Susan Morgan (19), Derry – ‘She was full of life ... so bubbly ... so funny ... thoughtful too’

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.

Susan Morgan was my friend. Susie was raised by her granny, and they doted on each other.

Susie and myself were part of a group of girls who moved from Derry to Dublin. We were pals, going to work together in Nazareth House care home on the Malahide Road.

Susie was a tom boy. She loved football. In Derry, Shantallow football club had two women’s teams: an A-team and a B-team. Susie was on the A-team.

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[She] was full of life ... so bubbly ... so funny. The nuns in the Nazareth House were always smiling and laughing at Susie being funny.

Susie was thoughtful too. I remember her bringing back toys that were wanted, from Dublin to Derry, like a wee Spider-Man figures for her cousins. For Susie and the rest of our pals, Dublin represented freedom and possibility.

[ More than 40 years after Stardust nightclub tragedy families welcome moment of truth ]

Our life in Dublin was a large contrast with Derry. We had left a place which was in conflict, and we had arrived in a city buzzing with life and freedom. Susie noticed lots of wee differences in the big city – like the number of people happy cycling around. That’s not something that was common ... where movement was more restricted in the north.

Susie loved to walk along the big wide tree-lined avenues on the northside of the city. She loved to feel the peaceful atmosphere in Fairview Park. She loved the buzz of the city when we stepped off the bus in O’Connell Street.

Susie wasn’t just in love with Dublin. She had fallen in love with Paul Wade too. She was mad on him. We were having a ball. I don’t think we stayed in even one night.

On the night of the Stardust fire, we saw terrible, terrible, things that nobody should ever have see. We were only young, and we saw other young people die right in front of us.

I was taken to the Mater hospital. I remember everyone around us with big, black, burnt faces ... I got home to Nazareth House the next day. The nuns gave me whiskey in tea for shock.

In the grief and the loss, us girls were blamed for Susie being killed in the fire ... for taking her away from her home in Derry ... Our carefree life in Dublin was suddenly, brutally, cut short. Our families wanted us back to Derry.

We never spoke about the trauma. We blocked it out. But at night, I had terrible nightmares. In nightmares, I saw burnt bodies coming up the bed at me. I had to take sedatives.

We should not have had to wait so long for justice. The families whose loved ones were killed in the Stardust fire need to get justice now.