THE mother of a teenage boy who died in the Stardust has slammed the State’s “contempt” for families — as they finally ended a 43-year wait for answers yesterday.
Gertrude Barrett has been fighting for her son Michael, 17, since she spent four days in the City Morgue waiting to have him identified after the blaze which killed 48 and injured hundreds more in 1981.
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She told The Irish Sun: “I could feel it in the air, the contempt, the disdain. Everything about it, I was breathing it in.
“I knew exactly what I was taking on — the Irish State — because my child was not leaving the earth like that.
“There’s your number, number 38, body bag. Off you pop now and don’t bother anyone in authority again. Well, they had something else coming to them.”
Michael was one of the assistant DJs in the Artane, Dublin venue when the 1981 St Valentine’s Day disco fire resulted in one of the biggest tragedies in Irish history.
His mum Gertrude, now 80, has said she spent a harrowing four days going between Store Street Garda Station and the City Morgue looking for news about her son.
The teenager was eventually identified at 4.56pm on Tuesday, February 17, but his mother, who addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg in 2019, was disgusted then-Taoiseach Charlie Haughey was permitted to set up a tribunal within days of the disaster.
Now, following the completion of new inquests into the deaths of the 48, which took place in the Pillar Room at the Rotunda Hospital over the past year, Gertrude says she has still never been given any explanation about why Michael died or why she and other families were subjected to a heartless identification process in the morgue in the days that followed the fire.
She said: “I wanted to know why a politician was allowed set up a tribunal.
“Because if I’d been allowed follow the procedures of a democracy, I wouldn’t be in the Pillar Room today. I want to know why.
“I know how my son died. He was in a building that went on fire, he couldn’t get out of it, but I want to know why he couldn’t get out. I want questions answered.
“That’s why I’ve been on a mission and when you’re driven by desire there ain’t any boundaries.
“I knew before I left the City Morgue what I’d have to do for my son.”
Some 841 patrons had attended the Valentine’s disco in the Stardust on the night of February 13, 1981.
At about 1.40am on the 14th, a small fire was noticed in the west alcove of the club. Within minutes, the blaze had spread as DJ Colm O’Brien made an announcement to evacuate the building.
The lights then went off and patrons began to panic as they desperately tried to escape the burning building — but a number of locked or blocked exit routes prevented people getting out. Tragically, 48 people died in the horror blaze.
Gardai closed off the identification process on the following Tuesday evening and five victims remained unidentified until 2007 when they were exhumed and officially identified using modern DNA techniques.
There was nothing ever nice about the way Michael left the earth. The way you were treated never got any better, no morsel of counselling, never asked.”
Gertrude Barrett
Taoiseach Charlie Haughey announced a tribunal of inquiry in the week that followed the fire.
A first inquest, which lasted just three days, found the 48 young people, aged between 16 and 27, all died from smoke inhalation.
In 1982, the Keane Tribunal sat for 122 days, and when Mr Justice Ronan Keane eventually published his report on the tragedy, he declared that the cause of the blaze might never be known, but made a finding of “probable arson”.
Following this finding the club owner, Eamon Butterly, sued Dublin Corporation and he was awarded IR£580,000.
During the recent inquest, he insisted the emergency exits were all open, despite a number of his doormen saying they were locked by order of club management for a period during the evening.
Many survivors have testified that they couldn’t get out of the burning building because at least one emergency exit was chained.
A number of bodies were recovered inside the Stardust behind one door.
Since then, the families of the victims have fought a 43-year campaign to learn the truth of what happened to their loved ones.
They insisted that finding of ‘probable arson’ labelled every patron inside the building that night a possible arsonist and have carried those accusations over their head since 1981.
The inquest has since heard from experts that the likely cause of the blaze was an electrical fault.
Victims’ profiles
Out of the 48 people who lost their lives, 44 died in the fire and four later on, with 18-year-old Liam Dunne being the last recorded death occurring on March 11, 1981.
Some 214 people were injured, with 128 receiving serious injuries.
The ages of those who were killed in the fire ranged from 16 to 27, and in 23 cases the deceased were the eldest and sole breadwinner for their families.
Most of the dead came from Artane, Kilmore and greater Coolock, and half of them were aged 18 or younger, with four of the victims aged 16 and eight aged 17.
The fire was also linked to the attempted suicides of about 25 people in subsequent years.
The families of the victims and survivors fought in the courts for compensation, accountability, and justice since that day.
A scheme of compensation was set up in 1986, which paid out a total of £10.4million to 823 individuals.
Five people received £100,000 or more, 24 received slightly more than £50,000 and the majority of individuals received between £5,000 and £10,000.
Parents who lost a child in the disaster received a maximum sum of £7,500.
DECADES OF HELL – STARDUST TRAGEDY TIMELINE
FEBRUARY 14, 1981: A blaze rips through the Stardust nightclub, in Artane, north Dublin, killing 48 young people and injuring more than 200 others. It remains the worst fire disaster in the history of the State.
NOVEMBER 1981: A tribunal of inquiry into the tragedy, chaired by Mr Justice Ronan Keane, finds the blaze was “probably” caused by arson. The families reject the finding and start a decades-long campaign for a new inquiry.
MARCH 1982: Original inquests found that all 48 died from a combination of smoke inhalation and cyanide poisoning.
SEPTEMBER 1985: The government establishes a Compensation Tribunal to give ex-gratia payments to victims’ families and survivors. 823 people received just under £10.5million. The lives of the dead were valued at £7,500 each.
MARCH 2006: Campaigners march on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s office demanding new evidence be considered in a public inquiry.
APRIL 2007: The bodies of five victims — Richard Bennett, Michael French, Murtagh Kavanagh, Éamon Loughman and Paul Wade — are finally identified using DNA techniques.
JULY 2008: The Government appoints Paul Coffey SC to conduct an independent examination of the case for a reopened inquiry.
JANUARY 2009: The report rules out a new inquiry — but dismisses the probable arson verdict. Families declare a “victory for the dead”.
2013: Gardai open a criminal investigation into alleged perjury over evidence given by several witnesses at the 1981 tribunal.
FEBRUARY 2014: Two representatives of the Stardust families end a 24-hour occupation of Government Buildings after demanding to see then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
JANUARY 2016: The Director of Public Prosecutions says it will not mount a prosecution into alleged perjury by several witnesses at the 1981 tribunal.
FEBRUARY 2016: Families hold a protest at Dublin Coroner’s Court calling for the inquest into the 48 deaths to be reopened, saying they were given a cause of death but no verdict.
MARCH 2017: The Cabinet appoints retired judge Mr Justice Patrick McCartan to conduct a probe into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy and to rule whether a commission of investigation into the fire is warranted.
NOVEMBER 2017: Families reject the McCartan report’s recommendation that there should be no new inquiry, describing the tone of the report as “rude, aggressive and irrational” and they continue to demand a new inquest.
NOVEMBER 2018: Families say they have found new evidence and will petition the Attorney General for a new inquest. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tells the Dail the AG will give full consideration to their request.
FEBRUARY 14, 2019: On the 38th anniversary of the tragedy, a new plaque is unveiled at the site of the former Stardust nightclub, with the inscription “They Never Came Home”, and listing the names of the 48 dead.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: Attorney General Seamus Woulfe contacts families of the victims to say an inquest will be held because of an “insufficiency of inquiry” in original inquests.
APRIL 25, 2023: After delays caused by Covid and a judicial review taken by the club owner Eamon Butterly in the High Court, the new inquest finally begins in the Pillar Room at the Rotunda Hospital, in Dublin.
APRIL 18, 2024: Verdicts are announced after the longest inquest in the history of the State.
Survivors and the families of the victims were given the awards on the condition that they take no further legal action against anyone in relation to the blaze.
Speaking about the amount, Gertrude Barrett told The Irish Sun: “I couldn’t actually say that because I was told not to say it.
“And I said, ‘Can I tell my Mammy?’ ‘We’d prefer if you didn’t’. But I tell you something, it was an insult to injury.
“They came down to me, with a little piece of paper, about two inches by half an inch, and opened it like that and done that, that’s what you’re getting.
“And I said, ‘What if I don’t take it?’ ‘Oh well, if you end up going to court now you could lose everything, you could lose your home, you could lose this.’
“There was nothing ever nice about the way Michael left the earth. The way you were treated never got any better, no morsel of counselling, never asked.
“Nobody has turned my gate in 43 years and asked me, ‘How are you?’. ‘Did your children ever go to school, are they alive? Did they ever go back to school, did they ever do anything with their lives? Did they?’ Nothing.
“And what they did to the siblings, to me, is horrendous. They never gave a damn about us.”
Report findings
In 2009, senior counsel Paul Coffey published a report in which the finding of probable arson was officially set aside.
But he also found that there wasn’t enough evidence to support a new inquiry.
The McCartan Report in 2017 — written by retired Circuit Court judge Pat McCartan — also said that there were no grounds for a new inquiry.
But the families went on to employ Belfast firm Phoenix Law and in 2020 new inquests were officially announced after their legal representatives made a compelling case to the Attorney General.
It was delayed because of Covid, but finally got underway in the Pillar Room in the Rotunda Hospital in April of 2023.
Since then, the hearing has heard from the families of every victim, who delivered moving pen portraits on their lost loved ones, from survivors, eye-witnesses, first responders and from medical personnel.
They have heard expert pathology evidence on the cause of death of the 48 people, with the families battling hard to allow a jury consider a verdict of unlawful killing of their loved ones.
Club owner Mr Butterly applied to have an unlawful killing verdict removed from the jury without success.
However, Coroner Myra Cullinane ruled that it could only be open to them on the basis that such a verdict attributed no blame to anyone.
Families cheered and applauded in court yesterday as the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in each of the cases of the 48 people who died in the tragedy.
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