Eamon Butterly, former manager of the Stardust nightclub in north Dublin where 48 people died in a fire in 1981, remained “adamant” on Wednesday all emergency exits were open when the blaze broke out and that the deaths had nothing to do with problems at the doors.
On his sixth day in the witness box at inquests into the deaths, Mr Butterly (78) rejected repeated invitations by Des Fahy, KC for families of nine of the dead, to revise his position that all six exits had been opened at about 11.30pm on the night by head doorman, the late Thomas Kennan.
Fresh inquests into the deaths of 48 people aged 16 to 27 in a fire at the Artane ballroom in the early hours of 14th February 1981 are under way since April at Dublin coroner’s court. They were recommended in 2019 by then attorney general Séamus Woulfe.
At the start of the day’s proceedings a “body-map”, drawn up by Dublin Fire Brigade in 1981, was displayed showing where in the venue the bodies of those who perished on the night had been found.
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Describing it as “difficult to look at” Mr Fahy said the map showed the bodies of 24 people “were located around exits five, four and three″ with eight “in a cluster” near exits four and five.
“What I am suggesting to you Mr Butterly, very clearly, is that those people died because exits three, four and five were locked when that fire broke out. They could not escape.”
“Well, I deny that,” said Mr Butterly.
Asked if he had another explanation, he said, “The place was [full] of smoke and the lights went out ... everybody panicked and they didn’t know where they were ... I don’t believe the doors were locked, sir, and that is my evidence .. When I went outside afterwards all those doors were open.”
Mr Fahy said what happened at the three exits “was a catastrophe ... because they were locked”.
“Well it was a catastrophe but it wasn’t because the doors were locked ... The doors weren’t locked,” repeated Mr Butterly.
Mr Fahy later asked about “the narrative” that doors had been locked on exit nights until midnight to stop people letting friends in for free. How many times had this actually happened, he asked. “Is the answer ‘none’?”
“It could be, but no. I don’t remember anyway,” said the witness.
Mr Fahy put it to him that two former doormen had told the inquests some doormen had been letting people in via side doors, charging them less than the entrance fee, and that Mr Butterly had become aware of this on December 26th 1980. This had been the true reason for locking exits until midnight, said Mr Fahy.
“The truth is it was done because you could not trust your own doormen. Isn’t that the case?”
“No way, I trusted my doormen,” said Mr Butterly.
“The tragedy of this is the policy that made it harder for doormen to let people in from the outside also made it harder for people to get out when the fire started.”
“No, you’re wrong. The doors were open when the fire started, unlocked.”
Mr Fahy said there was “always the possibility” open to Mr Butterly to “change” his evidence. He cited former deputy head doorman Leo Doyle who on his final day of evidence changed his position and said the doors were locked, and that of doorman Michael Kavanagh who changed his position in 1981, saying eventually he had not unlocked the doors.
“Are you looking for me to change my mind about something?” asked Mr Butterly.
“Do you want to?” asked Mr Fahy.
“No. I am adamant that Mr Kennan told me the doors were open ... I am telling the truth.”
Mr Fahy said Mr Kennan had “also changed his mind” in March 1981 after a number of previous statements, when he eventually said the doors had been locked until “about midnight”.
“Mr Butterly, you are the last man standing here ... You are the last one still stuck with that original account which I am saying to you ... is not true ... Everyone else, those three individuals have changed positions.”
“That’s up to them.”
“And you are the last man standing.”
“You want me to change my position?”
“Do you want to?”
“I do not,” said Mr Butterly.
In the afternoon he rejected assertions by Seán Guerin SC for families of 10 of the dead that there were a number of electrical faults on the premises in the weeks before the fire.
“You are so wrong ... It was one of the best-wired premises around. And that was seen to by Dublin Corporation who were there every single day while the electrical work was going on.”
Stardust Inquests: The cross examination of former manager Eamon Butterly
With Irish Times social affairs correspondent Kitty Holland. Presented by Bernice Harrison
Mr Butterly’s evidence continues on Thursday.
