Richard Bennett (17), Coolock – ‘He was the father figure to his younger brother and sister’

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 read by bereaved family members. Find all of the portraits and more coverage here.

Richard was very mature for his 17 years, looked and acted older than he was, probably because he had to grow up fast.

I went through a bad break-up with my first husband. Richard left school at 15 ... to go out to work and provide for me and his siblings. Richard was the main breadwinner in the household after that.

He stepped into the role and became the father figure to his younger brothers and sister. Ironically one of Richard’s jobs was to install fire extinguishers.

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After that, he got a job with a haulage company along with my husband Bill. Richard and Bill became very close during this time and Richard was happy I found someone to look after the family.

Richard was extremely protective of his family and was a great support to me in every way possible.

He’d play with his brothers Michael and Mark, would show them how to defend themselves. He would always make time then for a game of rounders with his sister Elaine. He really was the father figure they should have had. They adored him and hung off his every word.

Richard was so excited to go to the Stardust that night ...[He] had no tie on, so they wouldn’t let him in. I heard after, one of the lads was handing ties out at the back door ... he got one and that got him through.

My husband was coming home from work and saw the smoke at the Stardust. He came in and told Elaine so as not to alarm me.

He went back up to the site of the Stardust and met a fireman he knew. He gave him a helmet and he got into the Stardust as they were putting the fire out. What Bill saw that night never left him. Bill searched the hospitals and Dublin city morgue for weeks. I went into complete shock.

Eventually, weeks later ... there was a body that was presumed to be Richard’s. It was then that he became one of ‘the unidentified’. For years that’s how those children were spoken of ... they lost their identity that night.

I went to the church but could not bring myself to attend the burial. In my grief, I didn’t go out to the cemetery for two years after Richard’s death. Part of me still hoped that he would walk through the door someday. The unidentified title became a hope that he may be still out there.

[He] was unidentified for 25 years. I had to write again and again to Bertie Ahern to try to get the bodies properly identified.

My son Michael died suddenly four years ago and he is buried with Richard. I will never get over the loss of both of them. When people talk of Richard, they light up. He had a wonderful personality and he was a great strength to me at a terrible time in my life. He really was an angel in disguise.

There has always been a really strong presence of Richard in our house ... and we wonder where would life have taken him; marriage, kids and what career he would have gone for. But it always turns back to the great sadness and heartbreak that everybody feels. I will grieve for Richard ... until the day I close my eyes.