Courts

Stardust jury not permitted to find unborn baby was 49th victim of fire

Coroner says such a ruling would be outside the scope of the fresh inquest

The jury at the Stardust inquest at Dublin Coroner's Court is considering its verdict. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
The jury at the Stardust inquest at Dublin Coroner's Court is considering its verdict. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Mon Apr 08 2024 - 18:47

The Stardust inquest jury have been told that they cannot make any determination on an unborn baby being the 49th victim of the fire.

“You can only make determinations in relation to the 48 persons who lost their lives,” coroner Dr Myra Cullinane informed the jury in the Dublin District Coroner’s Court.

The jury were on the fourth day of their deliberations into the cause of death of the young people who died in a fire at the Stardust nightclub in Artane in the early hours of February 14th, 1981.

Dr Cullinane was delivering her answer to a question that the jury asked last Friday.

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Saying she was not going to identify the deceased person being referred to, Dr Cullinane said that, in relation to one of the deceased who was in the early stages of pregnancy, the jury had asked whether they could make a determination on the 49th victim of the fire.

Dr Cullinane said the attorney general had directed her to host fresh inquests pertaining to the 48 that were first held in 1982 and it was therefore outside her remit to enlarge the scope in any way. “You can only make determinations in relation to the 48 persons who lost their lives,” she told the jury.

The coroner said that if, as was heard in evidence, one of those deceased persons was in the early stages of pregnancy, the jury have an opportunity to record this formally on the individual questionnaire as it pertains to that individual deceased.

She said that this might be an addendum to question three on the individual questionnaire that the jury must answer in relation to each of the victims, a question that relates to the cause of death.

While the fact of pregnancy did not give rise to death, Dr Cullinane said that the jury might make a note that the deceased was in the early stages of pregnancy.

“So, the answer is no, you won’t be able to enlarge the number of victims formally in that way,” Dr Cullinane told the jury.

The jury were previously told that it is their role to determine the identity, date and place of death and the circumstances surrounding the death of each of the 48 victims.

They must also record a verdict in relation to the deaths. They were told that the verdicts they can return are accidental death, death by misadventure, an open verdict, a narrative verdict and unlawful killing.

The jury will resume their deliberations in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital on Tuesday.