'I feel vindicated' - sister of Stardust victim

Alison Croker-Keane (pictured left) was just 12 when she learned her older sister, Jacqueline Croker, 18, had been killed in the Stardust disaster.

"She was a pure lady. She done absolutely anything for everyone, anyone who ever needed anything, Jackie was there, so yeah, I feel vindicated," Ms Croker-Keane said.

"I feel the truth has been outed and justice has been done eventually.

"So now all we need is an apology from the State for the way they've treated us because they have systematically abused us for 43 years. That's the way I feel about it."

Her friend Tina Doyle (pictured right) was at the Stardust nightclub and says she was lucky to have survived that night.

Ms Doyle said lives have been lost since, even among those who were not at the Stardust nightclub that night and that survivors' guilt is a very real concept.

"We didn't only lose the 48, we lost quite a few more," she said.

She says she suffered smoke inhalation and a friend dragged her from the building that night towards an exit.

"I was lucky. I didn't know where I was going," Ms Doyle said.

"It was dark so I probably wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for that man."

She could not sleep in a room without a light for years.

"It kind of took a few years to sink in. And then it was like, oh my God, I survived," Ms Doyle said.

Having lost friends at such a young age, she says: "I just didn't understand and up until today it has kind of felt like 'Do I have a right to go on and be happy?'."

She said today was wonderful day for Irish justice and "about time."