The Stardust Tragedy

With new legal representation from Belfast firm Phoenix Law for the Stardust families, Attorney General Seamus Woulfe finally announces in 2020 that new inquests should take place. The new hearing finally gets underway in April, 2023, sitting for 122 days over the course of 12 months. The jury would finally deliver an historic unlawful killing verdict on behalf of the Stardust families, ruling that an electrical fault in the hot press caused the blaze. After 43 years, the Irish Government finally issues a State apology to the long-suffering families.

The Stardust Tragedy is brought to you by the Irish Sun. The series is produced by Urban Media.

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Families spend years fighting for a new inquiry into the disaster but at every turn they hit a brick wall. Finally, something goes their way when the Coffey Report rules out arson at the cause but stops short of ordering a new inquiry, as does the McCartan Report in 2017. But their campaign continues with support from Sinn Fein MEP Lynn Boylan and a trip to the European Parliament for some families as momentum gathers for new inquests.

The Stardust Tragedy is brought to you by the Irish Sun. The series is produced by Urban Media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Offered no counselling or support in the years that followed, survivors and families do what they can to try and cope with the devastating effects of the Stardust. Suicides, depression and addiction grips the community and many who were close to the tragedy. And then a compensation tribunal is set up, which compounds the pain for the families of the 48 dead. The Stardust Victims Committee is set up and loved ones vow that they won’t rest until they see justice.

The Stardust Tragedy is brought to you by the Irish Sun. The series is produced by Urban Media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Stardust families bury their dead amid heart-breaking scenes, while Taoiseach Charles Haughey appoints eminent judge Ronan Keane to chair a tribunal into the disaster. A rushed inquest wouldn’t look at the cause of the fire and would declare a verdict in line with the medical evidence. And then the Keane Report in June 1982 would rule that one of the patrons inside the Stardust was responsible for the blaze without any evidence and the distraught families are plunged into a new world of despair.

The Stardust Tragedy is brought to you by the Irish Sun. The series is produced by the Urban Media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The reality of the tragedy hits home as families surround loved ones in hospitals, while heartbroken mothers and fathers gather at the city morgue as tragic victims start to be identified using dental records and items of jewellery.

The authorities conduct a heartless identification process, which they want to end on Sunday evening, February 15, but extend it until 5.30pm on Tuesday. Five of the 44 confirmed dead wouldn’t be identified by this deadline and would remain unidentified for 26 years. Four more would die in hospital in the days and weeks that followed.    

The Stardust Tragedy is brought to you by the Irish Sun. The series is produced by Urban Media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First responders tell of the carnage that greeted them when they arrived at the blazing nightclub, and their brave attempts to rescue who they could. By 4am 40 bodies are lined up in the city morgue, while the city’s hospitals become over-run with the injured as medical staff try to cope in the aftermath of the tragedy. Desperate families are woken in the middle of the night and flee to garda stations and sick wards in search of their loved ones.

The Stardust Tragedy is brought to you by the Irish Sun. The series is produced by Urban Media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Couples and friends drink and party the night away, revelling in the freedom of being young. As the long-awaited dance competition draws to a close, flames and smoke are spotted in the west alcove at about 1.40am and the nightclub turns into an inferno within minutes. Survivors recount horror tales of desperate attempts to escape through locked emergency exits and vain attempts to search for missing friends as Ireland’s worst fire disaster unfolds around them.

The Stardust Tragedy is brought to you by the Irish Sun. The series is produced by Urban Media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Stardust Tragedy begins its story in North Dublin which goes from farmland to urban sprawl in the 60s and 70s as thousands of young families become the first to settle in brand new housing estates. As they grow, music is an escape for the working class teens and the concert halls and nightclubs become their weekends. On February 13, 1981, hordes of excited young people get ready to attend a St Valentine’s night ball in Artane’s popular Stardust club.

The Stardust Tragedy is brought to you by the Irish Sun. The series is produced by Urban Media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.