Campaigners have called for any remaining obstacles to inquests into the deaths of 48 people in the Stardust nightclub fire, 41 years ago tonight, to be removed.
Victims' families and survivors of the fire gathered for a vigil at the site of the blaze in Artane in Dublin this afternoon.
They were joined by former RTÉ correspondent Charlie Bird, who was one of the first journalists on the scene 41 years ago.
Mr Bird, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in October last year, read out each of the names of the 48 victims, as candles bearing the names were handed to family members or friends.
Stardust fire survivor and campaigner Antoinette Keegan & former RTÉ journalist Charlie Bird address those gathered for the candlelight vigil to mark the 41st anniversary of the Stardust fire in Artane @rtenews pic.twitter.com/bWzYMW9ty3
— Laura Fletcher (@fletchl) February 13, 2022
Collecting a candle for his sister Julie McDonnell, who died in the blaze just a week before her 21st birthday, Patrick McDonnell said: "These people were real and they deserve some sort of justice."
"Imagine waiting 41 years to find out exactly what happened?" Mr McDonnell asked the crowd.
In 2019 the Attorney General ordered new inquests into the deaths of the 48 victims.
A number of pre-inquest hearings have been held, but the inquests themselves have yet to begin and the process has faced a number of setbacks.
The lease on a dedicated hearing room in the RDS is set to lapse this month. However confirmation came this week that an alterative venue had been found at the Pillar Room in the Rotunda Hospital.
This week the prospect of a legal challenge to the inquests was raised when counsel for Eamon Butterly, the former manager of the Stardust nightclub, sought a ruling to preclude the possible verdict of unlawful killing.
On Wednesday a pre-inquest hearing heard from Paul O'Higgins SC, for Mr Butterly, should such a verdict be available to the jury he "would have to question the constitutionality" of the proceedings.
This was contested by legal representatives for the victims' families.
Speaking at this afternoon's vigil Darragh Mackin, of Phoenix Law in Belfast, who is representing 46 families, said that he believed that the law was clear on this point, and he wasn't "remotely worried about a constitutional challenge".
However Mr Mackin did describe the issue around the non-payment of inquest jurors and the potential problems that this may have when it comes to swearing in a jury as "an uphill battle".
"We are engaging with the Minister for Justice to try and resolve that issue," Mr Mackin said.
It is a criminal offence for an employer not to pay a worker during jury service in a criminal trial, and Mr Mackin has said that he wants to see similar protections put in place for jurors "in an inquest of this magnitude".
Read more: Explained: Fresh hope for truth about Stardust
Stardust fire survivor and campaigner Antoinette Keegan lost two of her sisters in the fire, Mary and Martina.
Speaking to RTÉ News at the vigil, Ms Keegan said he feels like the inquest is "a step forward", but said "as we step forward, things keep getting thrown in our way".
"We want all the obstacles to be stopped. We want to go forward. We want the inquest to proceed and we want the verdict recorded of our loved ones [who] died on the 14th of February 1981," Ms Keegan said.
Pat Dunne lost her youngest brother Brian Hobbs in the fire.
"I'm the last left of my family, I've lost all my brothers and sisters and my Mam and Dad, so I am the last Hobbs as such standing, and I need to get justice for him and accountability," Ms Dunne said.
Gertrude Barrett lost her eldest son Michael, who was just 17, when he died in the Stardust fire. She was a founding members of the Stardust Victims Committee.
Ms Barrett said she spent four days in the city morgue looking for her son Michael after the fire, and it was then that her "mission for justice" began.
At the vigil, singer Christy Moore performed his song 'They Never Came Home' which was written about the tragedy.
Poems were also read by Maurice McHugh who lost his only child Caroline in the fire, and by Billy Glen who lost his sister Josephine.
Those gathered also held a 48-second silence, one second for each of the victims of the fire.
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