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Please read and think of the 48 young people who died on Valentines day 1981.
Stardust: 48 died because Profit put before people
Every night between twenty and forty people gather in the heart of Artane, on Dublin’s Northside. They come from all over the city to show their solidarity with the families of the Stardust victims. It is a remarkable tribute to the power of memory and solidarity. Twenty five years after a terrible scandal, you can sense a real feeling that this time - at last – there is an unstoppable movement for justice.
The protest began when Eamonn Butterly attempted to open a pub on the site where many young people lost their lives. Such was his arrogance that he tried to open the pub on the very anniversary of the fire.
There is a strong sense of outrage about a cover up organised by the Irish state. The Tribunal which was set up after the fire and chaired by Ronan Keane was as flawed as the Widgery Tribunal in Derry. And just as families, kept organising for many years for justice – so too has the thread of anger and grief been maintained in Artane.
Twenty five years ago, this was the heart of Charlie Haughey’s electoral base. He strode around the area king dispensing favours from his vast funds. Only later, people found that he had been funded by bribes – and so he was giving back a few crumbs he gained from his corrupt activities.
Today the Fianna Fail empire is crumbling. Sean Haughey who is the local TD has turned up to one of the nightly pickets once but could not bring himself to hold a placard. The disgraced junior minister Ivor Callely recently attended a local People Before Profit Alliance meeting but could say nothing to the one hundred strong crowd.
The protestors know that only people power is going to bring justice. The pickets already have closed down the pub and there is now an attempt to transfer the licence to a new owner. The families have objected and the case was adjourned for a re-hearing on March 29th.
The Fire That Devasted So Many
The fire that engulfed Dublin’s Stardust nightclub in the early hours of St Valentine’s Day 1981 killed 48 young people and injured and disfigured many more. Countless others will continue to suffer the emotional scars of loss and grief for the remainder of their lives.
There were almost 850 people in the Stardust when the fire broke out on Valentine’s night. In all, 25 men and 23 women died. Eleven others were badly disfigured or disabled and 214 people were injured. The average age of those who died was 19.
For such a vast night club to burn so quickly poses many questions. Normally the way fire burns in an open space leaves people with time to get out of it’s path. Many people had seen fire burning on some seats, but within seconds of seeing these seats on fire, the whole room was filled with smoke and flames. Within 11 minutes of people leaving the club after seeing the fire the building was completely engulfed.
One Survivor described how she heard the fire roaring even though she could not see it clearly at that stage. Fires roar when they are drawing large volumes of air. And the roar is made louder if the fire is drawing air in through the walls or ceiling. This noise is amplified by the vibrations of the walls or ceiling. It would be extremely un-lightly that a small fire could enter the ceiling and or wall space , so quickly, if it had not already started there.
The reason that there were hollow spaces between the ceiling and roof , is that before the stardust was a night club, it was a jam factory. The steel girders which supported the roof were covered with a ceiling. Some survivors sustained hand injuries because of the falling jam. When jam is heated to very high temperatures it starts to burn, the sugars in the jam caramelise and adhere to skin making it act like Napalm.
The failure to ensure that this jam was cleaned, before the building was converted, further contributed to peoples pain and suffering.
Stardust Survivor Anthony Mc Donald described on the prime time documentary which aired on RTE on 14th February 2006, how he “picked up one of the chains on the fire exit doors, and it was locked to the door. It was not just draped over the push bar.
Many of the family members and survivors I have talked to described standing a long way back from the building , and sweating from the heat. Many of them knew at this stage that anyone who was not out of the Stardust would never get out. It is impossible to imagine, the trauma that this realisation had. At this stage many people could not find any of their friends and family who they knew to be in the Stardust.
How did the fire start?
This description of the fire leads one to believe that something else beside the seats was burning. If something else beside the seats was on fire, the first question is what was on fire, and how did the fire start?
This question is crucial. If the fire started in the lamp room it would be extremely unlikely to be arson. If the Tribunal, had come to this conclusion it would mean that Butterly business would have been wiped out as the families would have pursued them for compensation. Eamonn Butterly would have faced a possible prison sentence for the manslaughter of 48 people.
The owners of the Stardust when they put in their claim for damages listed the contents of the lamp room. Many of the items included extremely flammable substances such as floor polish. Experts who looked into the Stardust have said that these items would combust if exposed to heat.
Crucially they would not need a flame just heat would cause them to break down and combust. Tony Gillick, former Chief Fire Officer for Dublin, described the contents of the lamp room as a “bomb”.
No Charges Against Butterly
Despite the official inquiry into the disaster finding that the Stardust owners had acted with “reckless disregard” for the safety of their customers, and the Gardai sending a 633-page file to the Director of Public Prosecutions, no charges were ever brought against Eamonn Butterly.
The only charge from the disaster was against John Keegan, who lost two daughters Mary, aged 19, Martina aged 16 while a third daughter, Antoinette, was injured in the Stardust. He was charged for the assault on Eamonn Butterly.
It is absolutely outrageous that the only person the state could charge in connection with the Stardust disaster was the grieving father, of two of the victims of the fire. John Keegan died in 1986. His daughters and wife always say he died because of the Stardust, and the loss of his two daughters.
However I am incorrect in saying that the only person that the courts of the state could see fit to pursue in connection with the Stardust Fire was John Keegan.
The law on sub judice, in this state also meant that The Song
“The Fire In Artane”, was withdrawn from the shelves shortly after it was released due to a High Court decision. The song was written by and sung by Christy Moore. The reason given for the removal of the song, was it contains the Words “the fire exits were chained”.
According to the tribunal “Eamonn Butterly had misled Dublin Corporation about his fire safety practices and that he had been negligent in training his staff. Eamonn Butterly also failed to cooperate with the early stages of the inquiry and had locked or otherwise obstructed exit doors on the night of the fire.”
The tribunal also stated “The tribunal has been compelled to treat Mr Eamonn Butterly’s evidence with the greatest reserve.” This is a gentlemen’s way of saying he might have been economical with the truth.
No charges were ever brought against the Butterly family. In fact they went on to win substantial damages for the loss of the nightclub complex. Eamonn Butterly was represented at the tribunal by Nial McCarthy, a future Supreme Court judge, and Peter Sutherland, the future attorney general.
We Were All Fianna Failers
Who are the Butterly’s anyway?
Who the Butterly’s are can be clearly summed up in the following statementwhich Paddy Butterly wrote in his book From Radishes to Riches which hewrote with the assistance of Tony Canavan. He was speaking about politicians.
‘‘What you had these people for was to help get things. I don’t mean by giving them money. But if you wanted to know something about your business or you wanted someone who could do something, you didn’t get the answers by writing into the papers. You asked these people.”
A very clear indication of the world which the Butterly’s lived in can be seen in the list of people they did business with.
Financier Greg Sparks, who would later become economic adviser to Tanaiste Dick Spring, worked with the Butterly's for two years in the early 1980s.
Kevin Boland, the then Minister for Industry and Commerce, joined Butterly for a coffee and a chat nearly every morning.
Jack Lynch asked Butterly to join Taca, the Fianna Fail fundraising initiative for wealthy businessmen. ‘‘We were all Fianna Failers,” Butterly said in his memoirs.
Paddy Butterly, according to these same memoirs, sat on company boards with accountant Des Traynor who ran the Ansbacher bank. This bank was used by the wealthy in Ireland to hide money from the citizens of Ireland. One of his other associates was the architect Sam Stephenson who designed many Government buildings such as the Central Bank.
Also according to the memoirs, he sold one farm in north Dublin, Scott’s Farm, to a London-based builder called Joe Murphy and his company JMSE. Years later, Murphy and the land deal were probed by the Planning Corruption Tribunal.
Patrick Butterly owned the Stardust nightclub in Artane in north Dublin. His son, Eamonn, was the general manager and leased the venue from his father through a separate company. Several Butterly family members worked at the nightclub.
The Butterly family have so many different names for their companies that it gets quite confusing to a member of the public, as to who actually owns what at this stage.
According to documents lodged with the Companies Registration Office in Dublin, Eamonn Butterly is a director of seven companies, most of which were established by his father. His brother Colm, is listed as a director of five of the seven companies.
The main company, Butterly Business Park, has assets worth more than €10.9 million and had retained profits of €5.5 million at the end of 2004. The company operates the business park and owns another company, Butterly Enterprises, which in turn has two subsidiaries, Patrick Butterly & Sons and Patrick Butterly & Sons (Farms).
Eamonn and Madeline Butterly are also directors and shareholders of two non-group companies, Orchard Business Development and Newland Court Management. Both companies relate to the development of an apartment scheme at Newlands Cross on the Kilmore Road in Dublin 15.
An Insult To The Memory Of Fire Victims
Twenty five eyars after the terrible fire
Eamonn Butterly’s attitude can been seen in his own words, and actions after the fire. Within two weeks of the Stardust fire, Eamonn Butterly was quoted as saying that he saw no reason why the complex should not be reopened. ‘‘But if I were building it again I would build it in concrete which does not burn,” he said.
In 1988, a property development firm, Amadale Construction, applied for planning permission to build an entertainment complex on the site of the Stardust. At the time, Eamonn Butterly was reported in the Star newspaper as saying that, besides owning the land, he had nothing to do with the plans.
But an investigation into Amadale by Tony McCullagh and Neil Fetherstonhaugh, authors of They Never Came Home, a book on the Stardust fire, uncovered the directors of Amadale as Patrick Butterly, Eamonn Butterly and his brother Colm.
The family never managed to reopen a nightclub on the site of the Stardust. They did, however, open a large pub on the site in the mid-1980s. This Pub was recently extensively renovated and called the Silver Swan.
The naming of the pub “The Silver Swan” is extremely cruel as the original pub which was on the Stardust site was also called “the Silver Swan”. When Butterly’s attempted to open the pub on the night of the 25th anniversary of the fire, it proved just too much, for the families of those who were injured or killed.
Due to the nightly pickets of anywhere between 20 and 40 people the pub has been forced to remain closed. Also the Maxol petrol station is being boycotted by the community now that they have become aware that it is also operated by the Butterly family.
The holding company which owns the petrol station is called Chopard International, it is directed by Andrea Butterly, Glen Butterly & David Farrell, who is the partner of Andrea Butterly
Twenty five years on the families of those who died are still asking why did we never get justice?
Brid McDermott, who lost three children - William (22) George (19) and Marcella (16) - in the fire, said a proper public inquiry into the blaze was well overdue. "I still have no answers as to why my children died." She said this while holding a banner outside Mr Ahern's constituency office, St Luke's in Drumcondra on Saturday 4th March.
The Stardust families are still campaigning to have the inquests reopened and for a new public inquiry into the tragedy. Members say their grief has been compounded by the actions of the Butterly family, who have never apologised for the fire.
Stardust: 48 died because Profit put before people
Every night between twenty and forty people gather in the heart of Artane, on Dublin’s Northside. They come from all over the city to show their solidarity with the families of the Stardust victims. It is a remarkable tribute to the power of memory and solidarity. Twenty five years after a terrible scandal, you can sense a real feeling that this time - at last – there is an unstoppable movement for justice.
The protest began when Eamonn Butterly attempted to open a pub on the site where many young people lost their lives. Such was his arrogance that he tried to open the pub on the very anniversary of the fire.
There is a strong sense of outrage about a cover up organised by the Irish state. The Tribunal which was set up after the fire and chaired by Ronan Keane was as flawed as the Widgery Tribunal in Derry. And just as families, kept organising for many years for justice – so too has the thread of anger and grief been maintained in Artane.
Twenty five years ago, this was the heart of Charlie Haughey’s electoral base. He strode around the area king dispensing favours from his vast funds. Only later, people found that he had been funded by bribes – and so he was giving back a few crumbs he gained from his corrupt activities.
Today the Fianna Fail empire is crumbling. Sean Haughey who is the local TD has turned up to one of the nightly pickets once but could not bring himself to hold a placard. The disgraced junior minister Ivor Callely recently attended a local People Before Profit Alliance meeting but could say nothing to the one hundred strong crowd.
The protestors know that only people power is going to bring justice. The pickets already have closed down the pub and there is now an attempt to transfer the licence to a new owner. The families have objected and the case was adjourned for a re-hearing on March 29th.
The Fire That Devasted So Many
The fire that engulfed Dublin’s Stardust nightclub in the early hours of St Valentine’s Day 1981 killed 48 young people and injured and disfigured many more. Countless others will continue to suffer the emotional scars of loss and grief for the remainder of their lives.
There were almost 850 people in the Stardust when the fire broke out on Valentine’s night. In all, 25 men and 23 women died. Eleven others were badly disfigured or disabled and 214 people were injured. The average age of those who died was 19.
For such a vast night club to burn so quickly poses many questions. Normally the way fire burns in an open space leaves people with time to get out of it’s path. Many people had seen fire burning on some seats, but within seconds of seeing these seats on fire, the whole room was filled with smoke and flames. Within 11 minutes of people leaving the club after seeing the fire the building was completely engulfed.
One Survivor described how she heard the fire roaring even though she could not see it clearly at that stage. Fires roar when they are drawing large volumes of air. And the roar is made louder if the fire is drawing air in through the walls or ceiling. This noise is amplified by the vibrations of the walls or ceiling. It would be extremely un-lightly that a small fire could enter the ceiling and or wall space , so quickly, if it had not already started there.
The reason that there were hollow spaces between the ceiling and roof , is that before the stardust was a night club, it was a jam factory. The steel girders which supported the roof were covered with a ceiling. Some survivors sustained hand injuries because of the falling jam. When jam is heated to very high temperatures it starts to burn, the sugars in the jam caramelise and adhere to skin making it act like Napalm.
The failure to ensure that this jam was cleaned, before the building was converted, further contributed to peoples pain and suffering.
Stardust Survivor Anthony Mc Donald described on the prime time documentary which aired on RTE on 14th February 2006, how he “picked up one of the chains on the fire exit doors, and it was locked to the door. It was not just draped over the push bar.
Many of the family members and survivors I have talked to described standing a long way back from the building , and sweating from the heat. Many of them knew at this stage that anyone who was not out of the Stardust would never get out. It is impossible to imagine, the trauma that this realisation had. At this stage many people could not find any of their friends and family who they knew to be in the Stardust.
How did the fire start?
This description of the fire leads one to believe that something else beside the seats was burning. If something else beside the seats was on fire, the first question is what was on fire, and how did the fire start?
This question is crucial. If the fire started in the lamp room it would be extremely unlikely to be arson. If the Tribunal, had come to this conclusion it would mean that Butterly business would have been wiped out as the families would have pursued them for compensation. Eamonn Butterly would have faced a possible prison sentence for the manslaughter of 48 people.
The owners of the Stardust when they put in their claim for damages listed the contents of the lamp room. Many of the items included extremely flammable substances such as floor polish. Experts who looked into the Stardust have said that these items would combust if exposed to heat.
Crucially they would not need a flame just heat would cause them to break down and combust. Tony Gillick, former Chief Fire Officer for Dublin, described the contents of the lamp room as a “bomb”.
No Charges Against Butterly
Despite the official inquiry into the disaster finding that the Stardust owners had acted with “reckless disregard” for the safety of their customers, and the Gardai sending a 633-page file to the Director of Public Prosecutions, no charges were ever brought against Eamonn Butterly.
The only charge from the disaster was against John Keegan, who lost two daughters Mary, aged 19, Martina aged 16 while a third daughter, Antoinette, was injured in the Stardust. He was charged for the assault on Eamonn Butterly.
It is absolutely outrageous that the only person the state could charge in connection with the Stardust disaster was the grieving father, of two of the victims of the fire. John Keegan died in 1986. His daughters and wife always say he died because of the Stardust, and the loss of his two daughters.
However I am incorrect in saying that the only person that the courts of the state could see fit to pursue in connection with the Stardust Fire was John Keegan.
The law on sub judice, in this state also meant that The Song
“The Fire In Artane”, was withdrawn from the shelves shortly after it was released due to a High Court decision. The song was written by and sung by Christy Moore. The reason given for the removal of the song, was it contains the Words “the fire exits were chained”.
According to the tribunal “Eamonn Butterly had misled Dublin Corporation about his fire safety practices and that he had been negligent in training his staff. Eamonn Butterly also failed to cooperate with the early stages of the inquiry and had locked or otherwise obstructed exit doors on the night of the fire.”
The tribunal also stated “The tribunal has been compelled to treat Mr Eamonn Butterly’s evidence with the greatest reserve.” This is a gentlemen’s way of saying he might have been economical with the truth.
No charges were ever brought against the Butterly family. In fact they went on to win substantial damages for the loss of the nightclub complex. Eamonn Butterly was represented at the tribunal by Nial McCarthy, a future Supreme Court judge, and Peter Sutherland, the future attorney general.
We Were All Fianna Failers
Who are the Butterly’s anyway?
Who the Butterly’s are can be clearly summed up in the following statementwhich Paddy Butterly wrote in his book From Radishes to Riches which hewrote with the assistance of Tony Canavan. He was speaking about politicians.
‘‘What you had these people for was to help get things. I don’t mean by giving them money. But if you wanted to know something about your business or you wanted someone who could do something, you didn’t get the answers by writing into the papers. You asked these people.”
A very clear indication of the world which the Butterly’s lived in can be seen in the list of people they did business with.
Financier Greg Sparks, who would later become economic adviser to Tanaiste Dick Spring, worked with the Butterly's for two years in the early 1980s.
Kevin Boland, the then Minister for Industry and Commerce, joined Butterly for a coffee and a chat nearly every morning.
Jack Lynch asked Butterly to join Taca, the Fianna Fail fundraising initiative for wealthy businessmen. ‘‘We were all Fianna Failers,” Butterly said in his memoirs.
Paddy Butterly, according to these same memoirs, sat on company boards with accountant Des Traynor who ran the Ansbacher bank. This bank was used by the wealthy in Ireland to hide money from the citizens of Ireland. One of his other associates was the architect Sam Stephenson who designed many Government buildings such as the Central Bank.
Also according to the memoirs, he sold one farm in north Dublin, Scott’s Farm, to a London-based builder called Joe Murphy and his company JMSE. Years later, Murphy and the land deal were probed by the Planning Corruption Tribunal.
Patrick Butterly owned the Stardust nightclub in Artane in north Dublin. His son, Eamonn, was the general manager and leased the venue from his father through a separate company. Several Butterly family members worked at the nightclub.
The Butterly family have so many different names for their companies that it gets quite confusing to a member of the public, as to who actually owns what at this stage.
According to documents lodged with the Companies Registration Office in Dublin, Eamonn Butterly is a director of seven companies, most of which were established by his father. His brother Colm, is listed as a director of five of the seven companies.
The main company, Butterly Business Park, has assets worth more than €10.9 million and had retained profits of €5.5 million at the end of 2004. The company operates the business park and owns another company, Butterly Enterprises, which in turn has two subsidiaries, Patrick Butterly & Sons and Patrick Butterly & Sons (Farms).
Eamonn and Madeline Butterly are also directors and shareholders of two non-group companies, Orchard Business Development and Newland Court Management. Both companies relate to the development of an apartment scheme at Newlands Cross on the Kilmore Road in Dublin 15.
An Insult To The Memory Of Fire Victims
Twenty five eyars after the terrible fire
Eamonn Butterly’s attitude can been seen in his own words, and actions after the fire. Within two weeks of the Stardust fire, Eamonn Butterly was quoted as saying that he saw no reason why the complex should not be reopened. ‘‘But if I were building it again I would build it in concrete which does not burn,” he said.
In 1988, a property development firm, Amadale Construction, applied for planning permission to build an entertainment complex on the site of the Stardust. At the time, Eamonn Butterly was reported in the Star newspaper as saying that, besides owning the land, he had nothing to do with the plans.
But an investigation into Amadale by Tony McCullagh and Neil Fetherstonhaugh, authors of They Never Came Home, a book on the Stardust fire, uncovered the directors of Amadale as Patrick Butterly, Eamonn Butterly and his brother Colm.
The family never managed to reopen a nightclub on the site of the Stardust. They did, however, open a large pub on the site in the mid-1980s. This Pub was recently extensively renovated and called the Silver Swan.
The naming of the pub “The Silver Swan” is extremely cruel as the original pub which was on the Stardust site was also called “the Silver Swan”. When Butterly’s attempted to open the pub on the night of the 25th anniversary of the fire, it proved just too much, for the families of those who were injured or killed.
Due to the nightly pickets of anywhere between 20 and 40 people the pub has been forced to remain closed. Also the Maxol petrol station is being boycotted by the community now that they have become aware that it is also operated by the Butterly family.
The holding company which owns the petrol station is called Chopard International, it is directed by Andrea Butterly, Glen Butterly & David Farrell, who is the partner of Andrea Butterly
Twenty five years on the families of those who died are still asking why did we never get justice?
Brid McDermott, who lost three children - William (22) George (19) and Marcella (16) - in the fire, said a proper public inquiry into the blaze was well overdue. "I still have no answers as to why my children died." She said this while holding a banner outside Mr Ahern's constituency office, St Luke's in Drumcondra on Saturday 4th March.
The Stardust families are still campaigning to have the inquests reopened and for a new public inquiry into the tragedy. Members say their grief has been compounded by the actions of the Butterly family, who have never apologised for the fire.
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