Stardust disaster

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The Stardust disaster refers to a fatal fire which took place at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin, Republic of Ireland in the early hours of February 14, 1981. 841 people had attended the disco: 48 died and 214 were injured as a result of the fire.

1 The incident
2 Aftermath
3 They Never Came Home
4 2006 television drama
5 Prime Time
6 Publications
7 External links

[edit] The incident

The fire was first noticed inside the building at 1:41 am on the morning of Valentine's Day while the club was still full from the night before. It was believed to have been started by a slashed seat cover allowing a flame, possibly from a cigarette, to ignite the foam beneath, however to this day the question of arson has still not been ruled out by investigators. Paper decorations for the impending Valentine's Night celebrations also ignited, causing the entire building to catch fire.

The attendees at both the disco, and a trade union function also in the building, had to make their escape. Some of the main fire exits were locked with padlocks and chains. Other fire exits simply had chains draped about the push bars. A large number of people attempted to escape through the men's toilets but the windows there had metal plates fixed on the inside and iron bars on the outside. Seven people died in the toilets while the fire services attempted to rescue them.

[edit] Aftermath

In total, 48 people, all young, died in the fire. The community which most of them came from, Artane, was devastated, with many people being in some way affected.

A tribunal of inquiry under Mr. Justice Ronan Keane concluded in November 1981 that the fire was probably caused by arson. This finding legally exonerated the owners from responsibility. However, the inquiry was damning in its criticism of their safety standards.

The families of the victims and survivors fought in the courts for compensation, accountability, and, in their eyes, justice. The owners, the Butterly family, were nevertheless free to pursue their own claim for compensation against the city because of the arson finding and were eventually awarded IR£580,000.

Despite some legal recognition and financial compensation gained after a struggle which lasted five years, the relatives and victims are unable to close this chapter of their lives and there are regular calls to re-open the inquiry.

The aftermath led to a huge number of recommendations being made in relation to fire safety. Comparisons were made to the Summerland disaster of 1973 in the Isle of Man and the lessons learned in that jurisdiction.

However, some basic rules, such as the provision of fire extinguishers and fire exits being left unblocked and obviously posted, which have been implemented, could probably have prevented any deaths if they had existed at the time.

In 2006 the lessee and manager of the Stardust at the time of the fire, Eamon Butterly, planned to re-open licenced premises on the site of the Stardust on the 25th anniversary. Described as "insensitive", this action occasioned protests by the victims' families and their supporters. The protests lasted for 10 weeks and ended when the Butterly family agreed to erect a memorial on the site, and change the name of the pub from "The Silver Swan" to the "Artane House".

[edit] They Never Came Home

In July 1985, Irish folk singer Christy Moore was found guilty of contempt of court after writing and releasing a song, entitled They Never Came Home, about the plight of the Stardust fire victims, seemingly damning the owners of the nightclub and the government. It contained the following lines:

In a matter of seconds confusion did reign.

The room was in darkness, fire exits were chained.

and

Hundreds of children are injured and maimed,

and all just because the fire exits were chained.

Because it appeared to imply that the obstruction of the exits was solely responsible for the deaths and injuries, the song was banned and removed from the Ordinary Man album it had appeared on. As the album had just been released, it had to be withdrawn from circulation and re-issued with Another Song is Born in its place. Early versions of this album are considered rare and collectable.

The lyrics of the song are still "banned" in Ireland as libelous. Christy Moore was prosecuted, although he has since been known to sing the song on occasion.

This song was played for 10 weeks outside the "Silver Swan" as part of the protest over the re-opening of the pub in 2006. It was played every night from 6pm until 8pm whilst the families and supporters demonstrated in front of the filling station. The song was reputedly played for so long that three tapes failed, leading the protesters to use a CD player, which failed after eight days. They then resorted to an MP3 player (connected to an amplifier), which lasted for the duration of the protest before failing a week later.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 2006 television drama

In 2006 Ireland's national broadcaster, Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), caused controversy by producing a docu-drama about the Stardust disaster, entitled Stardust, to mark the 25th anniversary of the incident. Many families of victims have objected to this and were upset by the painful memories it brought up. A preview of this drama was shown to relatives in early February 2006 and after some minor changes was broadcast on February 12 and 13, 2006.

[edit] Prime Time

An edition of Prime Time, RTÉ's current affairs programme, broadcast on February 14, 2006, cast doubts on some of the findings of the original tribunal. The programme produced witnesses who were outside the building on the night. Some outside saw fire coming from the roof up to eight minutes before those inside did. New evidence concerning the building's contents and layout was also presented. Important details were also shown regarding the actual location of a store room containing flammable materials and cleaning agents. The document plan of the building which the tribunal used, and which was critical to its findings, was shown to be confusingly flawed by locating the store room on the wrong level. A re-enactment of the fire suggested that it did not happen as the tribunal had found. The conclusions of the show were that the fire started in the roofspace where the store room was located and had already spread across the main nightclub area before those inside were aware of it. If this is true, the original finding of "probable arson" is in doubt.