened that night. What has made closure impossible for the loss of Willie, George and Marcella is the fact that the Irish state has failed to apply law to any proper investigation into their deaths and that's why we're here today.
The power and the will of healing is what got our family through this and thank God we were strong enough. Willie, Marcella and George. You will always be with us. Always. We love you and we miss you.
And in my mother's words, which are very short, but it says it all -
Willie, George and Marcella were her children. They were hers and my father’s children. They went out that night and they never came home. She misses them, loves them, and God bless them.
