Bonus: The Darkest Hour: The Tragedy of the Stardust Fire
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On Valentine’s Day 1981, several Dublin families were woken in the early hours of the morning by frantic neighbours searching for their children. They had left hours earlier on Friday evening to attend a Valentine’s Day disco at a local nightclub, the Stardust in Artane, north Dublin. Some of the parents had heard rumours of a fire or other disaster. For many of those families, they would never see their children again. By morning, 44 people would be dead, with four more dying from their injuries within several weeks, and a further 214 injured. This is the story of the Stardust Fire, the worst tragedy of its kind in Irish history.
The Valentine’s Disco
It was Friday 13th February 1981, the eve of Valentine’s Day, 1981. Throngs of young people in Dublin North-East were preparing to attend a Valentine’s Day disco at the Stardust nightclub on Kilmore Road, Artane. The Stardust was one of the most popular entertainment venues in north Dublin.
The Stardust venue was owned and operated by local businessman Eamon Butterly. Built in 1948, the building was originally a food factory and was operated by Scott’s Foods Ltd. Until 1978, when its owners, the Butterly family, converted the premises into three different venues, The Silver Swan, a bar, The Lantern Rooms, a function room, and the Stardust, a nightclub. The Stardust comprised of a dancefloor, stage, two separate bars, two seating alcoves, the west alcove, and the north alcove. On the night in question, 841 customers and staff were in the nightclub.
The Fire
There has been disagreement as to when and where exactly the fire started. The main point of difference comes from witnesses and the families of the victims, and the initial investigation, which differ in when and where the fire started. Robert O’Callaghan, a taxi driver claimed to have seen the sky glow red, just after he dropped a customer near the nightclub at 1:30am. As he drove towards the Stardust, he says that he saw flames the ‘size of a house’ above the building.
According to an article by Frank Connolly, patrons inside the nightclub began to notice a significant increase in temperature. This was unusual, as the factory-turned nightclub was usually cold in February, as it was not well-insulated, and had a lot of drafts throughout. Linda Bishop had been sitting at a small table with a friend, when she felt a shudder from a sudden blast of heat.
She joked to her friend, Sandra Hutton, that they must have switched the central heating on. The two were sitting underneath a ceiling grille and got up to dance to a song called Lorraine, by Bad Manners, a now long-forgotten ska band. Linda checked her watch, it was 1:33am. Moments later, they spotted flames coming from the west alcove.
A witness, Alan Buffini, said that he heard a crackling noise coming from the direction of the Stardust at approximately 1:38am. Buffini lived on Maryfield Drive, a residential street directly opposite the Butterly’s complex. He met his neighbour, Anthony Pasquetti at the door, and the two climbed on top of Pasquetti’s garage to get a better view. From here, they saw sparks and dense black smoke rising from the top of the Stardust building. The sparks quickly became flames.
Families of the victims, and some investigators believe that the fire started from an electrical fault in a room behind the roof space. This storage room contained 45 five-gallon or 23 litre drums of cooking oil, a highly flammable material. It was also not compliant with planning permission.
After Midnight
By 1:45am, the fire had spread from the west alcove across tables and chairs. People could smell burning and smoke was beginning to billow. The ceiling tiles began to melt and drip onto patrons, fusing with their flesh. People rushed to find exits but were almost crushed in a stampede of panicked customers.
If they did manage to find an exit, they likely found that it wouldn’t open, and their route of escape was blocked. Aside from the main entrance, there were five emergency exit doors in the Stardust, but most were either padlocked and chained, or else blocked or other obstacles inside the venue, or vehicles parked directly outside the doors, preventing them from opening. This was reportedly to prevent patrons sneaking in without paying the cover charge.
Many staff members of the Stardust nightclub and the adjoining function rooms and businesses gave statements to police at the time of the fire. Many of these were contradictory and denied witness statements from customers. Various bar, door and floor staff gave statements on or directly after the incident, denying that standard safety practices were ignored, or that doors were chained or locked shut. Many of these witnesses later changed their official statements, some decades later to state that there were frequent safety lapses, and that the doors were indeed locked when the fire broke out.
Inside the Nightclub
Inside the nightclub, everywhere was filling with a thick black smoke. Very quickly after the fire was noticed and took hold, a flashover occurred and the lights failed, plunging the venue into total darkness, illuminated only by the flames. A flashover is a type of fire that occurs in enclosed spaces, when all flammable items in the room have been raised to approximately 1100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 593 degrees Celsius and spontaneously ignite. The U.S. Fire Administration describe a flashover as being a ‘thermally-driven event during which every combustible surface exposed to thermal radiation in a compartment or enclosed space rapidly and simultaneously ignites.’
Once the lights went out, the crowd surged, coughing, choking and burning as they tried to find their way to an open door. The walls and ceiling of the nightclub were covered in highly flammable polyurethane foam that melted as the heat rose and dripped onto the patrons below. The walls were decorated with carpet tiles, which quickly ignited and spread the fire. There was a stampede of people trying to find their way out in the dark.
It was revealed in the 2023 inquiry that the toilets in the east of the building did not have any windows. The two toilets elsewhere in the building had nine-inch or 23cm windows, with steel plates welded internally to the frames. In addition to this, vertical metal bars were welded to the outside of the windows. This had been done just six weeks prior to the blaze, supposedly as a security measure.
According to a Mr Tottenham, testifying before coroner Dr Myra Cullinane at the most request inquest, the roof also contained asbestos sheeting and glazing. The suspended ceiling overlooked polyester carpet tiles and PVC-backing on the walls. He also stated that there were eleven fire alarms behind easily breakable glass, including seven in the ballroom area, but no staff member triggered them, and no patrons seemed to know that they were there.
Even if the doors weren’t locked and chained, some of the exits were not accessible and wouldn’t have been able to open to provide an escape route to those fleeing. One of the exits was blocked with a parked van, and another was blocked with a skip or dumpster, used to store empty glass bottles.
First responders from the Dublin Fire Brigade, Dublin Civil Defence, the Red Cross, St John’s Ambulance Ireland, and others rushed to the scene. The first of which arrived at 1:51am, only eighteen-minutes after the fire was first spotted inside the nightclub. They found bodies piled high inside the doors. Local radio stations asked people in the area with cars to come to the scene to help transport survivors. Some ambulances carried as many as fifteen people at a time. The city’s hospitals were overwhelmed with the injured and dying.
Firemen responding to the emergency tried to remove the metal bars on the windows using sledgehammers and axes, but they had been welded so completely to the building that they would not budge. At one stage, they even used tow ropes from locals who had gathered to help in the rescue. They then attached a chain to the fire engine and tried to use the power of the engine to wrest the metal bars from the windows, but this didn’t work either.
Most of the 841 staff and patrons were safely evacuated with little to no physical injuries. Others were not so lucky. By the time the Dublin Fire Brigade had extinguished the fire, hours later, 44 people were dead, and countless more injured.
Some family members were summoned to the city morgue to identify their loved ones. This was still during the middle of the night, so there was no public transportation running, and many working class people, as the majority of the patrons and their families were, did not have access to a car. Taxi drivers waived their fees to transport distraught family members, but police were ill-prepared to counsel them once they arrived.
Aftermath
The following are a list of those who perished in the Stardust fire:
John Colgan, of Swords, Co. Dublin, Carol Bissett of Ringsend, Dublin 4, and James Buckley of Donnycarney, Dublin 5. Robert Hillock and James Millar, of Twinbrook, Belfast. Susan Morgan, of Derry, and Kathleen Muldoon of Kells, Co. Meath.
Brian Hobbs, of Whitehall, Dublin 9, Mary Kennedy of Kilbarrack, Dublin 5, Eamon Loughman and David Flood, of Beaumont, Dublin 9, Michael Griffiths, and Jacqueline Croker, of Kilmore, Dublin 5, Thelma Frazer, of Sandymount, Dublin 4, and Margaret Thornton of Dublin 8.
George O'Conner, Brendan O'Meara, Helena Mangan, John Stout, Liam Dunne, Michael Farrell, Michael French, Josephine Glenn, Paula Byrne, Richard Bennett, Caroline Carey, Mary Kenny, Margaret Kiernan, Sandra Lawless, Paula Lewis, Julie McDonnell, Teresa McDonnell, Gerard McGrath, Martina, and Mary Keegan and Murtagh Kavanagh, of Coolock, Dublin 5.
Francis and Maureen Lawlor, of Finglas, Dublin 11. Donna Mahon, Robert Kelly, Michael Barrett and siblings George, Marcella, and William McDermott. David Morton, Paul Wade, Eugene Hogan, Caroline McHugh of Edenmore, Dublin 5.
The Tribunal & Investigation
In the aftermath of the incident, a high level of criticism was levelled at Eamon Butterly, as several of the exits were chained and padlocked, windows contained welded metal plates and bars, and many exits were blocked. This meant that patrons were essentially trapped. The fire spread rapidly, causing the ceiling to collapse on people as they scrambled in the heavy smoke and darkness.
A tribunal of inquiry began soon after the fire, under Mr Justice Ronan Keane, concluding in November 1981. The Tribunal report stated that at the time of the fire, the Stardust nightclub failed to comply with twelve public resort bylaws, twelve fire protection standards, and six draft building regulations. The report stated that there was no evidence of an accidental origin of the fire, and equally, no evidence that the fire was started deliberately, but that there was a legal probability of arson.
Journalist Frank Connolly states that, for ‘the survivors and the families of the victims, their hurt was compounded by another grievous injury – the conclusion of a judicial tribunal, published in June 1982, which found that one of their own had deliberately started the fire’. The families of the victims and survivors dispute this finding. The suggestion was that the fire was started by arson, with a customer setting the chairs in the west alcove on fire deliberately with a lit match.
Connolly proposes that the Stardust fire was not arson, but ‘the direct result of an electrical fault.’ He says that the heat felt by witness Linda Bishop was the ‘result of a fireball crossing the roof space of the building, which, within minutes, had the false ceiling in flames and dropping balls of fire on the patrons below’. Connolly describes the survivors as suffering from immense guilt, with many having psychiatric issues. He states that eleven of the survivors were permanently disabled or disfigured from burns resulting from the fire.
The finding of probable arson gave Eamon Butterly the grounds to pursue a malicious damages case against Dublin Corporation, which was lodged within one week of the fire. He was eventually awarded the sum of IR£580,000.
Families Seeking Redress
The families of victims called for Butterly to be pursued for manslaughter with the charge of Reckless Negligence Leading to Death, but their request was rejected by the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The Stardust was insured for the sum of IR£250,000, but the ruling of probable arson exonerated the owners from facing legal charges of negligence, or of being deemed responsible for the fire or deaths. While Justice Keane criticised the poor safety standards in place at the time, he also criticised the owners and management of the Stardust for the ‘recklessly dangerous practices’ in place, particularly the practice of impeding the emergency exit doors.
New Legislation
This incident prompted the drafting of new legislation relating to building regulations and fire safety. David Keane, architect, barrister and former head of Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI), and brother of Justice Ronan Keane, spearheaded the campaign to overhaul building control regulations in the 1980s and 1990s (Keane, 2003). The current Building Control system was introduced as a direct response to the Stardust tragedy. Similarly, rigorous fire safety design certification was introduced by local authorities. The success of this new system of regulation is evidenced by the fact that in the period of 2010 -2013, there was only a single fatality in a non-residential building in Ireland (Hegarty, 2015).
An Independent Examination into the Stardust fire was commissioned by the Irish Government and published in January 2009, chaired by Paul Coffey. The Coffey Report (2009) found that the original 1981 tribunal conclusion of ‘probable arson’ as being the cause of the fire was simply a hypothetical explanation that was mistakenly used as a finding of fact (Kerr, 2009). A government statement issued on 23rd January 2009 stated that ‘none of the victims of the Stardust disaster or the persons present at the Stardust on the night of the fire can be held responsible for the fire’ (Kerr, 2009). While the Coffey Report rejected the findings of the original 1981 Tribunal, it also rejected the appeal of the Stardust Victims’ Committee to set up a new public inquiry.
Flawed Finding of Arson
Justice Keane, in his original findings in the 1981 tribunal based his conclusion of ‘probable arson’ on flawed information. The floorplans provided to the tribunal in 1981 located the storeroom as above basement level. This led investigators at the time to dismiss the possibility that the fire could have started in those rooms, and they mistakenly concluded that it had begun in the west alcove and was a result of probable arson. The storeroom was in fact located on the first floor in the roof space, and contained multiple sources of flammable material, so it is likely that the fire in fact started here and quickly spread, and was accidental in nature.
If this had been known in 1981, the families of the victims would have had cause to sue for damages, and it is likely that charges would have been brought against the operators of the Stardust nightclub. The most noticeable developments in place in non-residential buildings and venues are around the use of emergency exits. In the Stardust nightclub, many exits were blocked, chained or otherwise obstructed, preventing many people from safely evacuating the building. Emergency exits are now clearly marked, have lights that can be used to guide people in the dark and must not be obstructed or locked. These regulations, along with Building Control legislation have helped to save countless lives in the years since the Stardust tragedy.
The Memorial
In 1993, the Stardust Memorial Park was opened in Bonnybrook, Coolock, featuring a sculpture of a couple dancing, surrounded by a pond. The families of the victims began a campaign in June 2018 to appeal to the Attorney General of Ireland to finalise the coroner’s reports of all 48 Stardust victims.
The Coroner’s Inquest
Survivor’s and the families of Stardust victims have fought tirelessly for decades to get justice for their ordeal. After more than four decades, a coroner’s inquest was granted under the oversight of coroner Dr Myra Cullinane. This began in April 2023 and included 122 days of testimony, concluding on the 18th of April 2024. A thirteen-person jury heard evidence from survivor’s and nightclub staff over a twelve-month period. Stardust owner Eamon Butterly testified over seven days.
In his testimony, he denied liability for the fire, and claimed that the practice of draping padlocked chains over the exit doors of the nightclub, ‘originated from the doormen’, and was not something that he had ordered staff to do. This contradicted the testimony he had given to the 1981 Tribunal, where he admitted under oath that he had not only been fully aware of the practice, but had in fact ordered it.
Michael O’Higgins SC, representing some of the families, questioned Butterly on the stand. Butterly became defensive and asked Higgins, ‘Are you saying that I am telling lies?’, to which, Higgins responded, ‘Yes, I am’. On a different day, Butterly admitted that he had been told by officials several months before the fire that locks and chains on his premises while patrons were inside was entirely unacceptable. Another witness stated that he declined to quote the Stardust for fire insurance, as he considered the fire risk to be ‘pretty horrendous’.
It was determined at the inquest that the fire had originated in the boiler through an electrical fault. It was found that poor electrical wiring, including a live terminal directly above the boiler’s immersion heater was the cause of the fire. Prior to this determination, accusations that the patron’s themselves were to blame for the fire were rampant, including from the Stardust’s management team and owner, and in the media.
The Verdict
During closing statements, a barrister acting on behalf of some of the families said that sunlight has finally been shed on the disaster, and that this inquest has ‘gone a long way in removing the stains, rumours, lies and mistakes’ that have haunted victims’ families. Another barrister representing other families told jurors that the victims’ families ‘have waited longer than Moses wandered in the desert without justice’.
Five of the bodies could not definitively be identified until 2007, when DNA was used to differentiate between the remains. The jury found the cause of death for the majority of victims to be ‘rapid incapacitation due to inhalation of fire fumes and heat’. It recently emerged that Eamon Butterly’s legal team attempted to have ‘unlawful killing’ removed as a possible outcome of the inquest several times, including as recently as mere days before the jury were to begin their deliberations. He failed in these attempts.
The jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing for all 48 victims who perished in the Stardust Nightclub Fire. The statute of limitations does not apply in this case, and criminal charges could be brought against individuals deemed to be criminally liable for the fire and subsequent deaths.
The coroner’s report will be reviewed by An Garda Síochana to determine the next steps. On Saturday the 20th of April 2024, An Taoiseach Simon Harris, the Irish Prime Minister apologised unreservedly for State failures relating to the aftermath of the Stardust fire in a meeting with the families of the victims.
Irish singer Christy Moore released a song called ‘They Never Came Home’. In July 1985, he was found guilty of contempt of court for the lyrics of this song that appeared to imply that the venue owners were liable for the deaths.
Have we forgotten the suffering and pain
the survivors and victims of the fire in Artane,
the mothers and fathers forever to mourn
the 48 children who never came home.
- Taken from ‘They Never Came Home’ by Christy Moore.
Sources:
Building Control Act 1990
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1990/en/act/pub/0003/index.html
Coffey, Paul, Independent Examination of the Stardust Victims Committee’s Case for a Reopened Inquiry into the Stardust Fire Disaster, 2008
http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/REPORT.doc/Files/REPORT.doc
Connolly, Frank, ‘The Truth About the Stardust Fire’, Magill, 29th November 2006.
https://magill.ie/archive/truth-about-stardust-fire
Dalton, Eoghan, ‘Taoiseach apologises ‘unreservedly’ to Stardust families following ‘emotional’ meeting today’, The Journal, 20th April 2024.
https://www.thejournal.ie/meeting-taoiseach-stardust-6360063-Apr2024/
‘Doorman admitted front door of Stardust was locked and key removed on night of fatal fire’, The Journal, 4th September 2023.
Dunne, Ryan, ‘Steel plates welded over Stardust toilet windows six weeks before fire, inquest hears’, Breaking News, 25th May 2023.
‘Former Stardust boss accepts he was told 'in no uncertain terms' not to lock and chain doors’. 5th October 2023.
‘Former Stardust doorman says attempts were made to 'scapegoat' him for doors being locked’, The Journal, 13th September 2023.
https://jrnl.ie/6167877
‘Former Stardust manager tells inquest he regrets ‘converting that factory into a nightclub', The Journal, 28th September 2023.
Foy, Ken, Phelan, Shane & Wrona, Adrianna, ‘Stardust inquest: Gardaí will review coroner’s report ‘at highest level’ before decision on any criminal charges’, Irish Independent, 19th April 2024.
Hegarty, O. (2015), Stardust Remembered: Building Control is about Protecting Life, Not Property
Holland, Kitty, ‘Stardust: ‘I am the mother of William McDermott, Marcella and George who I loved very much’, Irish Times, 11th May 2023.
‘How Eamon Butterly tried and failed to remove ‘unlawful killing’ as a verdict at Stardust inquests’, The Journal, 18th April 2024.
Hunt, Conor, ‘Stardust victim not just a number, inquest hears’, RTÉ, 10th May 2023.
https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2023/0510/1382796-stardust-inquest-mahon/
Hunt, Conor, ‘Woman who escaped Stardust describes scenes as ‘mayhem’, RTÉ, 23rd January 2023.
https://www.rte.ie/news/stardust/2023/0623/1390816-stardust-inquest/
‘Jury not permitted to determine unborn baby as 49th victim of Stardust fire’, The Journal, 8th April 2024.
Keane, D. (2003), Building & the Law, Gandon Editions
Kerr, A., ‘Stardust report a ‘victory for the dead: Families hail the end of 28-year campaign for justice’, Irish Independent, 24/1/2009
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/stardust-report-a-victory-for-the-dead-26508296.html
Moore, Christy, ‘They Never Came Home’, YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zpbGz0F2mQ
Primetime Investigates: Stardust Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tImV1U8pYHI
‘Stardust doorman rejects claim that he blamed patrons for not being able to exit nightclub’, The Journal, 6th July 2023.
‘Stardust families 'have waited longer than Moses in the desert without justice', inquest told’, The Journal, 8th March 2024.
https://jrnl.ie/6321652
‘Stardust Fire’, Wikpedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_fire
‘Stardust floor manager thought fire was deliberately started so people could 'rob the bars', The Journal, 22nd June 2022.
‘Stardust inquest hears former doorman said victims couldn't escape because 'doors were chained', The Journal, 12th September 2023.
‘Stardust inquests: Jury determines fire started in hot press and was caused by electrical fault’, The Journal, 18th April 2024.
‘Stardust management failed to comply with 16 by-laws, inquest told’, The Journal, 31st January 2024.
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‘Recognizing Flashover Conditions Can Save Your Life’, U.S. Fire Administration, 5th May 2020.
https://www.usfa.fema.gov/blog/cb-050520.html
Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry on the fire at the Stardust, Artane on the 14th February, 1981