Vindication at last

‘The Last Disco - the Story of the Stardust Tragedy’ 

By Seán Murray, Christine Behan and Nicky Ryan. 

Published by Eriu.

Bridget McDermott, the mother, now in her eighties, who lost three children in the Stardust tragedy, brings to mind the lines from Máirtín Ó Díreáin’s poem:

Nochtaíodh domsa tráth

Dínit mór an bhróin…

Once I was shown

The great dignity of sorrow…

The bereaved and survivors of this tragedy have borne their sorrow with great dignity for 43 years. Another mother, Gertrude Barrett, who lost her son Michael, was the first to give a pen picture at the resumed inquests in 2023: 

“Like a tornado, the Stardust fire ripped through the core of our beings, wreaking havoc and utter devastation in its wake, leaving nothing untouched, be it our homes, our lives, our relationships, our education, our future, our outlook on life. Our everything. Nothing was ever the same again.” 

The final vindication for the families, after campaigning for all those years, came last April when the jury in the new inquests on the 48 dead returned the verdict of unlawful killing. I can only imagine the relief and joy of the families on that day in the Rotunda Pillar Room when the verdict was announced after the year-long inquests. 

The importance of that verdict cannot be over-stated. It meant that the deaths of 48 young people were not simply accidental but resulted from acts of neglect and omission, by private individuals and by the State, which put their lives in danger and which, ultimately took their lives on 14 February 1981. 

The Stardust owner Éamon Butterly was exposed at the inquests in his futile effort to evade his responsibility for locking emergency exits. He went to the High Court to try to prevent the coroner from offering the unlawful killing verdict as one of the options open to the jury. He failed. So did the executive of Dublin City Council which, quite disgracefully, also tried to get the unlawful killing verdict ruled out.

This book tells the story of the fire, the long campaign for justice, and how that campaign finally succeeded. The role of solicitor Darragh Mackin and Phoenix Law in Belfast in advising the families to go the inquest route was crucial. So also was the campaigning role of Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan in helping the families to successfully push the Government to grant the inquests. 

The best chapters are those that give a succinct but gripping account of the inquest hearings. Successive legal figures and Government ministers failed the families. It was a jury of citizens that vindicated them, something that should underline for everyone the importance of juries in the justice system.

This is not the first book on the Stardust disaster. Due recognition should be given to the excellent ‘They Never Came Home - The Stardust Story’ by Neil Fetherstonhaugh and Tony McCullagh, published in 2001 (The Stardust tragedy - have we learned the lessons? | An Phoblacht). But the present book brings it right up to date. The next phase is to ensure that the jury’s recommendations on fire safety in this country are fully implemented.