Stardust doorman retracted ‘lies’ to gardaí as he feared being ‘made a scapegoat’

A former doorman at the Stardust nightclub, in which 48 young people died in a fire in February 1981, has said he retracted “lies” he had told gardaí and media about having unlocked emergency exits on the night as he feared he was being “made a scapegoat” by senior doormen.

Michael Kavanagh, who was 20 at the time of the disaster, told inquests into the deaths at Dublin Coroner’s Court on Tuesday that he had claimed to journalists and gardaí in the immediate aftermath of the fire that he unlocked the exits at around 9.20pm on the night.

Describing these statements as “stupid”, he said he had “no idea” why he made them and that it was “maybe” out of “loyalty” to fellow doormen. He said he was not “thinking straight” at the time and “for weeks on end” after the fire.

“I got caught up in something that was not of my making. I got caught up in all of that,” he added.

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Significant witness

Mr Kavanagh is regarded as a significant witness as he changed his account in statements to gardaí in 1981 about whether exits were locked or unlocked on the night, providing an insight into how security policy at the club changed following instructions from “the top” in the weeks before the blaze.

Mr Kavanagh’s girlfriend at the time, Paula Byrne (19), was among those killed in the fire in the early hours of February 14th, 1981.

Fresh inquests into the deaths are being held following a 2019 direction by then attorney general Séamus Woulfe.

In his first statement to gardaí, on February 16th, 1981, Mr Kavanagh said he had opened all the exit doors by removing a padlock and chain at about 9.20pm on February 13th, 1981.

“I put the chain back on one side of the door and locked the padlock. In that way the chain and lock were there when required to secure the door after the disco was over. I opened five exit doors and the entrance door to the disco club,” he claimed.

He had, however, told his friend Michael O’Toole and his father James in the hours after the fire: “I am ashamed to say I am a bouncer in the Stardust. We were told to keep the doors locked.”

When the O’Toole’s became aware of his claims in media being different, they went to gardaí on February 17th, 1981, and told them what Mr Kavanagh had said to them.

The inquests heard deputy head doorman, Leo Doyle, and another senior doorman, PJ Murphy, called to Mr Kavanagh’s family home and advised his late father, Patrick Kavanagh, that his son should retract his claims about having opened the doors because head doorman, Thomas Kennan, would tell gardaí that he had opened them.

Mr Kavanagh’s father advised his son to correct his Garda statements, which he did on February 19th, 1981, saying: “I was wrong when I said I opened the fire exits or removed the chains binding both doors of each exit.”

The “correct story”, he said in that statement, was that he collected the keys to the exit doors’ padlocks from the Silver Swan bar office at about 9pm and was going to open the them when, at about 9.20pm, the Mr Doyle “told me not to unlock them”.

The visit by Mr Doyle and Mr Murphy to his home, “just triggered something off in me”, Mr Kavanagh said on Tuesday. “I just felt that ... I was the one they were looking to pin the whole exit doors thing on...that they were trying to make a scapegoat out of me ... The conversation I had with my father gave me a reality check.”

Asked by Des Fahy KC, for the families of nine of the dead, what had been “unreal” about what had gone before, he said the “stupidity” of going on television and speaking to a journalist.

“How did you think in telling the journalists in evening Herald and RTÉ how you were protecting doormen?” Mr Fahy asked.

“I have absolutely no idea why, what I was thinking ... You worked with these guys. If something happened you sort you depending on these guys to have your back. So maybe just a loyalty thing ... It didn’t work,” Mr Kavanagh said.

The witness is expected to be on the stand for three days.

Stardust: Read the pen portraits of the victims here.