Murtagh ‘Murty’ Kavanagh (27), Coolock - ‘He was caring and generous, ready to help no matter what’

The inquests into the deaths of the 48 young people who died in the Stardust fire in Artane, Dublin in 1981 feature pen portraits of each of the deceased by bereaved family members. Find all of the portraits and more coverage here.

I am here today to represent Murty on behalf of my deceased parents and extended family. Murty was a son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, friend and neighbour.

We were a family of six and Murty was the second youngest. Murty lived at home with our widowed father. In today’s terms, Murty would have been considered our father’s carer. Murty was caring, kind and generous. He was good natured and ready to help no matter what was needed.

He enjoyed cooking, fishing and music. He was a big Bob Dylan and Neil Young fan. He worked as a heating insulator – a job that took him around the country. He was a fan of the Dubs and Manchester United.

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Murty had lots of dreams and hopes for the future, and planned to get engaged, married and to have children with his partner Margaret Thornton, who perished in the fire also. Murty would often stay overnight at a friend’s house at the weekends, when prior care would have been arranged for our father. On the day of the fire, my sister called to my father to check if Murty was home. He wasn’t. They discussed the awfulness of the fire, never thinking what they would face in the next 24 hours.

On Sunday morning Mrs Thornton arrived at our house to check if Margaret was there. What happened next was sheer panic, worry and concern. My father and sister went directly to the morgue in Store Street. They gave details of Murty and filled out identification forms.

They made several trips to the morgue over the next few days, until Tuesday evening when the identification process was stopped at 6pm.

During one of the visits, they were asked by detectives to obtain Murty’s recent dental records, yet they were not told why. It was difficult to comprehend what was going on and what you were living through. Not having information explained to you added to this distress. Our family thought that this was appalling.

We couldn’t locate any dental records for Murty. However, my father informed and absolutely stressed to the detectives that Murty had a dental plate, due to a football/hurling incident. Murty was ... not formally identified until 25 years after the fire.

There was no private family funeral or burial for Murty. We did not know which coffin was his when we attended the Mass and burials for the five unidentified, in Donnycarney Church on February 23rd, 1981.

My father’s heart, soul and spirit were broken. He knew that with Murty having a partial dental plate that he should have been ... identified.

The Stardust fire ravaged our family. My father was a broken man. My sister sold her home and she and her family moved in with my father to care for him. This was an arduous task as everyone was suffering traumatic grief.

We were all left devastated by the traumatic loss of Murty, the absence of a private funeral, and him being unidentified. But it was my father that was truly broken. Every day he would say ‘I would love to know where my son is buried’. He would say this every day until his own passing, in 1985. He went to his grave knowing his son was unidentified, yet he believed that his son should never have been unidentified because Murty had a partial dental plate. Rest in Peace Murty – you are missed every day.