Artane parish has made an extra effort to commemorate the Stardust tragedy this year, with Fr Peter O’Reilly unveiling a display in memory of the victims, both dead and injured.
The parish in which many of the victims were buried, Artane is deeply connected to the Stardust tragedy, Fr O’Reilly told this paper.
“This year because of the pandemic, we said we have to make an extra effort to try and reach them and came up with this idea,” Fr O’Reilly said.
“Among other things I moderate a site called ‘Dublin Memories Old and New’, and I got 700 hits from it. I put out a more detailed photo, and it got lots of prayers, and thoughts and appreciation. That would be all over Dublin now, and all over the world.
“Even, I thought, it was a nice way to remember the injured. The 48 are mentioned, but some people were horribly injured and that’s what they remember. So there would be a whole lot of interest – ongoing interest,” he said.
With many of the relatives of victims coming for a remembrance Mass each year, Fr O’Reilly is closely attached to the incident, and said that a proper inquest is needed if closure is ever to be reached.
“Closure is what they’re looking for, and the inquest would do it…every obstacle should be removed to give them closure. I mean, 40 years is long enough,” Fr O’Reilly said.
His comments come after Archbishop Dermot Farrell’s homily in Bonnybrook parish, which Fr O’Reilly said was a “very strong pastoral move”.
“Who could fail to be moved by the suffering, the weight of hurts and memories, festering for forty years now, of the families who lost 48 loved ones in the Stardust disaster, and of the more than 200 who were injured,” Archbishop Farrell asked in his homily.
Offering spiritual consolation, he quoted poet Amanda Gorman, saying this is a “loss we carry, a sea we must wade”.