Actor Liam Cunningham said he and his sister were meant to be in the Stardust nightclub when it caught fire in 1981.

Forty-eight young people, aged between 16 and 27, all died from smoke inhalation, fire fumes and burns.

It comes a day after Taoiseach Simon Harris apologised to families and survivors of the tragedy, saying the State 'should have stood with them'.

The families 43-year fight for justice resulted last week in a verdict of unlawful killing at the inquests into their deaths.

The families gathered in the public gallery as the Taoiseach listed off each and every person who died in the tragedy along with an anecdote for each one.

Speaking at a People Before Profit event in Dublin today, Mr Cunningham said said he was meant to be there on that night in 1981.

"I should have been in the Stardust that night," he said.

"I was out on my motorbike and I managed to find my sister and her best friend in Jervis Street Hospital, before it was a shopping centre.

"My sister should have been there but she was late and went to a party instead."

"I should have been in the Stardust that night." Actor Liam Cunningham on the Stardust tragedy, the state's apology, and how he feels the victims of the fire were abandoned. pic.twitter.com/bGzrS9i0h6

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Liam Cunningham (right) at a People Before Profit event in Dublin, 24-2-24. Image: Stephanie Rohan/Newstalk

Mr Cunningham said he decided to stay away from events being held by the families.

"I witnessed the kind of abandonment by the State, which they apologised for yesterday, of these unfortunate people," he said.

"I would have felt guilty if I'd have gone and joined that; I thought it was much more important that the mothers, brothers, daughters and sisters take centre stage on that."

Mr Cunningham said that he "didn't want to be a distraction from that".

Stardust survivors and campaigners outside the Dáil after a State apology from Taoiseach Simon Harris, 23-4-24. Image: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie

He branded the abandoning of Stardust families and survivors as "appalling".

"The people that were supposed to represent us essentially abandoned [them] for 43 years," he said.

Mr Cunningham added that he believes a memorial is needed.

The Department of the Taoiseach is to prepare proposals to appropriately commemorate the disaster, as requested by the families.

Main image: Actor Liam Cunningham at the press conference in Buswells Hotel, Dublin, 16-11-23. Image: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie