Stardust assistant manager knew emergency exits were locked and did nothing to stop it, inquests heard

An assistant manager at the Stardust nightclub in north Dublin, in which 48 people died in a fire in 1981, knew emergency exits were locked as late as 12.30am, knew it was illegal and did nothing to stop it, inquests into the deaths have heard.

Evidence from Jack Walsh, who is dead, was read into the record at Dublin coroner’s court on Friday where fresh inquests into the deaths of the 48 people, aged 16 to 27, who perished in the blaze in the early hours of February 14th, 1981, are being heard.

Mr Walsh was 49 at the time of the disaster and appeared at the 1981 tribunal of inquiry chaired by Mr Justice Ronan Keane. He said he was aware of bylaws requiring emergency exits be kept clear and that it was his “duty to see that those regulations were enforced”.

“Did you know of the practice in the four weeks coming up to the night of the fire of keeping the exits locked at least between the hours of 10pm and 12am or 12.30am?” he was asked.

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“I did,” he replied.

“Did you know that that was in contravention of the bylaws?”

“Yes.”

“Did you authorise that contravention?”

“No.”

“You did nothing to stop it?”

“That is correct,” said Mr Walsh.

Asked whether he was “conscious of the possibility that if [a] fire occurred, a crowd of young people, something like 800 young people packed into that, might be in sudden and grave danger?“

He said: “Yes.”

“Did you ever make any response against the practice of keeping the exit doors locked?”

“No.”

He said he was not aware “a squad” of staff should be trained in fire safety and had never thought of providing training “as to what they should do in the event of a fire”.

Asked about what he did on the night to ensure the safety of the more than 800 young people in the ballroom, he said: “I thought they were already being looked after.”

“You didn’t take any steps to verify whether that was being done or not?”

“I did not.”

When he got out safely, he looked around to see if staff were out. At the toilet windows at the front of the building, where six weeks earlier steel plates and bars had been welded, “there was a lot of screaming and shouting in the toilets, some men trying to break them down”, he said.

People were trying to remove the bars and steel plates. “There was still screaming and shouting. I remember saying to somebody, ‘You will never break down that steel shutter’. I came back round to the Lantern Room [restaurant] entrance and I remember saying to somebody, I don’t know who it was, ‘What the hell is keeping the fire engines?’

“We stood there and the fire engines arrived and the ambulance arrived and they were taking out a few bodies [from] the Silver Swan [pub] entrance.”

Mr Walsh was asked if he went to any other exits. “No, I was so disgusted with what I did see,” he answered.

“Why did you not go around?”

“I was so shocked, the people being trapped in the toilets.”

Evidence from bar manager Brian Peel, who is dead, was also read. He told the 1981 tribunal he was aware chains were being wrapped around emergency exit push-bars to make them appear locked, to dissuade people letting their friends in without paying. He “did not agree with it” and asked head doorman Tom Kennan about it.

Mr Kennan had told him it was only until extra doormen were recruited. “You didn’t tell him to stop it?” he was asked. “I told him to get somebody else as quick as possible on the doors.”

He told the tribunal the first he heard of the practice of locking the exits as late as midnight was when Mr Kennan and senior doorman Leo Doyle described it at the tribunal.

“Did it come as a surprise to find they were making that case?” he was asked. “I went out and tackled Leo Doyle outside the door about it,” he said.

The inquests continue on Tuesday.