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25th Sep 2019

Attorney general grants new inquest into Stardust fire that killed 48

Carl Kinsella

Huge news for the Stardust families and survivors.

Justice for Stardust, a group representing the families of those who died in the Stardust fire in 1981, has been told that a new inquest into the tragic fire will be held.

In a series of messages on Twitter, the group wrote: “BREAKING NEWS: We have just received confirmation from the Attorney General that he WILL GRANT us a new inquest.

“This is amazing news, we never believed this day would come. As you can imagine we are completely overwhelmed with the news and would ask that people give us space tonight to be with our families to absorb it.”

“We will be making a full Statement tomorrow. Thank you all so much for all your Support. JFT48.”

The fire, one of the most shocking tragedies in Irish history, claimed the lives of 48 young nightclub-goers in the early hours of Valentine’s Day, 1981. 214 others were injured at the Artane nightclub.

While a 1981 tribunal originally gave the cause of the blaze as arson, a government-established Independent Examination of the case for a renewed inquiry said “the Tribunal’s finding of fact that the fire was probably started deliberately is on its face a mere hypothetical explanation for the probable cause of the fire and is not demonstrated by any evidence that the fire was started deliberately.”

In 2009, Dáil Éireann voted to acknowledge that the arson finding was hypothetical and that none of those present at the Stardust nightclub can be held responsible for the blaze.