Christine keegan RIP

I was a teenager at the time of the tragedy and I clearly remember the sense of disbelief, shock and later anger in the country. As Wibbs said, an awful waste of life.
For a long time after Stardust I remember always checking the exits at discos and nightclubs on a night out.

My mam was supposed to go to stardust that night with one of her friends, My mam worked in the Mater at the time and was called to come into work at dinner time. Later in the evening, the ambulances kept pouring into the mater and she didn't know what had happened. What she recalled seeing and what she remembers hearing is still harrowing for her. It was only later on in the night that she became aware of what had happened. The friend she was supposed to go with ended up joining up and going to the dance with another crowd. Carol Bisset. She died that night. It still put the shakes into the mother when that could well have been her. All these later she still speaks about her.

RIP Christine Keegan.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

That’s what happened here. Shîtloads of statements corroborated the doors were chained and padlocked closed. The fire outbreak is believed to have derived from an electrical fault in the room beside the roof space. This non planning permission compliant first-floor storage room contained dangerously flammable materials, including 45 five-gallon drums of cooking oil.

I’d love to hear the reasoning from say some retired Garda close to what happened to the investigation ..tell us how the fûck nobody got done for that... if I was a Garda at the time and after that tragedy and my superiors attempt to corrupt the investigation and themselves break the law... even if the majority of Gardai were in self preservation mode... there had to have been some with a moral compass, who under those circumstances would say... “you know what, I’m not partaking in this cover up..I’m out, with the truth and out of the Gardai”

I was 8 when the Stardust happened (about a mile from where I lived then). I remember going into my parent’s room the next morning and them asking me if I heard the sirens. I didn’t, but they kept them up all night. My mum knew a couple of families that had kids that were there that night - thankfully they all survived.

Christine Keegan was a tireless fighter for justice. It’s a shame she never saw it. May she rest in peace.

The cover up was so great that even Christy Moore writing a song about it was banned. Like, seriously, how do people live with themselves?

JupiterKid wrote: »

I can imagine that 1981 was a horrible year to be a young adult in Ireland.

To be fair, there were very few young adults left in Ireland in those days - only the ones with womb to tomb jobs or in school.

At the time of the Stardust fire, I was working in Germany as a chambermaid (that's how old I am... no accommodation assistant title for me). There were quite a few Irish over there at the time. The day after the fire, I remember one of the Dublin girls getting a phone call on the public coin box phone in the staff accommodation and coming back up to the rooms in floods of tears telling us what had transpired. It was the first we'd heard of it. Now you'd know about it as soon as the smoke was spotted but back then especially abroad and in a country with a language we didn't really speak and no access to current Irish news it was all word of mouth.

We were all upset. Ireland was much smaller in those days and most of us knew people who could have been there or were there even if we didn't come from Dublin. A few of the girls went home over the next few days.

Strumms wrote: »

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

That’s what happened here. Shîtloads of statements corroborated the doors were chained and padlocked closed. The fire outbreak is believed to have derived from an electrical fault in the room beside the roof space. This non planning permission compliant first-floor storage room contained dangerously flammable materials, including 45 five-gallon drums of cooking oil.

I’d love to hear the reasoning from say some retired Garda close to what happened to the investigation ..tell us how the fûck nobody got done for that... if I was a Garda at the time and after that tragedy and my superiors attempt to corrupt the investigation and themselves break the law... even if the majority of Gardai were in self preservation mode... there had to have been some with a moral compass, who under those circumstances would say... “you know what, I’m not partaking in this cover up..I’m out, with the truth and out of the Gardai”

What are you on about? The Tribunal came up with a verdict on what was brought to it. One local head went on to the news and said he had driven a car in to one of the doors despite the fact there was no door damaged by a car. The legislation that the Dublin Fire Brigade inspectors were working under was antiquated. Now a Fire Officer can inspect a place and close it down.

It's a real scandal to know that Christine & all of the victims still have not gotten proper justice over what happened at Stardust that night. I remember watching a harrowing documentary or film on that incident on TV before some years ago when I was a teenager. To realize that all of the victims still have to wait 40 years or more to have any sort of proper justice given is a slap in the face to all of their families who are still waiting for closure.

Christine had to fight against the state for a extremely long period of time to get any sort of justice for the victims including her own family.

It's really sad to hear that she died & won't get her day of proper recognition anymore. May she RIP.

Edgware wrote: »

What are you on about? The Tribunal came up with a verdict on what was brought to it. One local head went on to the news and said he had driven a car in to one of the doors despite the fact there was no door damaged by a car. The legislation that the Dublin Fire Brigade inspectors were working under was antiquated. Now a Fire Officer can inspect a place and close it down.

If you look back on the newreel footage from RTE from that horrific night there was a white van that was driven into the side of the Stardust building to try and smash open the barred windows and get those trapped inside out. The driver was also interviewed by the late Gay Byrne -I remember clearly that as he had done this himself his insurance was invalidated - no mercy from insurance companies even back then. He was totally traumatised by what he saw and didn’t care a toss about his van. Imagine watching screaming terrified teenagers and young people trapped inside barred windows behind a brick wall and the desperation of trying to help in any way.

The Butterly family - if you read book ‘They Never Came Home’ hd already had a pub/nighttclub in Lower Abbey Street where they had created an illegal disco in the basement that had been illegally made and was not compliant with even the basic fire regulations in those days. If I recall correctly they had twice been fined and ordered to
make changes/shut it down - and hadn’t.

The Butterly family than followed the model that had been financially successful for them and opened the Stardust - again - according to witnesess and staff workers - modifying the building illegally and not getting planning or fire certificate permissions for the changes. This was why it was subsequently argued that the WRONG layouts and floorplans were used in the original inquiry - the officials ignored the testimonials and made decisions and assumptions based on the legal planning permission floor-plans which did not take into account the illegal mezzanine floor that was created in a high heat and fire risk location and used illegally to store gallons of highly flamable floor cleaning fluids. Victims consistently reported the fire coming down in them from the cealing in this area.

Were it not for the tireless work of the Keegan family and all of the other families and people who bravely fought against an impenetrable legal and government system this simply would never have come out. Certainly assumptions and errors were made by the investigators - as well as extremely sloppy ‘investigative’ work as the family of the man with the unique dental bridge who was buried in an unnecassary unknown/ unidentifiable grave will also testify. Despite years of government ‘investigations’ and re-investigations this was found out by a volunteer decades later.

I have always said it and say it again - somebody, in the government or in official circles did sloppy work and is hiding it or knows something and is hiding it - there can be no other reason for putting these families through this hell for so many years and forcing them to fight to get inside a system to try and find out how it works so they can find a loophole to have their basic rights investigated.

RIP to all the victims of the Stardust, and may those that are still living with the horror and memories of that night and trauma somehow find peace.

py2006 wrote: »

Why isn't there a plaque or some even small memorial on the site?

The section of the building that was destroyed is now a car park and there should be something there.

Why would a family such as the Butterly family who owned it for decades, who never made any
kind of apology or showed any remorse, and who illegally had chains wrapped around the fire
doors and illegal unsafe building fines behind them want to remind anyone of their involvement . Lets face it ,this is the same Butterly family who opened a cocktail bar on the anniversary of the horrific fire in the same business park location and had a promotional half price cocktail called the Stardust. I remember reading about it in disbelief and seeing the traumatised victims and their families including the Keegans protesting outside in disbelief. This was on Valentines night not so many years ago , on the anniversary of the Stardust fire - 200+ mutilated and injured, 48 teenagers and young people killed and a mother whose teengers were at it, and had a heart attack and died when she heard.
Why would the Butterly family, who I believe own the house in the carpark of that estate, want to
remind people - I would’t cross the threshold of that business park to support any business who paid them rent and couldn’t in principle enjoy anything bought that supported, even in principle, that family - or businesses who were prepared to pay them rent. Blood money. Bought from the lives of young innocent teenagers and their families.

I believe some of that business park was put into NAMA some years ago. Nice to see our tax dollar is still bailing out and supporting the Butterley family. I guess the million pound back in 1981 when a million was worth about twenty million now, just wasn’t enough of our taxes to
give them.

I can absolutely understand how the Keegan family are unable to ‘let it go’ , or to
‘put what happened behind them’ as
people blithely say, and have spent their whole lives since highlighting the utter injustices and looking for answers for all the victims of the Butterly family and their Stardust teenage inferno.

py2006 wrote: »

Why isn't there a plaque or some even small memorial on the site?

The section of the building that was destroyed is now a car park and there should be something there.

The families did take it into their own hands (I assume it was taken down).

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