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A number of them are protesting outside Leinster House today.
In February 1981 48 people died and more than 200 were injured when a fire ripped through the Stardust nightclub in Artane in Dublin.
The matter of legal aid was raised in the Seanad by Sinn Féin Senator Lynn Boylan who told the Upper House they have waited 40 years for justice and now they re being asked for PPS numbers, for bank statements, for pay slips, they re being asked what car they drive .
Senator Boylan said the legal aid route was not suitable and families should not be means tested as it was causing huge hurt and risks sewing division between families.
He said previous inquests in 1982 recorded how the deaths occurred but there was no reference to the surrounding circumstances, in particular the cause of the fire.
Still fighting for justice, and awaiting the beginning of the new inquests, relatives at the site observed a minute of silence and shed tears members of Dublin Fire Brigade paid their own tribute with lights and sirens from a fire tender.
Samantha Mangan, who lost her mother Helena in the fire, read a poem that had been found on a Valentine card found on the site in the clean-up after the blaze.
It had been written by Martina Keegan to her boyfriend David Morton, both of whom died in the fire.
A gathering at the site of the Stardust nightclub fire, where 48 young people died 40 years ago, heard fresh calls for the truth to be told and expressed hope that an upcoming inquest might finally give victimsâ families the answers they have been seeking for decades.
Some of those attending the low-key commemoration wore black face masks with the number 48 and the word âTruthâ on them.
Similar masks were worn by a team of firefighters from Dublin Fire Brigade who attended, signalling the end of a minuteâs silence with a fire siren.
The names of those who died in the fire were read out, and small plaques featuring their names and their photographs were attached to the wall of the building in Artane, north Dublin, that now sits on the site of the blaze.