Stardust inquests: Senior doorman told his junior to leave emergency exits locked

A senior doorman at the Stardust nightclub, in which 48 young people died in a fire in February 1981, told a junior doorman who was about to unlock the emergency exits that evening to leave them locked, inquests into the deaths have heard.

Leo Doyle, who was 33-year-old deputy head doorman at the time, said he could not remember if this was true, when the testimony of the junior doorman, Michael Kavanagh, was put to him.

Mr Kavanagh, who was 20 at the time, is due to give evidence in September.

Mr Doyle was giving evidence for a third day on Thursday at the inquests into the deaths of the 48 people, aged 16 to 27, in the inferno that engulfed the north Dublin venue in the early hours of February 14th, 1981. Fresh inquests are being held following a 2019 direction by the attorney general Séamus Woulfe.

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Jury in Stardust inquest

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During testimony that was at time confusing Mr Doyle rejected suggestions he was involved in a “conspiracy” with other doormen in the aftermath of the disaster to advance a narrative that all six emergency exits had been opened before the fire broke out.

[ Stardust fire: Doormen and management ‘conspired’ to tell gardaí ‘untruths’, inquests hear ]

He also said he had no memory of crucial events the week after the fire.

A complex series of event were put to him, from between 4am on the morning of Saturday 14th February 1981 when senior staff and doormen gathered outside the Stardust as it smouldered, and the 20th February when gardaí reinterviewed most doormen about the condition of the emergency exits on the night.

The jury was shown footage from RTÉ current affairs programme, Today Tonight, broadcast on Monday 16th February, in which Mr Kavanagh said he had unlocked all exit doors at about 9.30pm.

Bernard Condon, SC, for the families of ten of the dead, outlined how Mr Kavanagh, whose girlfriend Paula Byrnes (19) had died in the fire, told friends, the O’Tooles, the exits had in fact been locked.

The O’Tooles reported this to gardaí on Tuesday 17th February, said Mr Condon.

On the evening of the 18th, said Mr Condon, Mr Doyle and another doorman, PJ Murphy had called to Mr Kavanagh’s home. They prevailed on his father, Patrick Kavanagh, to urge his son to withdraw his garda statement that he had unlocked the doors. They told him, said Mr Condon, head doorman Tom Kennan had made a statement saying he had unlocked the doors.

Mr Doyle said on Thursday he had no memory of this encounter with Mr Kavanagh’s father.

“I am suggesting Kavanagh was no longer useful to you because he was telling other people the doors were locked,” said Mr Condon. “So Kavanagh had to be got off the pitch and Kennan was ... to take his place to say he unlocked the doors. Do you understand that? And you were part of facilitating all of that. What do you say to that?

“I am telling the truth,” said Mr Doyle.

Mr Condon read from Mr Kavanagh’s garda statement, dated Thursday 19th February, 1981, in which he said: “I was wrong when I said I opened the fire exits or removed the chain binding both doors. The correct story is I collected the padlock keys of the exit doors ... at about 9pm and brought them with me to the front door ... At about 9.40pm that night I was about to go around the fire exit doors and unlock the chains and the padlocks when Leo Doyle, a head doorman, told me not to unlock them.”

Asked if this was “true”, Mr Doyle said on Thursday: “I don’t know”.

“So it is possible you did tell him not to unlock the doors that night. Is that correct?,” asked Mr Condon.

“I don’t know ... I am not saying it’s possible or it isn’t possible .. I am saying I don’t know. I can’t remember,” said Mr Doyle.

Mr Doyle reiterated repeatedly that his memory was of Mr Kavanagh saying on the night he had unlocked the doors, but he agreed his own evidence to gardaí on 20th February 1981 was that Mr Kennan had.

“I don’t where I got that mixed up,” he said. “I’m confused myself.”

Mr Condon asked Mr Doyle if he had heard the phrase, “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive”.

He had not. “I haven’t got your education,” he said.

“That’s a fair point,” replied Mr Condon. “It means that if you are going to tell lies you have to have a good memory. It means that when lies are being told left, right and centre it becomes almost impossible to know the start and the end of them. And that is the position I am suggesting you are in today ... because it has become so entangled and it was so entangled even at the time. Are you not prepared to accept that?

“No, I am not,” said Mr Doyle.

The witness resumes his evidence on Friday.