Closure.?

dublin | crime and justice | opinion/analysis

Saturday February 18, 2006 22:23

by Katie mcDermott

jmcd444 at yahoo dot com

Gran Canaria Spain

The Stardust tragedy

The 25th anniversary of the Stardust conflagration was chosen to open a new pub on the site of what was perhaps Irelands most horrific tragedy in recent times.

It happened in Charlies own constituency.

No answers, in the "Stardust"
Katie McDermott

The word 'Stardust' can be defined as "A cluster of stars too distant to be seen individually. resembling a dimly luminous cloud of dust". Indeed the answers to this tragedy, including why it occured and why it was dealt with in the way it was (or not), seem to me like a too distant cluster of dust.

The main contention surrounding the outcome of this horrific night is how the Butterly family seemed to come out of the situation relatively unscathed and unapologetic while 25 men and 23 women died in the fire, eleven others were badly disfigured or disabled and 214 people were injured. Nobody is suggesting that it was in any way intentional on their part, indeed it is often overlooked that several Butterly family members worked at the nightclub. However, the reckless attitude with which the management of the nightclub approached fire safety would leave one reasonably pondering their competence and how they are allowed to continue to do business in the door step industry.

It is utterly incomprehensible that there were no charges brought against Butterly for locking or otherwise obstructing exit doors on the night of the fire. To me, this alone (that is, not even taking into account the explosive contents and quantities of said contents which were in the unauthorised store room, the materials in the structure of the building such as the lead windows in the bathroom and the roof tiles which must have made it feel like it was raining acid when the flames took over, I could go on...) was more than a "reckless disregard for the safety of the people on the premises", I would go so far to say that this could be regarded as a wilful refusal to perform a legal duty - a finding which would bring Butterly's ommissions into the ambit of involuntary manslaughter.

So why was nobody prosecuted? Why was the only charge from the disaster against John Keegan, who lost two daughters in the Stardust, for assault on Butterly, in his understandably frustrated state? (With Nial McCarthy {a future Supreme Court judge} and Peter Sutherland {the future Attorney General] at his Butterlys side for the Tribunal, what chance did any of the families have in achieving justice.?)

"We were all Fianna Failers" Butterly said in his memoirs.

The Butterly family for years up to the 14th of February 1981, were business royalty in Dublin: Patrick Butterly, in his autobiography, "From Radishes to Riches", submits that he dined with Government Ministers and that Kevin Boland, the then Minister for Industry and Commerce, joined Butterly for a coffee and a chat nearly every morning. Another interesting Fianna Fail connection was Jack Lynch who asked Butterly to join Taca, the Fianna Fail fundraising initiative for wealthy businessmen. "We were all Fianna Failers" Butterly said in his memoirs.

He even goes so far as to concede that "what you had these people for, was to help get things...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".

What must frighten us today is that this family are still in the services industry : public houses (the Silver Swan on George's Quay in Dublin and now on the spot of the doomed nightclub - how could they open this on the night of the 25 year anniversary of all those people's deaths - the average age of whom might I add was 19? There is a sensitivity chip missing there); a betting shop; a petrol station; to name but three. The numerous Butterly companies whose profits run into double figure millions need not be trawled through now but the ease with which this surname seems to get one planning permission, the most recent of which is a residential development comprising of 27 apartments on the Swords Road (to Patrick Butterly & Sons, Butterly Business Park, Kilmore Road, Artane, Dublin 5), on the 11th of November 2005 just does not smell right to me...

Indeed, I have good reason to get a stench, there is something rotten in the State of Ireland and I beleive its initials are F.F.