Department at 'advanced stage' at determining venue for Stardust inquests

Tributes to the 48 victims of the Stardust nightclub fire in Dublin on Valentine's day in 1981 outside Leinster House in Dublin.

The Department of Justice is at an “advanced stage” of determining the venue for the Stardust inquests, amid calls to provide certainty to families ahead of Christmas.

The department had previously arranged with the RDS in Dublin to stage the inquests in that venue, but it has largely lain idle over the course of this year as delays have plagued the process.

The deal to use the venue expires in mid-February 2022 and it is likely the inquests proper won’t have even begun at that stage.

At the latest pre-inquest hearing of the inquests on Wednesday, Dublin City coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said she remained in consultation with the department on the matter.

“They have advised they are actively pursuing a new venue,” she told attendees at the virtual court hearing. “They’re at an advanced stage of determining where it will be.” 

Dr Cullinane said as soon as the matter was finalised she would let the families and legal counsel know of the venue.

Sinn Féin senator Lynn Boylan said the failure to find a venue was causing unnecessary stress for the families of victims heading into the Christmas period.

I called on Minister McEntee to give clarity on the Stardust Inquest venue.  On 22nd February the current arrangement with the RDS will expire, the families deserve to know where the inquest will be held & to be assured there will be no delays. #JFT48 pic.twitter.com/q9vvTC6puB

— Lynn Boylan 🍷📖🐾 (@LNBDublin) December 15, 2021

“The families deserve to have certainty of not only where the inquest will be located, but also that there will be no delays as a result of the failure to find an appropriate new location or to renew the current arrangement,” she said.

These fresh inquests will examine the death of the 48 people who died in the Stardust nightclub in north Dublin in February 1981. Hundreds had been in attendance for the Valentine’s disco and the night was coming to an end when a fire engulfed the venue.

Families have long campaigned for new inquiries into the fire and, in granting the inquests, the Attorney General said there was an “insufficiency of inquiry” at the original inquests and it was in the public interest to look into the matters again.

The process has, however, been the subject of delays which have primarily arisen from the families of victims unable to access legal aid funding for a long period of this year.

With that issue now resolved, the coroner said on Wednesday she wanted to “keep the momentum going” and move the process along to the formal inquest hearing.

“The aim was to be in a position to consider witnesses in the month of February [next year],” she told counsel for the represented parties at the hearing. 

“To facilitate that, we need to keep the submission dates strictly adhered to.” In other matters, she said she would be seeking to empanel a jury to hear the inquests and also wanted to finalise a document on the “uncontroverted facts” surrounding the Stardust fire which could be presented to that jury.

“Its purpose was to create a backdrop or context that the jury would ultimately be hearing complex direct evidence,” she said.

A number of other legal submissions are due to be given to the coroner, and the next pre-inquest hearing has been set for January 19, 2022.