The Value of an Apology!

We have watched and listened to a huge mixed bag of evidence, emotions and expressions of thoughts as the enquiry into the Stardust fire came to an end at last. The relatives of the forty-eight people who died in the tragedy forty-three years ago worked and fought tirelessly for justice and truth for their loved ones. Their parents, siblings and friends have aged much since then and carried the weight of a loss increased in burden by a lack of ownership of wrong by those who had responsibility on that Valentines night. None of us will ever forget waking up on the morning of 15th February 1981 with a pall of mourning which overshadowed the entire country.

There are many lessons to learn from the expressed experience of the families and from the unfolding of their grief over many decades.

Those who depart from us in this life never leave us through memory, genes, prayer and family. Let us treasure the legacies that have made us who we are!

Each person has a unique purpose and contribution to make in the lives of loved ones. We each really matter!

Love and strivings for justice drives people to do more than could ever be imagined. We can be a power for change too!

Truth does win out in the end if we put in the effort for what is right. Let us never give up on what we believe and hold dear!

Those who are poor work harder to gain recognition and the ear of the powerful. When we are weak, we still have power; when we have power, we have responsibility!

The experience of loss changes over time, but may not go away. Let us not use platitudes or assumptions!

The greatest lesson taught to us has been the power of an apology; the value of people owning and admitting wrongs. A great wrong was done to the forty-eight people who died, in the Stardust, and to their families by no admission of wrong or apology or any form of retribution acknowledging the value of each one lost. It took hard labour to gain a state apology after forty-three years of suffering and loss.

Perhaps this might be an inspiration for us all to reach into our hearts and see where it is that we fail to do what is right so that justice may be gained for others. We may not have done great wrongs, but presenting a deaf ear to what is wrong in society today, leaves us as by-standers who fail those in need, fail those against whom prejudice is at large, fail our young when we let the world shrivel in global warming or without values that hold them rooted in good and bad times. We can make a difference as did the brave and faithful relatives of those who died in 1981.

This is a moment to take stock of who we are, what we do and what we value most.

Cathy Burke,
Lucan Partnership of Parishes