Taoiseach given 48-hour ultimatum over Stardust

The families of victims of the Stardust fire have given the Taoiseach 48 hours - "one hour for every victim" - to name the eminent legal person he promised would examine their case for a new inquiry.

The families said that if Mr Ahern failed to nominate someone acceptable before 10am on Friday they would picket his constituency offices every day until the general election. They also said that they would picket polling stations on voting day.

The Stardust nightclub burned down in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 1981, killing 48 people and injuring more than 200.

Antoinette Keegan, spokeswoman for the families, whose sisters Martina and Mary were killed in the fire, said: "The promise of an independent, eminent legal person was made on December 15th last, and it is almost four months now and all we are being told is that it will be 'soon'."

The examination being proposed by the Government would involve scrutiny of all the existing evidence. It would also involve an examination of the dossier on the tragedy compiled by the families.

Ms Keegan said that one name put forward by the Department of the Taoiseach had been rejected by the families, while two names put forward by the families had been rejected by the department.

"It looks as if they are playing tit-for-tat with us," Ms Keegan said.

The families had not wanted a memorial, as proposed by the Butterly family, owners of the Stardust site (now Artane House), she said.

A planning application lodged by the Butterly family for a four- metre memorial with circular seating was refused by Dublin City Council earlier this month, largely on the grounds that it was opposed by the families of the victims.

The original inquiry, chaired by former chief justice Ronan Keane, determined that the fire had started in an alcove and was probably deliberate arson attributable to persons unknown.

But Ms Keegan and the families of the victims do not accept this finding and have campaigned for a new inquiry based on a number of issues.