Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
THE “SUNLIGHT” THAT has been shed on the evidence before the Stardust inquests has “gone a long way in removing the stains, rumours, lies and mistakes” that have “haunted” the families of the victims “since before the embers of the fire even went out,” a barrister has told the jury.
Another barrister told the Dublin District Coroner’s Court jury today that the families of the victims “have waited longer than Moses wandered in the desert without justice”.
At the inquest today, closing speeches by legal teams on behalf of the bereaved families continued.
In her remarks to the jury yesterday, Brenda Campbell KC, representing a number of the families of the victims, said that the carpet tiles on the walls of the Stardust were wholly unsuitable as wall coverings, as they plainly did not meet the requirements of the chief fire officer, and it ought to have been known at the time that they were unsuitable.
“The presence of those tiles substantially contributed to the rapid spread of that fire, and the presence of those carpet tiles therefore directly caused or substantially contributed to the deaths of the 48 who never came home,” said Campbell.
Continuing her closing address today, Campbell said the then Dublin Corporation, responsible for building inspections and oversight, “had to know of an about a year-long “gap” in enforcement inspections that “resulted in thousands of young people attending the Stardust without any check on fire safety and compliance”.
“There were opportunities to right wrongs,” said Campbell. She also noted that there was no request to Dublin Corporation from the operators of the Stardust club for carpet tiles to be fitted to walls of the venue.
Campbell said that an electrical inspector had raised concerns about doors and emergency procedures generally, in 1979, 1980 and 1981.
Campbell said that in a letter from Eamon Butterly dated 5 September 1979, the Stardust manager “reassured” Dublin Corporation that issues about doors and exit concerns had been rectified.
However, Campbell said the same inspector had been at the Stardust on the same date of the letter and said the issues had not been rectified.
“What value was Mr Butterly’s assurances? Those [assurances] were penned at a time we know a policy was not loosening, it was tightening. It was wrong, yet it was permitted to continue,” said Ms Campbell.
“Those doors did not open, it took the best efforts of those patrons, including kicking and punching, to get those doors open,” said Campbell.
Campbell quoted a witness as saying, “the smoke was so thick you could chew it, and there was an unbearable noise of fire” due to the doors being “locked, chained and obstructed”. This, she said, amounted to a “substantial contribution to the deaths of 48 people who never came home”.
Campbell said the jury had already heard evidence of people “breaking windows with their bare hands to gulp oxygen and a young woman putting her head into a toilet because the windows at the venue did not give any ventilation”.
Advertisement
“You can imagine the suffering and the decades of unresolved trauma,” Campbell told the jury.
“Sunlight really is a powerful disinfectant, and the sunlight that, with the coroner’s judgement and care, has been shed on the evidence of what happened to those 48 young people has gone a long way in removing the stains, the rumours, the lies, the mistakes that have haunted the families of the Stardust victims since before the embers of that fire even went out.”
Campbell said that it was now over to the jury to “write the last chapter” of the Stardust story.
Campbell concluded by saying that the failures she had outlined were causative of the deaths that followed.
“And that being the evidence, the conclusion must be that the 48 victims of the Stardust fire were unlawfully killed,” she said.
Bernard Condon SC, representing families of 10 people who were killed in the tragedy, told the jury that there was a wall behind him at the inquest room “of people; 48 people indeed, who never came home. Why?”
Counsel said the Stardust patrons were “drifting towards death and smoke” and the fire was “a monster coming towards” them. “How quickly that fire moved. Why? Because of the carpet tiles,” counsel said.
“The fire took off at ballistic speed because of the carpet tiles and exit doors didn’t work,” said counsel, who added that staff had “no training about the fire extinguishers”.
“Lack of training is delay, and delay equals death,” he said.
“Life was extinguished by a series of circumstances, and hard-working, decent people went for a night out to the local disco and why did they die?
“What in the name of God was going on that it turned into a prison so much that people couldn’t get out? The staff were never told to throw open the doors – they couldn’t because they were locked. I ask you to look at those contributing factors and fit it into the category of substantial cause of death in the circumstances of unlawful killing,” said Condon.
Senior Counsel Sean Guerin also addressed the jury today, telling them: “The families have waited longer than Moses wandered in the desert but theirs is without justice, and their question is: ‘How did my child, my sister, my brother die?’”
“How did my child die? Why did they never come home?” he added.
“To say they died in a fire only raises the question of what caused the fire and what caused it to spread so quickly that so many were unable to get out alive?” said counsel.
He urged the jury to consider what were the facts and circumstances that led to these deaths. “The condition of the electrical fittings was a substantial cause, the tiles on the walls, the low ceiling height, the absence of training and emergency procedures and the locking of doors are matters for you,” said Guerin.
Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane told the jury that she will begin summarising the evidence heard since April last year and advising the members on the relevant law on Tuesday.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Yet another housing forecast says the government will miss its completion targets
41 mins ago
266
4
The Morning Lead
RTB writes to major landlord Ires Reit over attempts to impose monthly common area charges
Eoghan Dalton
49 mins ago
646
4
RIP
'True legend': Tributes paid to former F1 boss Eddie Jordan after his death aged 76
Updated
8 hrs ago
44.4k
62
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 157 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 109 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 141 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 111 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 132 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 38 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 90 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 97 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 86 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 68 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say