Hundreds of witnesses set to be called to inquests as jury selected for Stardust inquiry

Hundreds of witnesses are scheduled to be called at inquests into the deaths of the 48 young people who died in the Stardust fire in Artane, Dublin on St Valentine’s Day 1981.

Dublin District Coroner Myra Cullinane oversaw the selection of a 15-member jury for the inquests, due to begin on May 25th, at a special sitting in Croke Park on Monday, from a selection panel of around 300 people.

The inquest sittings are to be held in the Pillar Room in the Rotunda in Dublin 1, and will open with “pen portraits” being given of each of the deceased by bereaved family members. This process is likely to take three weeks and will be a “very important part of the proceedings,” Dr Cullinane said.

In a document given to the potential jurors, a brief synopsis was given of the tragedy that led to the deaths of 48 people aged between 16 and 26 and the injury of hundreds more.

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The Stardust Ballroom, on Kilmore Road, the synopsis said, was a “popular venue for concerts and dancing. On 13th February 1981, a disco-dancing competition was being held. In the early hours of the morning [of]14th February 1981, a fire engulfed the Stardust while there were approximately 850 patrons at the venue who had been attending the dance competition. As a result of the fire 48 young people died and many more were injured. These inquests will inquire into the circumstances surrounding each of those 48 tragic deaths”.

It is the largest such inquiry since the 2004 inquests into the deaths of the 33 people killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in May 1974.

The document given to the jury panel listed some 350 witnesses due to be called. It also listed people connected to the deceased, companies and bodies connected to the disaster, experts due to be called, and lawyers who are representing a number of parties. Potential jurors were asked not to serve if they knew any of the parties involved.

Among those listed as due to give evidence is Eamon Butterly, who is also being legally represented. Mr Butterly managed the Stardust at the time of the disaster and the venue was owned by his family.

It is expected that the inquests will continue late into this year at least, the jurors were told. Among those attending the Croke Park sitting were the families of the deceased and lawyers representing them, Dublin City Council, Dublin Fire Brigade and An Garda Síochána.

The inquests are the result of a long campaign by the families of those who died in the fire. Inquests in 1982 recorded deaths in accordance with the medical evidence. A review in 2019 by the attorney general led to a view that the original inquests involved “an insufficiency of inquiry into how the deaths occurred, namely, a failure to sufficiently consider those of the surrounding circumstances that concern the cause or causes of the fire”.

Mr Butterly took a judicial review of the decision to have fresh inquests, arguing that these could not be conducted in such a way as to not make him “a target for a verdict of unlawful killing”. In November, Mr Justice Charles Meehan rejected the argument that the new inquests could not make a finding of unlawful killing. However, he also said such a finding could only be made in “appropriate circumstances” and only where no person was identified or identifiable.

A tribunal of inquiry in 1981 found the “more probable explanation of the fire is that it was caused deliberately”, a finding that the families of the deceased strongly contested in the years since. A report commissioned by the Government concluded in 2009 that there was no evidence to prove that the fire was the result of arson.