Stardust group criticises Casey for 'exploiting' cause

Peter Casey received 23.3% (342,727) first preference votes

Relatives of the Stardust victims have said they did not ask presidential candidate Peter Casey to be a spokesperson for their campaign.

Yesterday Mr Casey told RTÉ News that he had met the families last week about the tragedy and he was asked to be their spokesperson.

In a statement this afternoon, the group stated that they had contacted all presidential candidates seeking their support for their Truth campaign.

The Truth campaign wants the inquest into the Stardust fire to be reopened.

Forty-eight people died on Valentine's night in 1981 after a fire broke out at the Stardust nightclub in Artane in Dublin.

The cause of the fire has never officially been established.

Last year a report by retired judge Pat McCartan found no new inquiry into the deadly fire was warranted.

The families want to see someone prosecuted for the 48 deaths and want the cause of the fire to be put on record.

When asked yesterday what he planned to do in the future, Mr Casey mentioned the Stardust fire tragedy as an issue that he would be keen to get involved with.



The Stardust families group said it has been its own spokesperson for the last 37 years and will continue to do so.

The families said they found Mr Casey's comments to be "a complete misrepresentation of what we asked of him as a presidential candidate and an attempt to exploit our campaign".

They also said they find his comments on Travellers "deeply offensive".

The group has organised a march in November to the Office of the Attorney General where they plan to hand over thousands of signed 'Truth' postcards calling for a new inquiry into the blaze.

They have asked Mr Casey not to attend the march.

Casey support seen as 'protest vote', says Madigan

Meanwhile, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan has said there is no traction for the divisive rhetoric of Peter Casey in Ireland.

Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Ms Madigan said the votes received by Mr Casey in the Presidential Election was more of an "anti-establishment vote".

Fianna Fáil's Niall Collins has said there is bad news for Peter Casey as the party's ticket is full in Donegal, where Mr Casey lives.

Mr Collins said there is no vacancy in the party and that there is no place for Peter Casey in Fianna Fáil.

Sinn Féin's Housing Spokesperson Éoin Ó Broin challenged Ms Madigan on her comments criticising Peter Casey referring to remarks she made in 2014 when she objected to the proposed site of Traveller accommodation in her constituency in south Dublin.

At the time she said it was "a waste of valuable resources".

Ms Madigan clarified that the statement she made four years ago was that the land, which was valued at €15m, would house a significantly larger number of families if it were sold for development.

She said the proposal for Traveller accommodation on the site would house just four families.

The minister said the Traveller Inclusion programme, which local authorities manage, houses Traveller families throughout the country.

Fine Gael's Josepha Madigan responds to criticism from Sinn Féin's Eoin Ó Broin on Travellers pic.twitter.com/7dwTFirIID — RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 28, 2018

There was a huge surge in support for Independent candidate Peter Casey towards the end of the election campaign. In the end, the Derry native received 23.3% (342,727) first preference votes, putting him second in the race.

He said he would run again in the next presidential election, but added he "could be the taoiseach then".



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