Stardust inquest: 'We are reclaiming Marie from the darkness and despair'
Relatives of those killed in the Stardust fire gathered at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin ahead of the first day of the inquest. File picture
A sibling of one of the Stardust fire victims has told the Dublin district coroner’s court that they have sought to celebrate her life by “reclaiming her from the darkness and despair and bringing her back into the sunlight where she belongs”.
The eighth day of the pen portraits that are kicking off the fresh Stardust inquests heard on Friday from sisters of two young women who died in the nightclub fire on February 14, 1981.
Mary Kenny (19) and Marie Kennedy (17) were both described as warm, caring, loyal and funny, and with a passion for music. Ms Kenny loved Queen, Marc Bolan and Barry Manilow. Ms Kennedy loved listening to the Bee Gees, Leo Sayer, the Jackson 5 and Abba.
Ms Kenny’s sister Angela was just 15 when Mary died. She described her as a “wonderful big sister” who had a great fondness for her great aunt and would go visit her every weekend in town.
“Mary didn’t drink or smoke, her passions in life were dancing and fashion and she would look forward to going to the Stardust nightclub on a Friday night just to dance all night with her friends,” Angela said.
“She had a lovely group of friends when she left Coláiste Dhúlaigh and they all remained friends to the end. Some of them also died in the Stardust on that terrible night.”
The family’s last happy memory of Mary is her getting ready and chatting about Valentine’s cards before she went to the Stardust that night.
Her loss had a devastating effect on the family. Her father died two years later “broken hearted”. Her mother was later diagnosed with breast cancer and died in 2004. “I feel it has affected me a lot over the years. I was so young at the time and would give anything to go back to that night we were all laughing and happy and stop Mary going to the Stardust dance,” she said.
Angela added that she hoped that these inquests can finally deliver the closure her family and all others deserve so many years on.
Later, Ms Kennedy’s sister Michelle told the inquest: “She was the oldest of the six of us and she always looked out for us. She was our best pal but we knew she wasn’t to be trifled with – she was in charge and we knew it. She was the ultimate big sister.”
A Christmas baby, anecdotes were given regarding a love for Aran jumpers, pierced ears and an accidental fringe cutting all to give a sense of who Marie was.
Michelle was only aged five when her big sister died, and said she and her family had been “unfairly cheated out of so much”. She asked family members what Marie was like but for some it was too upsetting.
“Their silence told me everything,” she said. “I could feel the weight of it, like a noiseless deafening scream.” Michelle concluded by saying she could write a section about the night Marie died. About how her parents found her in Jervis Street Hospital and recognised her by her feet and how her loss destroyed the family.
“But in the end, I decided not to,” she said. “Marie has been lost in the smoke and devastation of the Stardust for too long. The decades-long fight for answers has taken far too much from us already. So today we’re we are taking her back and remembering her life.
“We are reclaiming her from the darkness and despair and bringing her back into the sunlight where she belongs. She’s our sister, daughter, sister-in-law, niece, aunt, great-aunt, cousin, and friend. She’s our Marie.”
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