Stardust inquests will not hear full evidence of two witnesses while third cannot be located

Two significant witnesses at the Stardust inquests whose evidence was cut short earlier in proceedings will not return to complete their testimony, while a third cannot be located, Dublin Coroner’s Court heard on Tuesday.

Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane told the jury neither John Furley nor Gabriel O’Neill, former doormen at the north Dublin nightclub where 48 people were killed in a fire in the early hours of February 14th, 1981, would return to face further questioning by counsel and should be regarded as “part heard”.

Separately Graham Whitehead, secretary of the Bradford-based company Illingworth and Co, which provided the carpet tiles that lined the Stardust’s internal walls and which the inquests have heard played a key role in the rapid spread of the fire, could not be located, the inquest was told.

Testimony from Mr O’Neill and Mr Whithead at the 1981 tribunal of inquiry into the disaster, chaired by Mr Justice Ronan Keane, was read into the court record on Tuesday.

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Mr Whitehead’s 1981 testimony conflicts with that given in June by former salesman Declan Conway, who sourced the tiles in 1978.

Mr Conway worked at the time for Bernard McLoughlin Ltd – the Dublin agent for Illingworth. He told the inquests he had obtained a fire-safety certificate for the tiles from Illingworth. He said Eamon Butterly was then overseeing conversion of the Scott’s Foods factory in Artane, owned by his father, the late Patrick Butterly, into a nightclub and was interested in the tiles for the walls. He would not order them until he got a fire safety certificate, he added.

Mr Conway said Illingworth were aware the tiles were to be used to line internal walls.

Mr Whitehead, however, told the Keane tribunal in 1981, the tiles were never intended for use on walls and Illingworth had no knowledge this was their intended use in the Stardust. He said in 1981 an order for 2,899 “Stateroom” model carpet tiles in Buckingham red passed through Illingworth’s credit control on January 24th, 1978 and February 17th, 1978.

He said a letter had been sent to Mr Conway on January 25th, 1978, enclosing the “results of the flammability test on standard production qualities as requested”. The flammability test was for the tiles “laid on floors” and was not a fire-certificate, said Mr Whitehead. It was issued “for information”.

The inquests have heard a condition of planning permission for the Stardust was that all internal wallcoverings should meet a fire-safety standard known as class 1 surface spread of flame rating but that the carpet tiles had a class 3 at best.

Mr Whitehead told the Keane tribunal the Stateroom tile range was being withdrawn from market in 1978. “We were jobbing it off and we had another tile on the market to take its place,” said Mr Whitehead. The list price had been £1.28 per tile but they had been reduced to 75p each.

Dr Cullinane told the jury that Mr Furley, a 23-year-old doorman at the time of the fire, gave evidence over days three days in July and had been questioned by counsel for the inquests. During questioning by counsel for families of the dead, Dr Cullinane “formed the opinion that the witness appeared physically unwell” and stood him down, she said.

Since then, Mr Furley had provided medical reports and she was “satisfied that the witness should be stood down permanently”, she said.

Mr Furley, who had faced robust questioning about his knowledge of an apparent policy to keep exits locked until at least midnight on disco nights, his assertion he opened exit five “easily” when patrons were kicking and banging at it on the night of the blaze, omissions from his statement to Mr Butterly’s solicitor the day after the fire, and contradictions in his five Garda statements, should regarded as a “part-heard witness” said Dr Cullinane.

Mr O’Neill, a 28-year-old doorman at the time, would not be completing his evidence started in September over Zoom. It was cut short due to a scheduling issue and he later told the inquests he would not return. As he lives outside the State, he could not be summoned, said Dr Cullinane.

The inquests heard Mr O’Neill had initially told gardaí in 1981 that exit five was unlocked when the fire broke out, but later “had second thoughts” and decided to “tell the true story” the inquests heard. He had been working at the club for about a month on the night of the fire.

His testimony to the Keane tribunal was read into the record on Tuesday.

In his 1982 report Mr Justice Keane said: “Mr O’Neill’s initial attempt to mislead the Gardaí cannot be in any way due to the form of the questions put to him, nor was it due to his being physically or emotionally distressed in the immediate aftermath of the fire. In these circumstances, the Tribunal has ... had to treat Mr O’Neill’s evidence with great reserve.”

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