Inquest jury to ‘write last chapter’ of Stardust story

THE ‘sunlight’ shed on the evidence before the Stardust inquests has ‘gone a long way in removing the stains, rumours, lies and mistakes’ that ‘haunted’ victims families ‘since before the embers of the fire even went out,’ a barrister has said.

Another barrister told the Dublin District Coroner’s Court jury yesterday the families of the victims ‘have waited longer than Moses wandered in the desert without justice’.

At the inquest yesterday, closing speeches by legal teams on behalf of the bereaved families continued.

In her remarks to the jury, Brenda Campbell, representing a number of families of the victims, said: ‘Sunlight really is a powerful disinfectant, and the sunlight that, with the coroner’s judgement and care, has been shed on the evidence of what happened to those 48 young people has gone a long way in removing the stains, the rumours, the lies, the mistakes that have haunted the families of the Stardust victims since before the embers of that fire even went out’.

Ms Campbell said it was now over to the jury to ‘write the last chapter’ of the Stardust story. She concluded by saying the failures she had outlined were causative of the deaths that followed, adding: ‘And that being the evidence, the conclusion must be that the 48 victims of the Stardust fire were unlawfully killed.’

Barrister Seán Guerin also addressed the jury, telling them: ‘The families have waited longer than Moses wandered in the desert but theirs is without justice. To say they died in a fire only raises the question of what caused the fire and what caused it to spread so quickly that so many were unable to get out alive.’ He urged the jury to consider what were the facts and circumstances that led to these deaths.

The fire occurred at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin, on February 14, 1981. Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane will today begin summarising the evidence heard since April.