Haughey expressed his horror over the Stardust, but he never promised justice

The tragedy struck when country was experiencing one of the worst years in modern history

The Stardust fire was the worst symptom of a sick and sorry Ireland. The country was on its knees. Dire industrial relations, a series of strikes, crippling taxes and a stagnating economy combined to produce a series of events.

One was the overthrow of Jack Lynch, who was seen as too stale to produce solutions, in favour of rising star Charles Haughey.

There had been no bounce after the visit of Pope John Paul II in September 1979, when the country pulled together amid national euphoria.

The psychological and emotional crash set in rapidly, the IRA returned to bloody violence despite the Pope begging it to turn away from the slaughter that had seen the assassination of Louis Mountbatten and the killing of 18 members of the parachute regiment the previous month.

As the gloom redescended, Haughey seized power from Lynch and became taoiseach in December 1979.

Fine Gael’s Garret FitzGerald immediately warned in the Dáil on Charlie’s election that the new head of government had a “flawed pedigree”.

Haughey became a key figure in the critical aftermath of the fire during a Valentine’s disco in the Dublin nightclub in the early hours of February 14, 1981.

Officialdom was working in the Ireland of 1981, but often in a haphazard way by reason of an active paramilitary subversion of the State and the widespread breaking and circumvention of laws, prompted by poverty, greed and the perception that all were cutting corners.

The year 1981 was one of the worst years in modern Irish history. Youth unemployment was 20pc. Inflation peaked at 23.2pc in 1981, its highest-ever rating.

This is why people were trying to save money, paradoxically, at all costs.

Total unemployment was over 10pc at 113,096, compared to a workforce of 1.13 million, and would reach 17pc later in the depressed 80s.

But that unemployment rate was also masked by the numbers staying in, or resorting to, further education – there were 200,316 students. In total, 177,334 people were retired.

Those figures are staggering, even by today’s standards when the population is far greater.

There were also 82,882 sick or disabled people, unable to work and on benefits.

In fact, the only recent bright spark had been Johnny Logan winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980 with What’s Another Year?

Indeed, as many asked themselves: What’s another year on the dole?

1981 was also one of the worst years of the Troubles (10 prisoners died during the hunger strikes), which depressed vital tourism.

As thousands took to boats to leave the country, the IRA bombed and sank the freighter Nellie M in Lough Foyle. It was also burning ancestral homes in the North.

Then there was the Stardust tragedy in Artane, which was Haughey’s own constituency.

He expressed horror at the disaster, but he failed to say justice would be pursued to the bitter end if any liability was found for the catastrophe.

Stardust manager Eamon Butterly, like half the country, was a Fianna Fáil supporter.

This was Haughey heartland. In addition to the 48 people killed in the blaze, more than had been injured. The Fianna Fáil ard fheis, due to be held on the day the news emerged, was immediately cancelled.

By the end of the following week, the Dáil had mandated a tribunal of inquiry, similar to that held over the Betelgeuse tanker disaster, in which 50 people had died at Whiddy Island, Cork, two years before.

The chairman speedily appointed was Mr Justice Ronan Keane, who is now 91.

His wife Terry Keane had a long affair with Haughey.

It was Keane who made a finding of “probable arson”, which then allowed the Butterlys to benefit from compensation of more than IR£580,000, equivalent to the cost of more than 20 local Artane homes at the time.

This week after more than 43 years, a jury found the fire was not started by arson, but an electrical fault in a hot press inside the venue.

‘Inflation peaked at 23.2pc in 1981, its highest-ever rating in this country. Total unemployment was over 10pc at 113,096 and would reach 17pc later in the 80s’