Stardust survivor was alerted to fire by sister who then died

A survivor of the 1981 Stardust fire was alerted to the blaze by her younger sister who then died in the disaster, Dublin coroners court has heard.

Lorraine Sorohan, 19 at the time, had not been aware her sister, Teresa McDonnell (16), was in the north Dublin nightclub that night until she came up to speak to her. “She was having a great time,” said Ms Sorohan on Tuesday.

Fresh inquests into the deaths of 48 people, aged 16 to 27, in a fire at the Artane venue in the early hours of February 14th, 1981 are under way following a 2019 direction by then attorney general Séamus Woulfe.

Some time after 1.30am, Teresa came to where her older sister was sitting to warn her about the fire and told her to get out, said Ms Sorohan. She said she thought Teresa then went towards the main exit, known as exit two. She did not get out, however, and would later be identified by her mother’s eternity ring.

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The account heard on Tuesday confirms that of an earlier witness, Brian Killeen, 18 at the time, who said last month he and six friends, including Teresa, had been “together” as they made their way into the foyer to escape. She wanted to go back and alert her sister Lorraine to leave, he said.

“She left to go back and tell her sister, that’s all I recall ... We were all together, seven of us were together,” said Mr Killeen. He did not see Teresa again. Once he got outside, he said, “We were looking [for her] straight away ... Then we went around all the hospitals looking, Jervis Street ... all the different hospitals, the Mater.”

On day 71 of the inquests the jury heard from six witnesses, all patrons on the night.

Thomas Larkin, 26 at the time, agreed with an earlier account from veteran Stardust campaigner Antoinette Keegan whom he pulled to safety.

Last month she described being pulled from the inferno as she lay on the ground holding the hand of her 16-year-old sister, Martina, who died in the fire.

Mr Larkin described falling inside the ballroom which was filling with smoke as he tried to run to exit five.

There was a crowd “of about 20 or 30 people trying to push the door open”. He could hear them kicking the door. He got up and almost got to the door when he felt a hand reach in and pull him out.

He heard screaming from inside when he got outside and, against the urgings of a bouncer, went back in about six or seven feet. “I spotted the silk white blouse ... I tried to pulled her out but I couldn’t pull her because she was holding on to something.

“The only way I could get her to release her hand was to kick her hand, to release whatever she was holding on to, because whatever she was holding she was holding on tight, she wasn’t letting go.”

Asked by Des Fahy, for families of nine of the dead, including Mary (19) and Martina Keegan, if it made sense that Antoinette had been holding Martina’s hand when he had to kick it free, he said: “Yes, absolutely.”

[ Stardust survivor tells inquests: ‘I cannot believe I survived ... we were trapped like rats’ ]

Christina Buckley, 21 at the time, was at the Stardust with her husband Jimmy Buckley (23) who perished. She told the inquests on Tuesday she had last seen him “minding the coats” while she went to dance with his brother, the late Albert Buckley.

The family had been there to support their younger brother Errol Buckley in the dance competition, which he won. The married couple had that day celebrated their daughter’s first birthday.

She described seeing smoke “like a grey-black cloud rolling across the ceiling ... it was really thick, like storm clouds”, she said.

Albert brought her towards exit five. “It felt like everybody was moving towards there.” She remembered “a lot” of people behind her shouting, ‘Get the doors open’ and the doors bursting open.

She asked Albert to go back in to look for Jimmy “but it was not possible” she said. Looking back into the ballroom was, she said, “like looking into a furnace”.

The inquests continue on Wednesday.