Linking arms with her granddaughter and leaning on a walking stick, Brigid McDermott (86) told the Stardust inquest on Thursday: “I am the mother of William McDermott, Marcella and George who I loved very much”.
In a frail voice she said: “They went out that night, and they never came home to me. And I miss them. And I love them. God bless them.”
Speaking only briefly to the packed Pillar Room, on the grounds of the Rotunda hospital, Dublin – location of the inquests into the death of 48 young people in the Stardust fire in February 1981 – her words were greeted by audible crying from some, as many wiped tears from their faces.
[ Stardust: The lives of the 48 victimsOpens in new window ]
Her words had come after pen portraits of her late children were read by three of their siblings. June McDermott, Mrs McDermott’s oldest child, read the portrait of Willie (22); Louise Leech read that of Georgie (18) and Selina McDermott, her youngest child, read that of Marcella (16).
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Their deaths in the nightclub inferno represented the largest loss of children by one mother to the fire. Nothing could have prepared the Raheny-based family for the “the crying, the wailing, the fighting, the blaming [and] most of all the emptiness” in their home following the night of February 13th/14th, said Selina, who went on to describe the enduring impact of their loss on the McDermott family.
“We went to bed as a family of eight siblings and woke up as five ... It wasn’t until we went to the funeral home and saw the three coffins laid out we understood what was really happening. My mother was banging on the coffins ‘let me see my children’, which wasn’t an option given to our family.”
Echoing many of the 31 pen portraits read so far, Ms McDermott set out how the family was “torn apart by unimaginable grief” and offered little to no support.
“I remember sitting on the stairs and the crowds of people in the house.” Clasping her hand to her chest, she said: “I have known death, sorrow, pain and loss from the age of 11. I didn’t speak for a very long time. I couldn’t.
Justice has to be done, and I hope it will be now. They were three beautiful children
“In the church that day we had lost Willie, George and Marcella but we also lost our mother. She kept saying, ‘Why did he take three?’
“Her life after the Stardust fire has been one of the most unimaginable grief. How do you wake up from a nightmare like this? Although there was still five of us left our mother really struggled. There were occasions where we would find her in the [laneway by the house] with her packets of sleeping tablets ready to end it all.”
She thanked Dublin Fire Brigade, where their late father had worked as a fireman, on ‘D’ watch. He was not on duty that night and was “haunted” by guilt and the knowledge of the death his children would have had. He retired early.
“The fire brigade were very, very good to him and our family and we could never thank them enough,” she said.
The four women received a standing ovation as they returned to their seats. So too had Samantha Curran who earlier on Thursday delivered a harrowing account of the impact losing her mother Helena Mangan (22) had had on her when she was aged four.
“I just want to know what happened that night and why my mammy never came home,” Ms Curran told the jury of eight men and seven women.
Speaking outside the court after the day’s proceedings, Mrs McDermott said the reading of the pen-portraits of her children into the record had been “very, very important” to her.
“Justice has to be done, and I hope it will be now. They were three beautiful children.”
