Stardust owner ‘must repay compensation’
Relatives want return of £600k payout awarded to Butterly family in 1983
THE families of the 48 young people killed in the Stardust inferno are seeking the repayment of compensation paid to the owners of the doomed nightclub, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
And they have vowed to take legal action to secure the almost IR£600,000 paid in 1983 to the family who owned the venue.
A source told the MoS: ‘An official demand was made for money paid in compensation to the Butterly family to be repaid. This request was made to Dublin City Council, and so far the local authority has not responded.
‘During the inquest there was no evidence the fire was caused by arson so it would seem this compensation was paid erroneously. If funds are not repaid, then the families will take a judicial review.’
The revelation comes as victims’ relatives met with Taoiseach Simon Harris at Government Buildings yesterday to discuss the wording of an official State apology.
The 37-year-old Taoiseach – who was not even born when the devastating
‘There is so much to apologise for’
nightclub blaze occurred in the early hours of Valentine’s Day in 1981 – will deliver the apology in the Dáil on Tuesday in front of the families in the public gallery.
Each of the victims’ names will be read out as their portrait is shown, giving all those who lost their lives an identity.
The Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin, was owned by businessman Patrick Butterly. His son Eamon ran the club; the now 79-year-old was among the 373 witnesses who gave evidence at the inquest into the deaths of 48 young people who perished in the fire.
Last Thursday the jury who heard the evidence at this longestever inquest found that those who died had been unlawfully killed.
After their meeting with the Taoiseach yesterday, the families of the victims vowed to continue their campaign for justice until there is a Garda investigation.
Speaking after the meeting, which lasted about an hour-anda-half, Maurice McHugh, whose only child Caroline, 17, was one of those unlawfully killed, said: ‘It has to be a genuine apology… it’s up to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the gardaí and the Minister for Justice [Helen McEntee] to establish if there has been criminality, and if there is it’s up to her to pursue it through the DPP.
Maurice’s wife Phyllis added: ‘We got a verdict which was quite good, but we didn’t get back our children. It’s a disgrace from start to finish; they’re the people who let us down from the beginning. Why are they on the bandwagon now?
‘They did everything in their power to stop this... this justice for our children.’
Bridget McDermott’s two sons George, 18, and William, 22, and her 16-year-old daughter Marcella all died in the Stardust fire.
Despite her years, Bridget, now in her late 80s, walked into Government Buildings yesterday with daughter Bríd by her side.
And after waiting almost half a century for successive governments to be held to account over how her children died, Mrs McDermott said she’s thankful someone at the highest level of authority was at last willing to listen. But she admitted it may be too late for any meaningful apology.
Mrs McDermott said: ‘It doesn’t feel any better [today] than it did [then] but I have to get over it and hope for the best.
‘I’m proud of my family and everyone and all the mothers and fathers that went through what I did. God bless and thank everyone especially the public… the apology, it just means something. They’re sorry but it’s a bit late.’
Carole Barrett, whose 17-yearold brother Michael died in the fire, said the Taoiseach was kind and compassionate at the meeting. ‘I went up and told him who I was, and he took my two hands and the two of us started chatting and he said: “I’m really sorry for what you’ve been through”, and I said: “Simon, you can rephrase that and say I’m really, really, sorry for what we’ve put you through.”
‘There is so much to apologise for. There really is for all the awfulness and everything that was done. ‘I always have to emphasise too how the unidentified and their families, the way they were treated. They remained unidentified for 25 years and that is so, so, wrong.’
The Taoiseach said in a statement: ‘It was a humbling and emotional meeting. I want to thank every person who attended for what they told me, both as a group and in private individual conversations.
‘More than 70 people came to the Department of the Taoiseach today. However, I am acutely aware that the number affected by Stardust is many, many multiples of that. That includes those injured, the people working in Stardust, the frontline workers who fought to save lives on the night. It includes survivors, the fire crews, the ambulance staff, the gardaí, the army, the taxi drivers and the communities across Ireland who have carried this tragedy with them for 43 years.
‘I have listened closely to everything the families told me and, as Taoiseach, I have today apologised unreservedly to each family. I will do so on behalf of the State on Tuesday next.’
Darragh Mackin, the solicitor for the majority of the Stardust families, said: ‘We’re hopeful that the apology will reflect the hurt, the suffering, the trauma but most importantly the truth.’
The families also met Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, who said a full State apology is ‘essential’. She added: ‘For four decades, they have faced obstacle after obstacle put in front of them by the State. That is why it is vital that a State apology is now made and that it address the failures of governments not just 43 years ago in the aftermath of this tragedy but every day since then.’