Inquests into the deaths of 48 people, aged 16-27, in the Stardust nightclub inferno 42 years ago resumed on Monday with further accounts of panic among those trying to escape, locked exits and conflicting statements described as “calculated” to mislead.
Dublin coroner Dr Myra Cullinane reopened the hearings saying there remained a “significant” amount of evidence and witnesses to be heard. The first of four modules is continuing with manager of the Stardust venue, Eamon Butterly, expected to appear on September 19th.
Currently staff and managers are being heard, with patrons and members of the public who saw the fire in the second module. Emergency responders will comprise the third module and expert witnesses the fourth modules.
Though inquests were heard in 1982, each lasted about 15 minutes and returned only medical causes of death. The current inquests, being heard concurrently, were ordered by then attorney general Séamus Woulfe in 2019 on the grounds that the earlier ones had made “no reference to the surrounding circumstances”. Both the families and the wider public were entitled, he said, “to the public revelation of the facts”.
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The 14-person jury heard evidence from unavailable witnesses, read into the record, on Monday. Frankie Downes, a doorman on the night, was 34 at the time and has since died.
In his first Garda statement made at Coolock station, at 5.45pm on February 14th, 1981, he said: “Before the disco starting one of the door staff opened all exits leading from the Stardust club.” Hours previously he and colleagues had been summoned to a meeting at the Stardust venue to meet the solicitor acting for manager, Eamon Butterly.
On February 20th, 1981, however, he told gardaí: “I now wish to say I did not see a doorman opening the padlocks to remove the chains from the bars on the exits. I did not see any doorman detailed or issued with a set of keys to open the padlocks on the exit doors.”
At the 1981 tribunal of inquiry into the disaster, chaired by Mr Justice Ronan Keane, Paddy McEntee SC, for bereaved families and many of the injured, put it to Mr Downes that his February 14th statement had been “calculated to be extremely misleading”. *
Asked whether his February 14th statement was “true”, Mr Downes told Mr McEntee: “I was after going through the most horrific experience of my life. I was totally shattered.” He said “time” had revived his memory about the condition of exit doors.
Retired priest Fr Dermot McCarthy (82), in a statement to gardaí in June this year, said he had been a member of the All Priests Show, a troupe of musical clergy who did charity gigs in the early 1980s.
He described doing a gig at Stardust the Thursday before the disaster, and trying to leave early through a backstage exit.
“When I got to the door I couldn’t believe it. There were chains on the door that were locked. I couldn’t open the chains to open the door. There was some kind of lock on it. I tried for a few minutes, maybe five minutes at least, to open the chains.” He was “embarrassed” as he had to exit by passing the front of the stage while the show continued and was “angry” the door was locked.
“I can still see that door in my mind ... the push bars with chains on them,” he said to gardaí.
Gerard McMahon, 19 at the time, was helping the DJs on the night. He told gardaí he was pushed into toilets by a surging crowd. He took off his coat, soaked it in a sink and put it over his mouth.
“The girls were splashing water into their mouths. We were there for about 15 minutes. Just at the point of collapse a fireman forced in the door and saved us. We could not leave the toilet as the smoke outside was so thick it was choking us. The firemen showed us the way out. When I got out I started to get sick. I was later taken to Dr Steven’s hospital.”
* This article was amended on October 11th 2023 to correct an error
