A former doorman at the Stardust nightclub in north Dublin, in which 48 young people died in a fire in 1981, had “no idea” his father had been told by his bosses if he didn’t retract a Garda statement in which he had claimed to have opened the emergency exits, he would “likely go to prison for five years”.
Michael Kavanagh, who was 20 at the time of the blaze, had initially told media and gardaí he had unlocked all emergency exits at about 9.40pm, inquests into the deaths heard on Wednesday.
He later retracted this inaccurate claim, fearing “attempts were being made to blame him” for doors being locked. He told the inquests he did not know why he initially told the “lie”.
Mr Kavanagh was giving evidence for a second day at Dublin coroner’s court where fresh inquests into the deaths of 48 people, aged 16 to 27, in the Artane venue in the early hours of 14th February 1981.
He is regarded as a significant witness as he changed his initial 16th February 1981 Garda statement on 19th February, following a conversation with his late father, Patrick Kavanagh.
Brenda Campbell, KC for families of nine of the dead, said the “lie” had been “really troublesome” to families “in their understanding of what happened over the years”. They were “entitled” to ask questions about it, adding it could have been the result of a “conspiracy” or “cock-up,” or “scales in between”.
The inquests have heard Mr Kavanagh had been normally tasked to open emergency exits at about 9.45pm, but since December 1980, policy was that emergency exits remained locked until about midnight “on disco nights”.
On the night of the fire he was told at about 9.40pm not to open the exits by deputy head doorman Leo Doyle. All exits were still locked at 12.15am, 85 minutes before the fire broke out.
While he initially said publicly he had opened the exits, he had also told friends, the O’Tooles, exits had been locked. When they saw his false claims about opening exits in media on 14th and 16th February 1981, they told Gardai on February 17th.
Mr Kavanagh had not been home on February 18th when Mr Doyle and a senior doorman, PJ Murphy called to his family home and spoke to his late father, Patrick Kavanagh.
Later his father asked if he had unlocked the doors or not, and on being told he had not, urged him to correct his statement, which he did the following day.
He had “no recollection” of his father making a Garda statement about the Doyle/Murphy visit. The inquests heard Mr Kavanagh senior stated Mr Murphy had told him that head doorman, Tom Kennan, had already told gardaí he had opened the exit doors. Mr Kennan did not in fact make his Garda statement to this effect until February 20th.
“Did you know that the reason they wanted you to retract that statement was because they wanted to clear the way for someone else take responsibility for opening the doors?” asked Ms Campbell.
“No,” said Mr Kavanagh.
“Your father was to pass on a message to you, ‘For the love of God, retract the previous statement you made to the police’,” said Ms Campbell. Mr Kavanagh senior said Mr Murphy advised if his son did not retract his statement he would be “done for perjury” and would “likely go to prison for five years”.
Mr Kavanagh said on Wednesday: “I just remember [my father] saying to me ... I needed to go to the police station.”
“You didn’t know the reason you were retracting it was to make way for somebody else to say, ‘I did it’.”
“I didn’t even know Tom Kennan made a statement,” said Mr Kavanagh. He resumes his evidence on Thursday.
