Tonight is the 30th anniversary of the Stardust tragedy.

Run_to_da_hills

Tonight is the 30th anniversary of the stardust fire which broke out in the early hours of Valintines Day. I can vividly remember the time well when my old man came into my room at dawn and broke the news.

Vienna from ultravox was no 2 in the Irish charts back then, every time to this day when I hear this track it reminds me of this incident.

RIP to those 48 people that died in this tragedy least we forget.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0213/stardust.htm

Crea

I remember watching the tv on the Saturday and they announced it. I was 10 and remember thinking of the peoples terror at being trapped and not being able to get out. It's so awful that so many young people died and others health were affected for years and them and their families still haven't had justice.

Einhard

How haven't they had justice?

Celly Smunt

last night a DJ saved my life

2ygb4cmqetsjhx

Heard many people saying there was no justice on the radio today? What are they talking about? I'm way too young to remember this? Who was responsible?

bonerm

Liberty Dirty Weekend wrote: »

Heard many people saying there was no justice on the radio today? What are they talking about? I'm way too young to remember this? Who was responsible?

IIRC the fella who ran the place got off with a fine and a slap on the wrist. The familes wanted him to do time.

2ygb4cmqetsjhx

bonerm wrote: »

IIRC the fella who ran the place got off with a fine and a slap on the wrist. The familes wanted him to do time.

But was he responsible for the fire or what?

Celly Smunt

Liberty Dirty Weekend wrote: »

But was he responsible for the fire or what?

locking the fire escape doors

starbelgrade

Liberty Dirty Weekend wrote: »

Heard many people saying there was no justice on the radio today? What are they talking about? I'm way too young to remember this? Who was responsible?

It was suspected at the time that it was arson, but this was never proved.

The owners were exonerated by the courts, even though the building had many flagrant disregards for Fire Safety Regulations.

I suspect that this is why the families say that justice was never served as no-one was ever held accountable.

copacetic

sad day.

Christy Moore wrote this song about it, which was then banned in good old Ireland.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcizhnIU2lI

Run_to_da_hills

starbelgrade wrote: »

It was suspected at the time that it was arson, but this was never proved.

The owners were exonerated by the courts, even though the building had many flagrant disregards for Fire Safety Regulations.

I suspect that this is why the families say that justice was never served as no-one was ever held accountable.

THe owners actually got £580,000 in compensation from the council for property damage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_fire

starbelgrade

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

THe owners actually got £580,000 in compensation from the council for property damage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_fire

A previous employee of theirs has recently just sued them succcessfuly for €60k for unpaid wages...

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/stardust--owners-pay-out-836460000-in-wage-case-1270195.html

It appears that they were paying him around €3 an hour - well below the minimum wage.

A fairly nasty family, by all accounts.

Celly Smunt

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.

too easy to make a pun about,just can't troll that shít man

Run_to_da_hills

pmcmahon wrote: »

too easy to make a pun about,just can't troll that shít man

Removed

Luke G

For anyone who doesn't know, The families, victims & survivors of the Stardust Tragedy have never gotten their justive because NOBODY Has ever been held accountable for the deaths of 48 young people & The serious injuries of around 300 others,

The owners of the Stardust Eamon & Patrick Butterly were well connected with the Fianna Fail / Charlie Haughey cronies & Were NEVER brought to justice for their reckless disregard for human life & the safety of their patrons
by the locking of Fire Exit doors (Apparently to stop people sneaking in without paying the £3 admission fee) & The Steel sheets & bars welded to the toilet windows which also contributed to the high death toll
(Apparently to stop alcohol being smuggled into The Stardust)


''We were all Fianna Failers" Butterly said in his memoirs.

He even goes so far as to concede that "what you had these people for, was to help get things....If you wanted to know something about your business or you wanted someone who could do something you didn't get the answers by writing into the papers, you asked these people.

The Butterlys were awarded just under £600,000 (Around 3 Million in todays terms) compensation for malicious damages in 1983 because the tribunal found that the cause of the blaze was 'Probable Arson' whilst the Victims Families, Bereaved, Survivors & Those effected by the Tragedy had to wait until 1987 for compensation with most payments being under £10,000.

In 2008 the 'Probable Arson' verdict was removed because there was NEVER any evidence to support this & it was a mere Hypothetical conclusion (Butterly still got his compensation)!!!!!

IT SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED THAT NEITHER THE STATE OR THE GOVERNMENT OF THIS COUNTRY HAVE EVER APOLOGISED FOR THE STARDUST TRAGEDY IN WHICH 48 YOUNG PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES.

MAY THEY ALL REST IN PEACE.....

admiralofthefleet

my mam was meant to be there that night but she was ill after having me 11 days previous. she knew a lot of the people who died. the tragedy is still very raw for people in coolock, artane, edenmore and the north east of dublin

johnmcdnl

I wasn't born til long after this but I can only imagine what it was like for anyone there... 48 young people killed because the fire exits were locked??
I can't understand how the owners got away without doing some serious time...

why were they locked?? - I'm assuming it was to stop people sneaking in the fire exits for free..

RIP to all the victims

Lily10

My aunt died in that. Valentines day is still an awful day for my granmother and it still seems to be so raw still. Oh the stories you would hear over the years, screaming parents packed into store street trying to get a list of the dead and injured from the gards. Apparently it took a few days to find out if your kid was injured or dead. My grandmother went out to the disco the night off to try find her only to find rows of covered dead bodies, she said she'll never forget the smell of burned flesh in the air.

Run_to_da_hills

Hopefully if another party get into power other than Fianna Fail the can open up this case again and offer a national apology on behalf of the state.

The Butterley family should NEVER have been allowed planning permission for anything other than a park of remembrance for those that died on this site.

Kasabian

I remember getting up to watch Anything Goes, a real treat on a Saturday Morning and there was a Newsflash with this story. It terrified me at the time and I remember my Mum hiding the tears in her eyes from us.

May all be resting in peace.

Luke G

Just a reminder folks, There's a candle lit vigil at the site of the stardust (butterly business park) tonight at 8.30 - 11.30

STIG83

RIP to all the victims

Corsendonk

starbelgrade wrote: »

It was suspected at the time that it was arson, but this was never proved.

The owners were exonerated by the courts, even though the building had many flagrant disregards for Fire Safety Regulations.

I suspect that this is why the families say that justice was never served as no-one was ever held accountable.

There was always political rumours about the family that owned the venue. They were heavily involved with a certain political figure who liked expensive shirts.

jackiebaron

Liberty Dirty Weekend wrote: »

Heard many people saying there was no justice on the radio today? What are they talking about? I'm way too young to remember this? Who was responsible?

I believe the fire escapes were chained shut to prevent punters sneaking in. Also I think the decor of the place was highly inflammable...but then back then fire safety rules were a bit lax. Dunno if the foam seating was actually illegal.

Run_to_da_hills

jackiebaron wrote: »

I believe the fire escapes were chained shut to prevent punters sneaking in. Also I think the decor of the place was highly inflammable...but then back then fire safety rules were a bit lax. Dunno if the foam seating was actually illegal.

About eight years prior to the Stardust there was another fire in Dalkey which wiped out 11 members of the Howard family, the acrid fumes from the polyurethane foam filled sofa along with the material being highly inflammible were blamed for the deaths in this incident. Unfortunitally nothing was learned or done back then and it took another atrocity like the Stardust for the authorities to realize.

Fire regulations are still flouted throughout the country with overcrowding in niightclubs, In the States doormen keep a clicker and must monitor those going in and out, if the venue is full you wait outside until people leave.

Jake Rugby Walrus666

jackiebaron wrote: »

I believe the fire escapes were chained shut to prevent punters sneaking in. Also I think the decor of the place was highly inflammable...but then back then fire safety rules were a bit lax. Dunno if the foam seating was actually illegal.

The place was an all round **** hole - with dodgy electrics.

By inventing the lie of an 'Arsonist' it took the spotlight away from the condition of the premises and its fitness and safety to be open to the public.

coylemj

starbelgrade wrote: »

A previous employee of theirs has recently just sued them succcessfuly for €60k for unpaid wages...

'Recently'? It was three years ago according to that article, hardly recently.

coylemj

Jake Rugby Walrus666 wrote: »

The place was an all round **** hole - with dodgy electrics.

By inventing the lie of an 'Arsonist' it took the spotlight away from the condition of the premises and its fitness and safety to be open to the public.

No argument that fire regulations were nothing like they are now and I agree with an earlier poster that it took the Stardust to finally shake up the authorities. Sadly what also existed back then was rampant corruption in that public authorities who were supposed to impose and police standards were leaned on by the politicians in power to ignore breaches of food hygiene and fire safety regulations, it happened all over the country. That's why there used to be so many publicans in the Dail and it also explains why Michael McDowell's proposal for a 'cafe society' which would have loosened up the licensing regulations were flushed down the toilet by the publicans lobby who are still active in local politics all over the country.

Back in the 70s and 80s everyone went to nightclubs and saw the padlocked fire exits, we all knew that if they weren't padlocked that only one person in each group would pay to get in, then he'd let all his friends in through the fire exit.

On the suggestion that the arsonist was 'invented', can I point out that the tribunal was headed by Ronan Keane who had no axe to grind with the pub trade or the local residents. He held that arson was the 'most likely' cause of the accident, most people would have said that it was either arson or a cigarette butt carelessly thrown into an unoccupied part of the club on the night. The problem the Stardust committee have with this finding is that under the laws at the time the Butterly family were able to claim compensation for malicious damage from the local authority, they see this as rubbing salt in their wounds. Either way, the committee have had their hopes raised and dashed at various times over the years.

However there is an issue of significant public interest in what they are looking for which is to have the findings on the original inquiry set aside and the problem is that if that happens in the case of the Stardust, it can also happen in respect of any public inquiry ever held in this country. That means that if the tribunal investigating Michael Lowry and Denis O'Brien finds against them, they can go straight to the courts in an attempt to get those findings overturned and the whole process will start all over again. This is the 'appalling vista' scenario that binds the hands of any Government which attempts to give the Stardust committee what they are looking for.

Guy:Incognito

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Hopefully if another party get into power other than Fianna Fail the can open up this case again and offer a national apology on behalf of the state. .

There was another party in power , what, 5 months, after it happened. Presumably the investigation was still ongoing at that stage?



Are FF the new Godwin?

PrincessLola

pmcmahon wrote: »

locking the fire escape doors

:eek: He what??
How could he??:(
This was years before I was born, so I don't know anything about it, but wow, so sad RIP.

Sheeps

i dont care about the stardust disaster. its a relic of the past


MOD EDIT: Poster banned.

Kersh

There was another party in power , what, 5 months, after it happened

Yes, FG I think, led by Garret Fitzgerald.

As far as I remember He promised the families compensation if they dropped all other legal avenues. In the end the survivors got pretty much nothing, as well as having to bear their scars to a panel in order to be assessed.

Turtyturd

Always remember my Da talking about how him and my Uncle were supposed to go to this but changed their minds at the last minute because they couldn't get ties and didn't think they would be allowed in. Kinda strange to think about what could have been.

Other than that I have no memory of the incident but such a horible thing to happen.

Run_to_da_hills

Sheeps wrote: »

i dont care about the stardust disaster. its a relic of the past

May be for you it's a relic of the past but it's certainly not for those that have lost loved ones and at the same time had salt thrown in their wounds by not seeing any justice done over the matter.

BaZmO*

Sheeps wrote: »

i dont care about the stardust disaster. its a relic of the past

I don't get comments like that. Fair enough that it means nothing to you but why feel the need to be a dick by dismissing it as a relic? If you don't care, don't post.

Orando Broom

PrincessLola wrote: »

:eek: He what??
How could he??:(
This was years before I was born, so I don't know anything about it, but wow, so sad RIP.

This was commonplace in Ireland.

Orando Broom

Sheeps wrote: »

i dont care about the stardust disaster. its a relic of the past

You should. It is a pivotal moment in Irish social history. It is a microcosm of so many social ills and problems in Ireland of that time and since. It highlights the ineptitude and corruption in official Ireland. The cover up culture as well as the blackguard culture that manifests itself daily in the scummers you see patrolling the streets of this city. Guards and Firemen were attacked and beaten by mobs (albeit a minority, but nonetheless) outside whilst fighting the fire.

The Butterley's got away scot free and given official sanction to continue trading without the merest hint towards what had previously happened. Successive governments carpetbagged the issue in the hope that the noisy people of North Dublin would just shut up and put up.


Stardust should never be forgotten, it was a tragedy that reverberated throughout this island and it could have been any one of a hundred dancehalls the lenght and breath of the country.

To see it;'s impact make that statement to your mother or father and see how you get on.

df1985

Wasnt even born at the time but its a scary thought for 48 young people from one general area to be wiped out in one incident. In my head im imagining if that happened where Im from (Leixlip) in one of the local spots....everyone would know people involved and the area would be shellshocked to the core.

RIP.

Luke G

Sheeps wrote: »

i dont care about the stardust disaster. its a relic of the past

Keep your nasty Ignorance & Insensitivity to yourself mate ..or even better try fitting some of it up your hole that way nobody else can see it,

Guy:Incognito

Luke G wrote: »

Keep your nasty Ignorance & Insensitivity to yourself mate ..or even better try fitting some of it up your hole that way nobody else can see it,

Is that not what AH is for ? Or is that just for when celebrities people dotn like die?

starbelgrade

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Is that not what AH is for ? Or is that just for when celebrities people dotn like die?

There's a difference between slagging off a celebrity & making insensitive comments about people dieing horrific deaths in a blazing inferno.

I'm sure you know that already, but I just thought I'd point out the glibness of your post in case you didn't.

The Black Pearl

Sheeps wrote: »

i dont care about the stardust disaster. its a relic of the past

:eek: f'kin spastic

Steodonn

Before my time but my mother lived in artane> I remember her saying that she was thinking about going that but was busy with something.

RIP those who died

daysleeper

RTE did a surprisingly good dramatisation of the whole thing a few years ago but I can't find it anywhere on the internet... does anyone know if it's set to be on any time soon? or is it available to buy I wonder?
Here's a clip from it

Sunnyisland

Rip to the victims of this unnecessary tragedy,

On rte 1 now scannell.

Micky Dolenz

Sheeps banned for trolling.

amdublin

I'm watching Scannal on RTE one about it right now.

Shocking.

All those victims. Desperate. RIP

iMax

Two of my aunts went there that night, one with her boyfriend & his sister. In the queue to get in, they met another friend of theirs who was out celebrating her 19th birthday, fed up with waiting in the cold, the friend decided she was going to saints in Howth instead.

She tried to convince my aunts (age 17 & 19) & the boyfriend to go with them, to split the taxi because of the cost.

The following morning, my grandmother rang our house screaming down the phone that the two girls had gone to the stardust & hadn't come home & broke the news about the fire & all havoc broke out in our house. My mother was crying, my dad had tears in his eyes.

A neighbour was called to look after us (who were confused as can be because no-one would tell us anything). My mom & dad got dressed & kept trying to ring people to get information, but nobody could tell them anything.

Us kids were got dressed & we were walking out the door to go to the neighbours when my 17 year old aunt called out my sister's name (she was first out the door). The pair of them were walking down the road.

They'd decided as the taxi was pulling off with the friend in it to go to Howth instead, they then spent the night in the friends house after. They knew nothing about the events of the night before, they were coming to my mother's for breakfast as their friend lived two streets over.

My aunt's boyfriend's sister went in to meet her boyfriend. They both died.

RIP to them & the other 46.

cml387

I remember it well.
It was always an "interesting" fact for me that the inquiry was chaired by Justice Ronan Keane.
He was married to Terry Keane of whom you may have heard.
You may Google the names to join the dots.

coylemj

cml387 wrote: »

I remember it well.
It was always an "interesting" fact for me that the inquiry was chaired by Justice Ronan Keane.
He was married to Terry Keane of whom you may have heard.
You may Google the names to join the dots.

What has that got to do with anything?

For those among you trying to link him to Charlie Haughey because of the affair Haughey had with Terry Keane, Ronan Keane was appointed to the High Court in July 1979 when Jack Lynch was Taoiseach, to the Supreme Court in 1996 when John Bruton was Taoiseach and he was made Chief Justice in 2000 when Bertie Ahern was Taoiseach.

Sorry if this blows the conspiracy theories away.

cml387

coylemj wrote: »

What has that got to do with anything?

For those among you trying to link him to Charlie Haughey because of the affair Haughey had with Terry Keane, Ronan Keane was appointed to the High Court in July 1979 when Jack Lynch was Taoiseach, to the Supreme Court in 1996 when John Bruton was Taoiseach and he was made Chief Justice in 2000 when Bertie Ahern was Taoiseach.

Sorry if this blows the conspiracy theories away.

Such a small country it is,don't you think?