Closure.?

by across the miles - None Sun Mar 12, 2006 13:19

I was only two years old when the traghey at the stardust happened, I have lived in another country for the past ten years and my father played the Christy Moore song for me,"They never came home". I counldn't help but want to cry for the families that have never had any justice twenty-five years after the fact. Two of my uncles live down the street from were the stardust was and had to pull people out of the fire that night, just the story is unbelieveable. I have many people on this side of the world that think that there should be some kind of closure and justice for the 48 people and countless others who lost there lives or scared from that night.

by Robbie Sinnott Mon Feb 20, 2006 03:58

Very informative Katie. I'd know idea about the details of the FF-links, and I expect there's still a lot to be discovered.

I'm the same age as yourself, and the tragedy's anniversary brought me back to my first sense of real shock, terror, and empathy. I was incarcerated three miles away at the time, but even that place was numbed with the impact.

Despite our youth, the desolate bleakness that was Ireland seemed to pervade everything.

CJH was head of the banana republic, and ANCO (fore-runner to FÁS) wasn't able to cope with all the burgeoning unemployment. England or America were the only two ways out unless you knew someone. Having pull still gets you places, but this bleak: the Goths and New Romantics didn't help matters either.

As far as I can remember, the prejudice against the reputations of Coolock and Artane back then, was something like that of Tallaght today. It was put about that "gurriers" would be tryin' to get into the place; hence, the need to lock emergency exits until midnight.

On the night of the fire, 3 of the six exits were locked, and others appeared locked, so that people on first seeing, may have turned back to run in a different direction.

In the RTÉ docu-drama, the point is made that it would have cost Butterly an extra £50 per night to hire three bouncers and to leave all the doors unlocked. If properly implemented, most clubs, pubs and public spaces in Ireland would have had to fork out, or foot the bill for such extra employment and a massive insurance hike.

So, the pressure not to prosecute in lieu of findings of negligence may have been as much to do with pressures from the entertainment industry in general, as it had with Butterly.

Equally, if the dangerous building had been cause for a successful law suit, a lot of builders might have found themselves liable. Fianna Fáil being the Builders' Party, this was not going to happen, and looks unlikely even now.

The conclusion of probable arson possibly got a lot of others off the hook (as well as conveniently fitting the stereotype of the area).

Dublin Corporation Fire Department didn't have to explain why the Stardust, like many other night-clubs had never been checked out for fire safety. Gardaí didn't have to spend too much time on the technicality of a proper investigation (plus le change...).

This may not have been deliberate on their part. Evidence such as that given by Linda Bishop who felt heat near the west wing eight minutes before fire was spotted emanating from there; the people living in the vicinity who took photos of flames "the size of a house" leaping from the roof - three minutes before the fire was spotted in the west wing of the club; all this may have been overlooked because it was seen as an inexplicable anomaly.

What does suggest dishonesty rather than incompetence on the part of the garda investigation however, was the failure to report barmen having seen smoke coming from the store-room on previous occasions, or the statement by the electrician who had told Butterly in July 1980 (to no avail) to sort out the "arching" in the fuse-box of the store-room adjacent to the west wing.

At 7pm on the evening of Fri the 13th of February, a passing electrician spotted from the street outside, the lights dimming in the Stardust. He mentioned to a friend that there must be a short-circuit. If this information was given to gardaí, why was it not acted on?

The fact that relatives found it impossible to take private actions against Eamonn Butterly points a finger at the legal profession's susceptibility to corruption. The state was indeed rotten; and still is, I would contend.

McDowell refused to meet with the families, and Ahern is reticent on the matter. That Butterly got £600,000 compensation, and the families of the bereaved had to wait till 1987 to get paltry sums in state compensation after a humiliating process, is sick. it shows that our "democracy" acts in the interests of property, not the demos (people).

Despite the (undeserved) reputation of the area, the Stardust was no backwater dive. It was a relatively large enterprise which had seating for about 1,000 people, with all the wooden, cushioned seats facing the stage.

Gene Pitney opened the first (Saturday) night, and Cliff Richard even came once to do a four-minute promo and to receive an award of some sort.
Normally, on Saturdays the big Irish cover-bands of the day would play for the over-30s. One example of the insensitivity towards the families was the poster which remained up outside the Stardust for several months after the tragedy: "Playing Tonight (February 14th), Paddy Riley".

Most of what I'm writing just now comes from a friend of mine who attended an Indians gig one such Saturday, as well as several other events at the Stardust.
His abiding memory of the place was that it was "freezin'". I asked him about fire-exits, and he replied, "When I was there, I only knew one way out, and that was the way I came in". He can't even remember seeing the doors in the background; so it's remarkable that people did actually find these - even though half of them were locked - amidst all the smoke, fire and noise.

Friday nights were for the younger (ARD/257) set. On Friday night, February 13th 1981, the dj and promoter was Danny Hughes (aka "Jolishan"). K-tel (a record label devoted to compilations) were sponsoring a disco competition.

Around 500 attended, and the west wing was sectioned off by a flimsy blind/shutter setup. This meant that the fire wouldn't have been visible until the smoke had been smelt in the rest of the building (perhaps, a matter of some minutes).

If this is combined with Linda Bishop's recorded memory that she felt heat in the area at 1:33am (eight minutes before anyone inside knew there was a fire, this raises one question for me about the electrical fault theory - based more on my ignorance of circuitry than on an attempt to query the basis of the theory.

If a fire started in the fuse-box/store-room at about 1:31 am., why was their no electrical failing in the ballroom itself until 1:44 am. This is especially puzzling since onlookers from outside seen flames the size of a house shooting up (ostensibly) from that room at 1:38 am.