The father of one of the five unidentified young people who died in the Stardust disaster almost 26 years ago is "hoping and praying" that their exhumation, preparations for which will begin today, will result in their being positively identified.
John Loughman, father of Éamon Loughman (18), was speaking yesterday in advance of the exhumations at St Fintan's Cemetery next week.
"There is no guarantee they'll be able to identify them," he said, "what with the amount of time that's passed and the condition of the bodies. We have no dental records because Éamon's dentist at the time didn't take any.
"We're just hoping and praying it will give us a bit of closure. We've been looking for this for a long time, to get them identified. I haven't got long more and I suppose I'm lucky I'm still here fighting."
Forty-eight young people died in the St Valentine's night disco fire on Friday, February 13th, 1981, at the Stardust in Artane. Five were never identified and were buried together.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said preparatory work for the exhumations would begin tomorrow. This would take several days she said, and the actual exhumations would begin next week. The plan is to exhume one body per day. The bodies will then be taken to the city morgue where DNA samples will be taken and sent to Britain for analysis. Results are expected in about two months.
Mr Loughman, who is 70, said yesterday evening that he had just returned from visiting his wife in the long-stay centre where she has been for the past 10 years following a brain haemorrhage, to tell her her eldest son's body would be exhumed next week. "She can't talk or walk, but I think she understands me." Neither she nor any of the family were allowed to see Éamon's body after the tragedy.
"I was just told we couldn't, by some garda I think. The wife was screaming, crying to see him but I had just retired from the Army - was used to taking orders, and just told her 'We can't go in there'. It didn't help. It made things 10 times worse."
