'Fobbed off' Stardust families call for decision on fresh inquest

The Stardust Victims Committee has called on the Attorney General to honour his promise to deliver a decision regarding a possible new inquest into the disaster today/tomorrow (Sep 25th).

The Stardust Victims Committee has called on the Attorney General to honour his promise to deliver a decision regarding a possible new inquest into the disaster tomorrow.

At a gathering today outside the Attorney General’s office next to Government Buildings in Dublin, the committee delivered a letter to the office calling for that promise to be kept, and said they had been “fobbed off” with excuses on a number of occasions since the group handed a dossier of evidence regarding the 1981 nightclub tragedy over to the AG in April of this year.

The Office of the AG has missed a number of deadlines to date on which the committee was due to hear whether a fresh inquest will take place.

The catastrophic fire which gutted the Stardust nightclub in Artane, north Dublin, on Valentine’s night 1981 saw 48 people lose their lives, with a further 200 injured, in the greatest tragedy of its kind in the history of the State.

The official verdict on the disaster, following a tribunal of inquiry in 1982, was one of arson. However that verdict has since been stricken from the record.

No one has ever been charged or held accountable for the disaster.

The AG’s office did not return a request for comment on the matter.

Spokesperson for the Stardust Committee Antoinette Keegan, who survived the fire but lost two sisters to the tragedy, said they were looking for a “positive” response from the Attorney General.

“We’re looking for a response tomorrow, but if you could give it to us today it would be much appreciated,” she said.

Ms Keegan said that the Attorney General Seamus Woulfe had first told the committee they would receive a reply on the 16th July.

That deadline was extended to the end of July, then to “sometime in August, then September 20th, and now to September 25th”, she said.

The dossier of evidence contains allusions to an infamous 999 call made on the night of the disaster, which suggested the fire was first reported several minutes before the official record said it was, and further suggested that the fire had not begun at ground level as suggested by the findings of the original tribunal.

Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett told the conference that “justice delayed is justice denied”.

“It is really unspeakable that after 38 years the families of Stardust victims continue to be denied the justice and truth that they deserve and that they have asked for repeatedly,” he said.

“I find it difficult to comprehend at this point, what is wrong with the State, when there is clear evidence that 999 calls were made and witness reports which put the fire at a different time, at a different location to what the official reports claimed, and yet that evidence is not examined.

“Now we have 48,000 people sign a petition calling for a new inquest, and the Attorney General promises that dates will be met for a decision on that appeal, but again we have delay after delay after delay. It is just not fair. I would appeal to the Attorney General to give your decision to these families, and make it the right decision, and do the right thing,” he added.

Gertrude Barrett, who lost her 17-year-old son Michael in the fire, said “we’re not here for a no” regarding the Attorney General’s pending decision.

“After 38 years, we’re not going to take a no,” she said.