Stardust inquests: ‘I thought I was going to die. Everyone was screaming’

A witness at the Stardust inquests had described how, as a 15-year-old on the night of the disaster, she was trampled on as she tried to escape the fire and thought she was “going to die”.

June Tighe described at Dublin Coroner’s Court on Wednesday the speed with which panic spread in the nightclub once fire was spotted.

Ms Tighe is the youngest witness to give evidence at fresh inquests into the deaths of 48 people, aged 16-27, at the venue in Artane, Dublin the early hours of February 14th, 1981. She had been to the Stardust venue several times and never had trouble being admitted.

Ms Tighe said she was dancing when she saw fire “going across the ceiling” in a partitioned area known as the west alcove. When she and her friends went to the foyer, the main exit area was not crowded.

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“Then all of a sudden people were running out. The lights went out and there was a crowd in the main hall.” Ms Tighe was “pulled towards the main exit ...[and] pushed by the crowd into the pay-office.” They tried to break the office windows.

“I found it hard to breathe and I got pushed back by the crowd into the hallway,” she said. “I fell on the floor and I remember people walking on me. I thought I was going to die. Everyone was screaming and we were fighting for our lives. I was fighting for my life.”

The witness said the exit doors were shut and people were trying to open them.

“We were all in the hall pushing each other and screaming ... All I remember was we got air ... just air.”

Ms Tighe said she woke on a grass verge in front of the main exit.

Harriet Kearney, 16 at the time, described the ballroom falling into “total darkness” as she realised there was a fire. She was dancing when she noticed people “running by us”.

“I just knew there was something wrong,” she said.

Ms Kearney went back to her friends, stood on her seat and saw “fire on seats” in the west alcove area.

“The lights went out. We were in darkness. I was trying to make my way to the main exit to get out,” she said. “It felt like a lifetime trying to get out. It was complete, complete darkness.”

She was “moved with the crowd [and] pushed into exit 3″ but could not see where she was going “with the smoke”. In the passageway there was “kicking and banging” as the door at exit 3 was closed, she said.

“All you could hear was ‘let us out, let us out’. There was kicking and banging from in front of us ... It was like we were stuck ... then eventually the door must have opened ..and you could feel fresh air,” she said.

“Up until that you couldn’t breathe because the smoke was very strong. It felt like ages and then you could feel the air on your face and you knew you were getting out. Then there was like a heave out.”

Trevor King, 17 at the time, also escaped through exit 3 – behind the stage area – and described “a crush” and “people kicking” to get it open.

He said he saw flames in the west alcove and they were “the length of only one table”. He wanted to go back to his table to get his coat but his friend, Joe McCabe, said not to as “it was going to spread”.

The two went into the passageway towards exit 3. He said he looked back into the ballroom and the fire had spread across the ceiling over the dance floor.

In the passageway there were “about 10 to 15 fellas ahead of me. I heard one of them saying, ‘Jesus Christ the doors are locked’. I looked back and smoke was coming into the passageway and I could see flames had spread over the back of the dance floor in a matter of about three to four minutes.

“Some of the fellas ahead of me ran at the door and kicked at it. Most of the crowd ran at the door a couple of times and then the door opened.”