Original subtitles

Did you bring the Lucozade with ya?

I did.

Liam has the Lucozade for all your energy.

I don't want it now.

News report: The jury in the inquest into the deaths of 48 people

in the 1981 Stardust Fire

will deliver a verdict at 2 this afternoon.

Please God, bring us justice.

I know it's not going to bring them back.

Never bring them back.

Phyllis McHugh: That's all we want.

We don't want anything else, just the truth.

Maurice McHugh: Hopefully this inquest will give us

some sense of relief that we'll get justice.

If you got truth,

at least it would be something to say,

Well, that's what happened on that night.

Hopefully, this is it now.

We can all sit down somewhere

and have a drink and talk about it and say, you know?

See what happens.

You can see Pat Kennedy, please God.

< That it will be unlawful killing.

That's what we hope, because that's what it was.

There has to be an end for these families,

the parents of some of them have already passed on.

And a lot of them are getting closer to passing on -

it'll be just final closure for them to go in peace.

Pat Dunne: I need to know why, and I want justice sorted.

And I know you'll never have closure,

but a certain closure that I'll have that I'll say, That's what happened.

It's okay.

All our family ever wanted

was to know what happened to our loved ones.

We only ever wanted truth and justice.

News report: Tonight, survivors and relatives of the Stardust tragedy

are holding a vigil outside Leinster House.

Everything that the Stardust families

have campaigned for,

they've had to embarrass the state into doing.

Everything has been as a result of families

picketing government buildings, standing out in the cold,

right up until their 70s and 80s, still fighting.

And so tonight, the families are still

some distance away from the fresh inquiry they so desperately want.

Efforts were made to evacuate some of the dancers

through windows that were heavily barbed.

It was an appalling scene outside the ballroom

with frantic cries for help.

The fire which leapt through the ballroom

in the early hours of Valentine's Day caught 800 of them unaware.

The fleet of ambulances ferried the dead and more than 200 injured...

Tony McCullagh: I don't think the immediate communities

of Artane and Coolock ever fully recovered.

I think it's ingrained in so many families.

Everybody knows somebody who was in there that night.

The impact that it had on families was incredible.

They were described actually years later

by a psychologist as an extremely ill population,

and they never received proper counseling or care.

And a lot of these families were just forgotten about by the state.

I was three months in Steevens' Hospital,

and I wasn't the worst one there.

I don't remember coming home.

In the community, everyone was sad,

and people were afraid to

get on with their life because they didn't

want it to affect the people who had had the loss.

So there was an awful lot of holding back

in sympathy with the families.

Phyllis Campbell: We were staff.

We felt guilty that we got out and all those people didn't.

Some people turned to drink, some people turned to drugs,

and other people didn't turn to drink or drugs

and still took their own lives

because they just couldn't deal with

what was going on in their heads.

You're afraid to talk too much about it.

So everybody kept it all inside.

Some people could deal with it, and some people couldn't.

I was the worst burns survivor and the longest in hospital,

so basically, I was in from the night

of the Stardust until June 1981.

Thereafter, I was in and out

for reconstructive surgery on my hands.

There was a few of my friends killed,

about 60 of my friends were killed that night, actually.

60 people we were with that night.

I talk better with my family and my friends I have left

because so many of my friends, I lost them because,

being in hospital so long, they all found girls and that.

And they haven't got time for coming up all the time,

which I don't blame them.

The doctor said, You know, you may never use your hands again.

Because I couldn't even button my shirt,

tie a lace, hold a knife and fork.

Everything was done for me,

even to the point of going to the bathroom with my father

because he had to do... like to wipe me and everything else.

That's so... It's very degrading to you as a young man,

and you should have all your faculties,

your whereabouts how to do everything.

But now you're back to, I'm an infant,

but I don't want to be an infant,

so you're going to have to do something about this.

Valerie Deasy: I kinda hid a little bit.

I'd kind of look out on the road

before I would leave if I was going anywhere.

The very first time I went to the cinema after the fire,

and the lights go out, the film to start,

and I ran out of the place

because I thought, Here we go again -

The lights has gone down.

But I never really spoke about it to anybody,

and I never got involved with campaigns or anything like that

because I always had that sense of guilt that I was alive,

and these people had their family members who were all dead.

News report: Scenes of grief seen earlier at the funeral

of Brian Hobbs from Whitehall.

Hundreds of mourners had to stand outside

of the church because of the size of the crowd inside.

Pat Dunne: The immediate aftermath stands out for me

in lots of ways.

Mom thought he would come back.

They had the old age pass, the two of them.

She said to me, I think we go to Galway for the Easter.

And I'm going, Yeah, that should be good.

Galway is nice.

The year before Brian died,

he was in the Great Southern in Galway.

So when Mom got back, she said,

I didn't tell your dad but I was looking for him.

S said, There was two boys dressed very like him at different stages,

and I tapped them and turned them around, but wasn't him.

And I go, Mom, come on, hold on.

And then every so often she'd say to me,

Do you think he's somewhere?

Do you think he could be in London or something?

Or could he be here? Could he be there?

I said, No, he was not.

News report: They called the guard of honour as her

relatives carried the coffin out for the funeral

to St. Fintan's Cemetery in Sutton.

News report: For one family, the McDermotts,

three of their children, Willy, Marcella,

and George, perished together in the fire.

The enormity of this loss

has devastated the McDermott household.

It was devastating for a firefighter's family.

He would have been bringing stories home

through the years, and all of a sudden,

they'd become the story.

Me mother was blaming me father.

You should have been working that night.

Then my father was blaming me mother.

You should have known that she wasn't babysitting.

So there was constant arguing and blaming in the house all the time.

She was so lost in her own grief

that she couldn't focus on our grief.

Understandably because they were her kids,

and it was different for a mother.

News report: Devastated the McDermott household,

parents are still overwhelmed by their grief,

emotionally bruised by this cruel...

...and in the congregation, many people wept openly.

For others, they could barely hold back their grief.

Errol Buckley: Jimmy was 23.

I was 18.

I couldn't believe it,

that Jimmy was gone.

I just had to get out of the country.

I just had enough of Donnycarney and me friends, they were in America,

and they'll just ring me and tell me to come over,

you know what I mean?

So we eventually just went in, you know.

There was no network support at all,

except for the neighbours.

Sure there was never even any inquiries why we weren't in school,

myself and my sister, because we were 11 and 12.

I remember learning how to cook

because my mother used to lock herself in her bedroom.

She wouldn't come out for days, weeks.

I used to just leave her food outside at the door.

My mother, they sent her to a place up on Edenmore.

They put a little apron on her,

and they gave her these little patches to sew in it for hours.

And then a doctor would see me every day,

and it was the one thing, every day,

I'd to repeat myself.

And that's when they told her that she was going mad.

And that's when she said, No,

she took the apron off for the last time.

She said, I'm not mad. She says, I've lost three children.

And I just walked out.

And that's the help I got.

The girls didn't even get help.

Nothing.

I said to her, Why do you want to die?

I said, Did you love them more than you loved me?

And she said that sort of woke her up.

Probably sounds horrible, a young child saying that to somebody,

but I suppose that's the way I felt at the time

because I hadn't got her.

You know?

News report: 2,000 mourners gathered in Beaumont

for the funeral of Caroline McHugh.

At the graveside, men, women,

and children wept openly

as the remains of Caroline, aged 17, were carried in.

She was an only child.

I am the resurrection in

the life of the man who believes in me, even though he died...

We never did anything for four years after Caroline died.

People would keep away from us.

They didn't want to talk to us.

I think it was just they didn't know what to be saying.

I tell you one thing, some people never let us forget

that we were away.

And to this day, people say, Oh, weren't you away when it happened?

What we do is, we get stuck into our work,

and we'd work maybe seven days a week, no problem.

We just put it, blocked it out of our head.

It was a form of escapism, if you like.

News report: The three coffins of three friends,

victims of last Saturday morning, Stardust Tragedy.

They contained the remains of Mary Keegan,

aged 19, and her 16 and a half year old

sister Martina, and their friend Mary Kenny.

I was with Mary and Martina, and I got out.

I felt guilty that they were dead, and I'm alive.

So it was just horrible.

...the happiness of them.

We ask this to Christ...

This funeral, perhaps as much as any of them,

summed up the horror of Stardust.

Four friends attended the only one survived,

and she's still in hospital.

I said if I talk about it,

it's going to keep coming back to me.

I tried my best of blank it.

I tried everything that I could do, right?

The darkness frightened me.

The night time frightened me.

Night time became daytime for me.

I would drink all night and stay awake

and sleep all day.

My whole mode of living changed.

Selina McDermott: My dad then, he started drinking really heavy.

He was off work for a long time.

He was a good fireman.

He went back to work for a while.

But in the end, he had to retire.

He couldn't cope. Yeah.

sure I didnt blame him he took to the drink very bad.

Yeah.

My father, the heavier he drank, the harder it was for my mother.

So as the years went on and on, my mother,

myself, and Louise then left my father in the home in Edenmore.

I just couldn't talk to him.

I'd say a lot of marriages broke up and mine did.

Yeah.

He lived there on his own, and then he just gave up.

I think he was 64 when he died.

He just didn't want to be alive anymore.

You know?

News report: This is where the tragedy all began,

early on the morning of St. Valentine's Day, February the 14th.

More than 800 people were packed into this

ballroom for the finals of a disco dancing competition.

By 1:44, the first firemen were on their way.

At the Stardust, they met scenes of utter panic.

Some of the panic-stricken youngsters had run into the club's toilets.

The windows were covered with welded steel sheets...

Tony McCullagh: The first responders are often overlooked

in the Stardust story.

It was so distressing that you just

can't imagine what it must have been like for them.

I dealt with it because I put it out of my mind,

as best I could and fought to improve the fire service.

If you asked me to put a face or anything

on any of the kids, I wouldn't be able to remember them.

I couldn't do it.

And most of the time I were traumatised.

But there was no counseling.

In those days,

the only counseling that they got was from the senior men,

Suck it up, and the only other alternative was to get drunk.

News report: As the fire raged, young people rushed for the exits,

stumbling over each other in panic and confusion.

Firemen tried to resuscitate the many young people

who were overcome by the thick and dense smoke.

It took me a good while to come to terms with it.

I wasn't that anxious to talk about it, like afterwards.

I suppose there would be a certain amount of alcohol

and that over the years.

There's a lot of fairly heavy drinking in the guards.

So some people wouldn't understand that

or say that that was the wrong way to do it

but it was the only way at the time.

But then again, you were supposed to be tough

and to put up with those things.

I'm not sure it was as simple as that.

I don't think anybody could get on with it.

Over in the morgue, it was terrible.

You read something in the paper and, of course,

you get flashbacks of the bodies in the tent at the morgue.

And you say, No, don't think about that.

Get that out of your head.

And you think of something else, or you go and do something else.

When you think about it,

you're really looking after your own mind as well.

If you let it get in on you it could upset you, you know.

News report: The Stardust Victims Committee brought

their campaign to Dublin district Court.

I always felt, nationally,

the various governments just wished this would go away.

And it was down to the Relatives Committee

and the media that kept the subject in the public eye.

Bridget McDermott: We were out canvassing in all kinds of weather.

To try and raise money to pay these solicitors.

You do think back of all the campaigning

around emptying buckets of pennies on my mother's table

to pay a solicitor, to buy printing paper, to do it ourselves,

because the state weren't going to do it for us.

Untold stories of trauma, guilt, suicide, survival, and disbelief too.

Years on, still no arsonist, still no answers.

After the compensation tribunal wrapped up

towards the late 1980s,

there was a lull until probably the 20th anniversary,

and it led to calls for a new inquiry.

And that led to the appointment of Senior Counsel

Paul Coffey in 2008,

who was to look into the evidence presented to him.

Their family's pain and anger was still palpable as they arrived

for the first day of this fresh independent assessment.

The evidence is there and that the experts are here for today

to prove our case that the fire didn't start on a scene.

The significant finding was the original probable arson verdict

should be struck from the public record.

News report: Relief and joy.

The family is leaving government buildings

this afternoon with the news they'd waited 28 years to hear.

In 1981, an inquiry found the cause

of the blaze was probably arson,

but a new report has rejected that finding.

Every obstacle that got in our way,

we fought back against it and we were determined

that we were going to get justice for the 48 victims.

We feel things can only get better now for us.

But it still doesn't stop.

I miss them so much,

but at least we've done something for them today.

Mr. Coffey concludes that the finding of probable arson

was on its face a mere hypothetical finding only.

The government wishes to acknowledge that as a matter of fact,

the actual cause of the catastrophic fire is unknown.

None of the victims of the Stardust disaster or the persons present

at the Stardust on the night of the fire

can be held responsible for the fire.

Tonight is a vindication of the heroic

and valiant 28-year-long campaign by the Stardust families

to achieve some level of justice for their loved ones

and for the survivors of the 1981 Stardust inferno.

When arson was ruled out, that was a big thing.

Because all the families always contested that.

I kinda of knew from the beginning it wasn't probable arson.

It's not a concrete word.

Like you either say it was arson or it wasn't arson.

But probable, that's no answer.

Probable can cover anything.

When they found then that it wasn't probable arson, I'm going,

Right, that should have been done from the beginning.

Justice Coffey said there was no reason why

the first tribunal said that.

No earthly explanation for it at all.

So it was written off out of the books.

But we never heard anything more.

We never heard an apology from the government saying it was wrong.

Anyway.

So that's what Coffey recommended and then arson was removed.

We thought it was great,

and we're going to get somewhere now with a criminal investigation.

There was nothing.

Nothing at all done.

So that's why we had to keep going and going and going.

With the removal of this finding,

the onus was on the state to investigate

what the cause of the fire was.

So that eventually led to Pat McCartan,

a retired judge, being appointed to review the evidence.

He was a former Workers Party TD for the area.

He reported later in 2017

that he did not believe that there was a scope for a new inquiry,

and it was a bitter blow to the families.

News report: Families of victims say questions remain unanswered.

They are not satisfied with the most recent report by Judge Pat McCartan.

It concluded that no new inquiry into the fire is warranted.

In particular, it was the language he used

in the report thatreally insulted the families.

He used words like, The evidence that

had been presented to him was at times incoherent.

It was argumentative.

It was disorganised.

It was rambling.

It has to be remembered that they couldn't possibly be be held

to the legal standards that would be expected of them.

Pat Dunne: I had to hope that he wasn't in anyone's pocket

and he was in a party that I was okay with.

I'm thinking, grand.

Shocked by his outcome, shocked by what he said.

I was floored with the results.

That was devastating because then we were like,

Where do we go from here?

There have been so many false dawns

form the Stardust families over the years.

There's been so much optimism.

There'll be new evidence or new investigations opened up,

and time after time,

their expectations have been dashed,

but they always seem to

manage to pick themselves up again and find a different route.

I knew about the Stardust, but I didn't know very much about it.

On a weekend away with my family,

I entered a bookshop,

having made the novel mistake

of leaving home without any books to read.

And at the very front of the shop was the Stardust book.

I purchased it, and having read it,

I was left with a deep sense of why

this real tragedy had been left unanswered.

As it is the 42nd anniversary

of the biggest disaster in the history of the state,

that we are here today and still know justice to our loved ones.

So I agreed to meet the family to see if we could assist.

I'll never forget the first meeting because the questions

that I had arising from the book and reading

the McCartan review effectively remain unanswered

in that we have three investigations

back to back, which effectively produce

the conclusions of we're not really sure what happened.

James Buckley.

There are questions that are unanswered.

There was a need for a fresh investigation.

Paula Byrne.

The inquest years ago lasted a very short time,

and all they effectively concluded was

that people died as a result of burning at the Stardust Fire.

The reality is the inquests were ineffective,

that they weren't thorough.

The inquest we had was only a medical statement.

Mr. and Mrs. McHugh,

Caroline - body, badly charred on just the torso -

they couldn't measure her height.

Obviously, no legs.

No hair.

And then they called the next person. That was it.

That was it.

That was supposed to be an inquest.

We took the view that we should start

making an application for a fresh inquest.

Fresh inquests are very difficult to obtain.

By their very nature,

the inquest has already occurred,

and therefore this is a second inquest.

It's a fresh inquest.

And the discretion to hold such a fresh inquest

lies at the door of the Attorney General.

It was our view that a properly set up

inquest could be used to establish the truth.

Inquests in recent times,

through the development of the European Convention on Human Rights,

they have more teeth than they ordinarily would have had

many years ago.

It's a model that's used in Belfast

on almost a daily basis with regards to legacy cases.

It's a model that was used in the Hillsborough tragedy.

It's a model that simply works for cases of this kind,

and it establishes in clear terms that despite

the passage of time,

an inquest which can hear from which

can hear from witnesses,

can come to conclusions.

News report: 48 people lost their lives in the Stardust Fire,

and their families spent the past few months collecting signatures

on postcards petitioning the Attorney General

to reopen the inquest.

And I know it says 48.

There's so many others as well.

which demonstrated to the Attorney General and to the wider public

the sheer importance and public interest in establishing the truth.

That bore out into the postcard campaign

led by Lynn Boylan alongside the family members.

Antoinette Keegan: We got 48,000 postcards printed

on the front of a head truth.

Selina McDermott: 48,000 a postcard signed,

and it'd go to the Attorney General to say

that you were supporting a new inquiry to be opened for the 48.

And what we done was we travelled north,

south, east, and west of Ireland.

We went to Strasbourg we went to Brussels.

The more support the family's got, the more energy they gained,

and their energy became contagious, and the process continued.

And we got 48,000 cards signed,

and we delivered them to the Attorney General,

and it was a It was an absolutely fantastic day.

There was that many postcards that they

all had to be collated into the heavy duty boxes.

People had to take turns and lift them - the sheer weight.

Selina McDermott: We said we'd walk from Pearse Street station up

to the Attorney General's office and hand in, literally hand in.

And when we got there, there was

hundreds of people there to support us.

Hold the box up in the air. That's it.

But we didn't realize that the amount of people that were there.

We just he felt we can't ignore 48,000 signatures from the public.

You know, we're not on our own now.

We have the people of Ireland behind us.

We could feel that there was a change in the air.

We could feel it definitely that day.

That's lovely. Thank you.

(overlapping chatter)

Phyllis McHugh: That's all we want.

Under the coroner's act, Seamus Woulfe does have

the power to order a second inquest.

Darragh Mackin: Once the application was made for a fresh inquest,

it was then a waiting game as to when the decision

would eventually come.

Leo Varadkar: I did speak to the Attorney General this morning.

He will give us full consideration

and we'll look at it afresh with an open mind.

I welcome that.

We then received a notice from the then Attorney General,

Mr. Seamus Woulfe, Senior Counsel.

Darragh Mackin rang me.

I was at home with my mother, and he goes, Antoinette, he said,

The Attorney General's after ordering

the inquest to be opened.

And of course, my mother couldn't hear it,

but I screamed and I was jumping around.

I said, Brilliant, brilliant.

And my mom sitting in the chair, and she goes, What's going on?

What's going on? I said ma, the inquest, it's getting opened.

And she goes, Oh, that's fantastic.

She was delighted.

News report: 38 years on, the Attorney General has confirmed

that new inquests are to be held into the Stardust Fire.

We just couldn't believe it.

We got upset.

But we couldn't believe it was - after all these years.

It would appear that the passage of time

is not as big a barrier as one might have considered.

The Irish Daily Mail and Herald

lead with yesterday's announcement that a new

inquest into the 1981 Stardust Fire is to get underway.

Darragh Mackin: All of them crammed into a very small room

in Buswells Hotel to comment upon their reaction to the outcome.

This has gone on for so long,

and this is where we said we will not give up,

never give up until we get truth and justice for our loved ones.

They had to achieved what people said was unachievable.

They had achieved a fresh inquest into this atrocity.

And that day in Buswells Hotel will forever signify

the sheer relentless nature that these families had,

the sheer energy that they had.

What are you hoping to achieve at the inquest?

What might be the next steps after that?

Basic ask, the truth of what happened.

After that, we said that on our case,

if we are correct, if the expert evidence stands up,

then the reality is that there are people who must be

held accountable for what happened that night.

(applause)

Radio broadcast: The latest travel news from the AA,

travel more than two kilometers from your

home must be avoided in line with government restrictions.

The only journeys that should be made

are to attend essential work or remuneration...

My poor mother passed away, right -

she was 84.

Half her life was spent fighting for justice.

Her dying wish was, right, and her dying breath,

right, to get the inquest opened.

My father passed away at a young age, 49 years of age.

If they had been still alive right, they would never give up, never.

Selina McDermott: We knew there'd be obstacles,

big time, big time, even to get to having a date of the inquest.

Before the inquest, the families signaled

the one potential verdict that they wanted

on the cards is that of unlawful killing.

That was met with huge resistance by the lawyer to represent

Mr. Butterly.

News report: Former manager, Eamonn Butterly

wanted the court to rule that a verdict

of unlawful killing should not be open to the jury at the inquest.

Today, Justice Charles Meenan rejected that challenge.

The high court made it clear

that the verdict of unlawful killing

would and could and should remain on the table.

News report: This was a day they'd campaigned for for years.

A day some of them said they thought might never come.

The first official real day that the inquest is actually starting.

So it's a big, big day for us families.

It's been a long journey.

Selina McDermott: When Darragh was in the house the other week,

he said, Are you ready, Bridget?

He said, You ready? And she said, I'm ready 42 years.

She said, I'm ready 42 years.

It heralds the beginning of finding justice.

We hope at the end of this inquest that we get to know

what really happened on that night, on Valentine's morning.

Tony McCullagh: Some of the people I've been dealing with

since the late '80s, they have spent half their lifetime

campaigning for justice,

and some of them have sadly passed away.

It's absolutely consumed them, their every waking moment.

And they felt that because they were

working class communities that they were treated differently,

they werent treated with the same respect

that perhaps more affluent areas of Ireland

would have been dealt with by the authorities.

There was probably an element of embarrassment

when you think that over 800 young people

could go out to enjoy themselves,

something that people would take for granted,

and that 48 would die, and over 230 would be injured.

It is a shameful thing.

Darragh Mackin: Many know that this is the last gasp saloon.

The battleground has been laid,

and in my view, the evidence speaks for itself.

And if the jury can and do establish the truth,

justice would be done for these families.

I'm happy I'm here today.

And that's what kept me alive, to be here today.

It is, as we understand,

the first inquest in the Republic of Ireland

to hear Pen Portrait evidence.

Antoinette: Pen Portrait is actually a family member

that would give a description of their

brother, their sister, their son, or their daughter.

Selina McDermott: We're showing the jury that these are people.

They were human beings,

and they went down in the night but never came home.

It reminds everybody, all of the lawyers,

this is more than just a simple legal case.

This is about a real person.

These are people that had lives

that were looking forward to their future,

and then it was just taken away from them.

News report: These inquests before the coroner, Dr. Myra Cullinan

and a 13-person jury, have now... ...in Artane, Dublin...

When certain inquests where deaths are suspicious,

the coroner has the discretion to hear from a jury.

At the start of this process,

we made it clear that we wanted a jury to hear the inquest.

We thought it would be best suited

that a jury should be filled in for a case like this.

Selina: It was very important for us to be there,

even though it was upsetting.

And then you were happy one day,

you could be annoyed another day.

It was a mix of emotions for the year.

It was crazy.

Pat Dunne: The young staff witnessed the fire, witnessed the people dying.

I found that heartbreaking.

There were 16, 17 that cleared tables or gave out meals,

and they were broken and still are, because they still have that memory.

It was a emotional and heartbreaking listening to some of the

witnesses talking about what they experienced.

Fresh evidence comes in a variety of different ways.

There's the most obvious fresh evidence,

which is victims who were there that night

who've never given evidence.

I was never asked to go to the Tribunal of Inquiry,

which was set by Justice Ronald Keane.

So this inquest is the first time

I've actually ever given evidence in 42 years.

News report: Antoinette Keegan,

today, she was giving evidence telling the jury

of her experiences on the night.

It was difficult from the start to the end,

just reliving the whole lot,

recollecting every single movement,

every minute and every second.

It was important to get it all out today.

News report: The former manager of the Stardust Club has taken

to the witness box at the inquests into the deaths of the 48 people

who died when a fire swept through the building during a disco in 1981.

Eamonn Butterly, who's now 78,

was 36 when the fire broke out.

Darragh Mackin: In 43 years, many of these people have never seen

Mr. Butterly in real life.

Many people believe that they never would

have seen him actually give evidence in the court.

News report: At the time of the fire,

he said today he was not the owner of the premises

and that his father was the boss.

The court heard how when he was first...

We were all very tense and nervous,

and it was like a bit surreal.

Pat Dunne: There was a pretty palpable air,

with just a lot of people that never met him and all going,

That's what it's all about.

And that's not what it's all about.

It's finding out what happened.

News report: This was day 2 of Eamonn Butterly's direct evidence

asked if welding steel sheets

to the windows of toilets had been an overreaction.

Eamonn Butterly said that toilets were toilets,

they weren't fire escapes.

This was day three of his direct evidence.

Mr. O'Higgins also said the policy of locking doors

was in fact introduced by you.

No, replied Mr. Butterly.

This was day four of Eamonn Butterly's direct evidence.

Eamonn Butterly repeated that he was told

that all the fire doors were open.

It was put to him that the electrical installation in the premises

was so poor that at any time a fire might have started.

You are so wrong, Eamonn Butterly said.

It was the best wired premises around.

Eamonn Butterly spent around 30 hours

in total giving direct evidence to these inquests,

the longest of any witness so far at these hearings.

And unlikely to be surpassed.

The jury began hearing evidence from fire experts.

Dr. Will Hutchinson told the court the most likely scenario

was the fire originated in the hot press in the main bar.

The court heard how there were connection issues...

Darragh Mackin: It became clear that the one place

that when you put all the evidence together,

a hot press makes complete sense.

The fire starts in the hot press.

It makes its way into the roof space,

and then it drops into the west alcove.

And then that is the time which people inside see the fire.

Pat Dunne: They really only saw what was in that corner.

And that's why everyone thought it started there.

But it was really raging across the ceiling.

Selina McDermott: And that's why the people and the outside,

neighbors and all that, could see the fire.

Pat Dunne: The kids were all sitting, dancing and enjoying themselves.

They hadn't a clue.

They hadn't a clue.

Just after four o'clock today,

the coroner sent the jury out to consider its verdict.

Dr. Myra Cullinan told the jurors these inquests

were a fact-finding exercise and not a trial.

She said no person can be identified or were identifiable

as being responsible for the deaths.

The jury at the Stardust Fire inquest has

said it still needs time to consider its verdict.

Pat Dunne: It's a huge job for the jury.

They have been 122 days now listening to our story.

I'm hopeful in the sense that we get what we want.

I'm apprehensive in that we may not.

And I'm nervous in case we don't get what we want,

and we're standing there and going, My God, what has all this been for?

Maurice McHugh: We hope that when it's over, that we'll be able to

get on with our lives like a normal couple could do.

I don't know how long the jury are going to be,

but we've waited 43 years now, I suppose.

Another few weeks, it's not going to make much difference then.

Phyllis McHugh: I hope it's unlawful killing.

But we just have to hope, that's all. We just have to hope.

Mr. Harris for Taoiseach.

I pray every day it will happen for sure.

Please God, it will happen, yeah.

Antoinette Keegan: I'm nervous, to be honest with you,

because, over the years, right,

years every time I got my hopes built up I came down with a bang.

It has been a tough year.

I actually do feel tired after it.

Darragh Mackin: It isn't like any ordinary case.

We're simply waiting on a verdict.

I think I can say for everybody, we were at that stage all feeling

sick to our stomach about what could possibly happen.

Is it all mixed emotions that you have today, or...?

Just anxious.

Anxious, yeah.

Anxious.

Antoinette Keegan: Because I have a real nerve-wracking day,

really and truly.

We knew we were going to get ready for 2 o'clock.

Selina McDermott: The amount of people that were pouring

into the court was just overwhelming.

You know?

Pat Dunne: It's very difficult.

It's not clear cut and I thought we have a clearer picture at this stage.

Jimmy Fitzpatrick: There's a sense of trepidation

with everybody and nerves because of the length of time.

And now we can see the finish line, but we're not quite there yet.

Darragh Mackin: There was not a seat in the house.

The nervousness in the room was palpable.

Antoinette: The coroner, she came out

and it was all rise and everyone rose.

We were looking at the jury.

Darragh Mackin: First question the jury got was,

can you establish the cause of the fire?

And the answer was yes.

And if so, where was it?

Hot press.

The electrical fault in the hot press.

Pat Dunne: When they said hot press, I thought, My God.

Were any of the exits locked, chained, or obstructed?

And we got yes. Pat Dunne: That was huge.

Darragh Mackin: We were getting the findings we wanted.

Were we going to get to the unlawful killing final verdict?

The Coroner said, So what is the verdict?

The pause between the Coroner's question

and the jury foreman's answer felt like a lifetime.

He just went forward into the microphone,

and said, Unlawful killing.

Unlawful killing.

The entire courtroom erupted.

Everyone jumped up and clapped.

There was whistles, cheers, crying.

It was magic.

It was just magic.

Yeah, it was.

It was just everyone was delighted, finally,

they have a verdict.

The first two discernible words I heard was a lady did the right of me.

All I heard was at last.

I thought of George, Willie and Marcella when he said it.

Because it was for them.

It wasn't for us in the courtroom.

It was for them, for the 48.

(cheering)

Selina McDermott: We went through those gates, and those gates opened.

It was like the flood of truth now is out there.

It's out there for everybody to hear.

Jimmy Fitzpatrick: It'll be written into the books,

and they can't take that away from us.

Unlawful killing.

Antoinette Keegan: It was absolutely overwhelming - really and truly -

the biggest and best day of my whole life since the night of the fire.

Absolutely overwhelming.

Phyllis McHugh: I'm very emotional today.

It was really now very, very emotional,

but I was delighted when the verdict came out as

unlawful killing because the kids deserved it.

Pat Dunne: I'm relieved - a very emotional day -

Brian has gone from being 29 to Brian Hobbs.

I just burst into tears, I couldnt believe it.

I've prayed so hard for this day, and it's come.

Thank you.

Behind camera: You never gave up.

You never gave up.

No. No.

They can rest now.

Yes. Thank you.

Fair play to ya.

Thank you.

Leas-Cheann Comhairle: I want to acknowledge the presence here

today of the families of the 48 victims of the Stardust Fire.

(applause)

Simon Harris: Today we say formally,

and without any equivocation, we are sorry.

We failed you when you needed us the most.

From the very beginning,

we should have stood with you,

but instead,

we forced you to stand against us.

The apology was fine and it was good. It was great.

And he came around and shook everyone's hand.

And that was good.

It was really and truly a huge thing for me

to hear the state apologising.

All we wanted, ever wanted, was truth and justice.

We've got truth.

We'll wait for justice now.

But it's not the end or the final.

We still have stuff to go.

We have got the truth.

I need accountability.

The apology was very much bittersweet

because it was very late.

Very, very late.

Is it too late?

I feel, no, it's not too late.

Because if we hadn't have got it now,

we still would have been fighting.

The 48, they needed that apology.

They did need it, you know?

Bitter sweet that they're not here, but we carry their memories.

Subtitling RTÉ 2024.