Bodies fused together in death: How Stardust was seared into Irish consciousness
It was a night of giddy teenage romance that suddenly turned into Ireland’s worst ever fire disaster. The Stardust inferno killed 48 young people, injured hundreds more and led to a decades-long search for answers and justice.
Around 800 youngsters had made their way to the Stardust, a nightclub housed in a converted factory in the north Dublin suburb of Artane, on the night of 13 February 1981.
An evening of dancing and drinking on the eve of Valentine’s Day was promised. There was even a dancing competition.
Seventeen-year-old Marie Kennedy from nearby Kilbarrack was among the partygoers. “Disco dancing was her really big thing,” recalled her sister Michelle.
“She loved the Bee Gees, The Jackson 5, Leo Sayer and Abba. Her love of music and dancing was the reason she was in the Stardust on that night – she wanted to see the dancing competition.”
George O’Connor was among the 48 young people who didn’t make it.
George O’Connor was also 17. His mother ironed his shirt while George got his hair just right. His sister Donna remembers “critiquing his outfit and telling him no girl would ask him to dance dressed like he was”.
The night of revelry was passing unremarkably until the small hours of Valentine’s Day.
Suddenly, at around 1.40am, a fire was spotted in a sectioned-off area of the ballroom known as the west alcove.
Witnesses remember hearing a bang
As the alarm was raised, the fire spread at a terrifying pace.
The DJ halted the music and asked people to evacuate. Witnesses remember hearing a bang, and the power failed.
Family members of victims of the Stardust tragedy along with supporters arriving at the Rotunda Foundation in Dublin for the 15th pre-inquest hearing in 2022. Pic: PA
As panicked patrons fought to find exits, molten ceiling material showered down on them in the darkness, which was filling with noxious smoke and fumes.
Survivors reported seeing exit doors chained and locked, adding to the chaos.
The inquest heard that most of the victims were already dead by the time the first fire engines arrived at the scene. The firefighters found unimaginable carnage; heaps of bodies and body parts.
Fireman James Tormey entered the club to find a “massive glow with intense heat”, and his ears started to burn as they weren’t covered by his equipment.
He found a man’s torso clad in a red jumper near one of the exit doors. He was “just two or three steps” from safety, the firefighter told the inquest.
‘They were trying to comfort each other before their demise’
Mr Tormey also discovered the bodies of two young people “arms around each other and the bodies were fused together as one”. He said he believed they were “trying to comfort each other before they met their demise”.
Another firefighter, Noel Keegan, saw six to eight bodies piled on top of each other in the toilets. Another was inside an exit, still on fire.
He remembered another body near the toilets appeared to have been trodden on.
“It was burnt beyond recognition and the intestines were showing,” he said.
A fleet of ambulances and taxis took the dead and dying to several Dublin hospitals, which were in danger of becoming overwhelmed by the casualties.
Marie Kennedy and George O’Connor were among the 48 who did not make it. It was soon clear that this was a tragedy unlike anything Ireland had seen.
Compensation payout for owners infuriated relatives
The demand for answers started immediately. Later in 1981, a tribunal found no definitive origin for the fire, but that the “probable cause” was arson. This infuriated survivors and relatives of the dead, who saw it as victim-blaming.
And so a long campaign began. The finding of arson not only protected the nightclub’s owners, the Butterly family, from any criminal charges or civil lawsuits, but also entitled them to compensation.
They were awarded IR£581,000 from a Dublin court in 1983.
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The Stardust families were enraged, but it took until 2009 for a new independent review to finally dismiss arson as a cause.
That was one victory, but fresh inquests remained elusive. After years of pressure and lobbying, a new inquest into the Stardust deaths was eventually ordered in September 2019, but agonisingly for the families, didn’t get under way until 2023.
At an anniversary event in 2022, Samantha Mangan, whose mother Helena was killed, told Sky News that the new inquest couldn’t come soon enough.
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She said: “It’s like a brick, it’s killing me. It feels like there’s a chain around my neck. I can’t move forward until I find out what happened to her and why she didn’t come home.”
Scar on the city
Now, after nearly a year of hearings and 373 witnesses, the bereaved families are at the end of the inquest process.
In the decades since the inferno claimed their loved ones, the word Stardust has become synonymous in Ireland with tragedy and injustice on a massive scale.
Much like “Hillsborough” on Merseyside, or “Grenfell” in more recent times, the mere mention of “Stardust” can evoke pain and anger in Dublin – the mass death of innocents, exacerbated by an exhausting battle for answers by those left behind, who perceive an ingrained socioeconomic bias against their cause.
Time will tell if that scar on the city’s story will now begin to fade.
Those who never came home – some of the Stardust victims:
Caroline McHugh was 17 when she lost her life in the Stardust disaster.
Caroline McHugh (17): A lover of singing, swimming and Enid Blyton books, Caroline’s parents allowed her to skip a family wedding in Manchester to stay in Dublin and go to the dancing competition in the Stardust, a decision which has haunted them ever since.
Phyllis and Maurice McHugh were “advised not to see the remains because of severe burns and that she had no hair, was unrecognisable and unidentifiable.
“We were informed that Caroline had been bagged and tagged as number six.”
‘Michael was always smiling and had an infectious laugh’, his mother recalled.
Michael Barrett (17): “Michael was always smiling and had an infectious laugh”, recalled his mother Gertrude, who was “catapulted into unimaginable grief and sorrow.”
She spent four days at the morgue. “Michael would be the last identified victim of the Stardust… as a family we will never recover.”
Caroline Carey was described by her sister Maria as ‘our beautiful, bubbly, witty Caroline’.
Caroline Carey (17): “Our beautiful, bubbly, witty Caroline is gone”, said her sister Maria. “While watching news reports on TV, we saw Caroline being carried out in the arms of a fireman.
“He placed her down and tried to resuscitate her, but it was too late. There wasn’t a mark on her. Even her nails were perfect.”
From Belfast, Jim Millar was encouraged to move to Dublin by his father to escape the devastation of The Troubles.
Jim Millar (21): From Belfast, Jim was encouraged to move to Dublin by his father to escape the devastation of The Troubles.
“Our dad blamed himself for Jim’s death”, said his sister Laura.
“Maybe seeing justice being done will help a little, but it’s been a long time coming. Too long. Maybe then, they all can rest in peace at last.”
The United Nations Security Council has passed a US resolution which endorses Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza.
Russia, which had circulated a rival resolution, abstained along with China on the 13-0 vote.
The resolution endorses the US president’s 20-point ceasefire plan, which calls for a yet-to-be-established Board of Peace as a transitional authority that Mr Trump would head.
Read more: What does Trump’s Gaza peace plan look like?
US ambassador Mike Waltz said the resolution was “historic and constructive”, but it was “just the beginning”.
“Today’s resolution represents another significant step towards a stable Gaza that will be able to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security,” he added.
Pic: Reuters
The proposal gives no timeline or guarantee for an independent Palestinian state, only saying “the conditions may finally be in place” after advances in the reconstruction of Gaza and reforms of the Palestinian Authority – now governing parts of the West Bank.
It also says that the US “will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence”.
The language on statehood was strengthened after Arab nations and Palestinians pressured the US over nearly two weeks of negotiations, but it has also angered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He has vowed to oppose any attempt to establish a Palestinian state, and on Sunday pledged to demilitarise Gaza “the easy way or the hard way”.
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Hamas: International force is ‘in favour of’ Israel
In a statement rejecting the resolutions’ passing, a Hamas spokesperson said that it “falls far short of the political and humanitarian demands and rights of our Palestinian people”.
“The effects and repercussions of this war continue to this day, despite the declared end of the war according to President Trump’s plan,” they added.
“The resolution imposes an international trusteeship mechanism on the Gaza Strip, which our people, their forces, and factions reject.”
The spokesperson then said that “assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favour of the occupation”.
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The Palestinian Authority, however, issued a statement welcoming the resolution and said it is ready to take part in its implementation.
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Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death.
It comes after the 78-year-old was found guilty of ordering lethal force in a crackdown on a student-led uprising that ended her 15-year rule.
The former leader, who is now exiled in India, was tried in absentia by the Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) after the United Nations said up to 1,400 people may have been killed in last year’s violence.
Bangladesh‘s health adviser in the interim government said more than 800 people were killed and about 14,000 were injured.
Following a months-long trial, Hasina got a life sentence under charges for crimes against humanity and the death sentence for the killing of several people during the uprising.
In a statement released after the verdict, Hasina said the ruling was “biased and politically motivated” and “neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters”.
“I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,” she added.
“I wholly deny the accusations that have been made against me in the ICT. I mourn all of the deaths that occurred in July and August of last year, on both sides of the political divide. But neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters.”
The students initially started protesting over the way government jobs were being allocated, but clashes with police and pro-government activists quickly escalated into violence.
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August 2024: Protesters celebrate Sheikh Hasina’s resignation
The court revealed conversations of Hasina directing security officers to drop bombs from helicopters on the protesters.
She also permitted the use of lethal weapons, including shotguns at close range for maximum harm, the court was told.
Hasina, who previously called the tribunal a “kangaroo court”, fled to India in August 2024 at the height of the uprising.
She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the country to independence.
Hasina is also the aunt of former UK government minister, Tulip Saddiq, who resigned from her Treasury job at the start of this year.
Ms Siddiq had faced calls to step down over links to her aunt and was also said to be facing a corruption trial in Bangladesh.
She told Sky News in August the accusations were “nothing more than a farce” and said she had never been contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities.
The ICT, Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court located in the capital, delivered its four-hour verdict on Monday amid tight security.
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What was behind the protests?
The packed courtroom cheered and clapped when the sentence was read out.
The tribunal also sentenced former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan – also exiled in India – to death.
A third suspect, a former police chief, was sentenced to five years in prison as he became a state witness against Hasina and pleaded guilty.
The ruling is the most dramatic legal action against a former Bangladeshi leader since independence in 1971 and comes ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held in February.
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July 2024: Bangladesh protest has ‘become a war’
Foreign ministry officials in Bangladesh have called on India to hand over the former prime minister, adding it was obligated to do so under an existing treaty between the two nations.
India’s foreign ministry said it had noted the verdict concerning Hasina and “remained committed” to the people of Bangladesh.
“We will always engage constructively with all stakeholders to that end,” the ministry added in a statement.
During the verdict, protesters had gathered outside the former home-turned-museum of Hasina’s late father demanding the building be demolished.
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Protesters gather outside the former home of Sheikh Hasina’s late father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Pic: AP
Police used batons and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
Paramilitary border guards and police have been deployed in Dhaka and many other parts of the country, while the interim government warned any attempt to create disorder will be “strictly” dealt with.
Hasina’s Awami League party called for a nationwide shutdown in protest at the verdict.
The mood in the country had been described as tense ahead of Monday’s ruling.
The protests escalated during the summer of 2024. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
At least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles were set on fire across Bangladesh during the past few days.
Local media said two people were killed in the arson attacks, according to the Associated Press.
Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister, has been sentenced to death after being convicted of crimes against humanity.
It follows a months-long trial in the country that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.
The former leader, exiled in India, was tried in absentia after the United Nations said up to 1,400 people may have been killed in the violence.
Bangladesh’s health adviser under the interim government said more than 800 people were killed and about 14,000 were injured.
The students initially started protesting over the way government jobs were being allocated, but clashes with police and pro-government activists quickly escalated into violence.
The court revealed conversations of Hasina directing security officers to drop bombs from helicopters on the protesters.
She also permitted the use of lethal weapons, including shotguns at close range for maximum harm, the court was told.
Hasina, who previously called the tribunal a “kangaroo court”, fled to India in August 2024 at the height of the uprising, ending 15 years of rule.
In a statement released after the verdict, Hasina said the ruling was “biased and politically motivated” and “neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protesters”.
“I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,” she added.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
August 2024: Protesters celebrate Sheikh Hasina’s resignation
The 78-year-old is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the country to independence.
The International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh’s domestic war crimes court located in the capital Dhaka, delivered its four-hour verdict amid tight security.
Hasina received a life sentence under charges for crimes against humanity and the death sentence for the killing of several people during the uprising.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
What was behind the protests?
The packed courtroom cheered and clapped when the sentence was read out.
The tribunal also sentenced former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan – also exiled in India – to death.
A third suspect, a former police chief, was sentenced to five years in prison as he became a state witness against Hasina and pleaded guilty.
The ruling is the most dramatic legal action against a former Bangladeshi leader since independence in 1971 and comes ahead of parliamentary elections expected to be held in February.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
July 2024: Bangladesh protest has ‘become a war’
Foreign ministry officials in Bangladesh have called on India to hand over the former prime minister, adding it was obligated to do so under an existing treaty between the two nations. India has not yet made any response.
Paramilitary border guards and police have been deployed in Dhaka and many other parts of the country, while the interim government warned any attempt to create disorder will be “strictly” dealt with.
It comes after Hasina’s Awami League party called for a nationwide shutdown as part of a protest against the verdict.
The mood in the country had been described as tense ahead of Monday’s ruling.
The protests escalated during the summer of 2024. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
At least 30 crude bomb explosions and 26 vehicles were set on fire across Bangladesh during the past few days.
Local media said two people were killed in the arson attacks, according to the Associated Press.
Hasina is also the aunt of former UK government minister, Tulip Saddiq, who resigned from her Treasury job at the start of this year.
Read more from Sky News:
Hundreds of tonnes of ‘revolting’ waste dumped next to river
Arctic air to bring risk of ice and snow to the UK this week
Ms Siddiq had faced calls to step down over links to her aunt and was also said to be facing a corruption trial in Bangladesh.
She told Sky News in August the accusations were “nothing more than a farce” and said she had never been contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities.
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