Ireland_ What will the Stardust Fire inquest attempt to address?

Post by **Waterbaby** » Wed Apr 26, 2023 9:08 am

"The families of the Stardust victims are hoping that the inquest into the 1981 fire will finally give them the thorough, professional investigation into the fire that they have been campaigning for, for decades. Inquests were held at the time - but they only addressed the medical causes of the deaths, not their context."

Tuesday, 25 Apr 2023 : //www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2023/0425/13791 ... explainer/

Wednesday, 2 Nov 2022 : //www.rte.ie/news/2022/1102/1332671-stard ... -judgment/

WB

Messy · Post by **Messy** » Wed Apr 26, 2023 10:15 am

Thank you Waterbaby for this.

I remember this fire clearly but was not aware of the apparent mishandling of Inquiries into what went wrong

Even now, a 6 month Inquest 41 years after the event - although better than nothing - falls far short of the detailed examination that Moore-Bick is doing with the Grenfell Inquiry.

I hope the Irish inquest has authority to extend its remit if required- for example into building Regs if that is appropriate- and isn't restricted by virtue of it being an inquest and not a full public inquiry

Post by **Waterbaby** » Wed Apr 26, 2023 11:40 am

Good Morning Messy

"Butterly v Cullinane & Ors (Approved) [2022] IEHC 598 (02 November 2022) - JUDGMENT of Mr. Justice Charles Meenan

Extensive review of case :

https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.c ... (stardust) including some of the summary below :

Summary

(1) An Inquest is an inquisitorial fact finding hearing to establish the facts concerning the who, how, when, where and circumstances of a person’s death. It is not an exercise of considering or apportioning blame or exoneration.

(2) Sections 30 and 31 of the Coroners Acts prohibit questions of civil or criminal liability being considered or investigated and verdicts censuring or exonerating a person. These restrictions do not prevent an inquest establishing the facts concerning the circumstances of a person’s death even though those facts “may, in another forum, ultimately be relevant to issues of civil or criminal liability.”

Coroners Act, 1962 ://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1962/act/9/ ... html#sec30

My understanding is that the Inquest goes ahead and depending on findings, further proceedings could be brought in a different setting.

WB

Post by **Waterbaby** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 8:31 am

18 April 2024

"Apology call after nightclub fire deaths verdict" : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0rvgg7dlzo

"All 48 victims of 1981 Dublin nightclub fire unlawfully killed, inquest finds" : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... in-inquest

May they finally rest in peace.

WB

Messy · Post by **Messy** » Sat Apr 27, 2024 9:14 am

WB, your skill at open source research is pretty amazing

I only have a casual friendship with Google as he often keeps things from me. You seem to understand how he works better than me

I hope that even if no criminal proceedings are forthcoming, Ireland has learned from this and now have proper processes in place to learn from disasters