Superb RTÉ documentary tells full story of the Stardust victims

By now we all know the statistics of the Stardust fire on February 14, Valentine’s Night, in 1981. Forty-eight — the number of dead. Two hundred — the number of injured. Forty-three — the number of years it took for the families of the dead to have the truth finally and unequivocally stated at last month’s fresh inquest: the young people who died that night were unlawfully killed.

Less easy to calculate is the number of others affected, the ones psychologically scarred. The family members and the friends of those killed in the blaze.

As well as the young lives lost and the lives impacted and irrevocably altered by that loss, there are also the other lives, the ones that should have been, but never were. The children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren who were never brought into this world. How many of those might there have been?

SHOCKWAVES

For anyone who vividly remembers coverage of the Stardust tragedy and the shockwaves the news sent through the country (I was just 18 at the time, yet still older than some of the victims, who were barely more than children), the first episode of three-part documentary Stardust

(RTÉ1, Sunday, May 12; subsequent episodes showing on consecutive nights) made for particularly powerful and emotional viewing.

Three years in the making and still being edited as close as possible to transmission, it featured deeply affecting interviews with survivors, staff who were working in the nightclub and first responders.

The late Charlie Bird also appeared, in an interview filmed in 2021, before the worst ravages of motor neurone disease took hold of his body.

As acknowledged by the families, he was more than a reporter in this case; he was a friend, supporter and fellow campaigner throughout their decades-long fight for justice in the face of lies, evasiveness and first inquest’s verdict that the fire was caused by arson.

All of this was tied in with the worst, most negative assumptions, unspoken yet implied, about the young working-class people from Coolock, Darndale and Artane who packed the Stardust that night.

These first-hand accounts were the core of this opening instalment, entitled simply ‘Fire’; the other episodes deal with the investigation and the long campaign that culminated in last month’s verdict.

No matter how much about the Stardust tragedy you’ve read or listened to over the years or in the last few weeks — and there has been some quality journalism, in both print and podcast form — it can’t compare to the stories told by the survivors, whose memories of that awful night are as horribly vivid as ever four decades later.

We heard about the atmosphere inside the Stardust, the excitement and joy of the young people who’d filed into the nightclub for a disco dancing contest.

And then came the first inkling that something was wrong. The increasing heat. The smell of smoke. The DJ announcing that “a small fire” had broken out — but there was no need to worry, no cause for panic.

Suddenly, there was cause for panic. A door was opened. The fire, fed by oxygen, raged across the ceiling, pieces of which began to fall onto the young people below. “It was as though you were in hell,” said one survivor.

There was terror and confusion. Young people tried desperately to locate their friends amid blinding, choking smoke. The lights went out. Those who made it to exits found doors chained shut and bars on windows.

The testimony of first responders was no less harrowing. A firefighter spoke of bodies falling to pieces as they were lifted, and of finding five young friends huddled in a semi-circle, their bodies fused together. Outside, the charred bodies of the dead, lined up against a wall, were still smoking and had to be hosed down.

But Máire Kearney’s superb documentary, illustrated with a wealth of archive footage and making brilliant use of the pop music of the time, the music those kids would have listened to, is more than just an account of the horrifying events. It offers an evocative picture of a proud, close-knit, working-class community affected by recession, high unemployment and emigration, yet indomitable.

“People minded people,” said one survivor. The owners of the Stardust should have minded them too.

All episodes available on RTÉ Player after broadcast.

‘The memories of that awful night are as horribly vivid four decades later’