The inquest into the Stardust nightclub deaths will be held in April, a coroner’s court has heard, but families of the victims are “very hopeful” it could happen earlier.
A lengthy process has been continuing to hold an inquest into the deaths of 48 people in the nightclub fire in Dublin on Valentine’s Day in 1981.
In September 2019, then-attorney general Seamus Woulfe ordered that fresh inquests be held due to what he called an “insufficiency” of inquiry into how the deaths had occurred and what had caused the fire.
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A pre-inquest hearing at Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Wednesday heard that despite the recent conclusion of a High Court case in relation to the inquests, there would be a further 19 or 20-week wait to allow for a jury to be selected.
Retired broadcaster Charlie Bird and several family members attended the hearing.
“I’ve been informed that following any request I make to the court service and the county registrar seeking their assistance in the summary of the jury, the estimated time that will be required by them to conclude the jury assembly process will be between 19 and 20 weeks,” Dublin city coroner Dr Myra Cullinane said.
She indicated that she would make that request, adding “the likely commencement date of these inquests will be no earlier than April of next year, 2023”.
One family member present was heard saying “that’s ridiculous”.
In his response, the senior barrister representing the majority of the families said he was “a little bit mystified” as to why a pool of 3,000 people were needed to select a jury for the inquest.
Michael O’Higgins acknowledged that a larger panel of people would be needed to select a jury for the Stardust inquest, but said there was “a very large gap” between the normal panel of 200 to 300 people and the 3,000 figure suggested by the courts service.
A legal representative for the Kennedy family said they were “dismayed” at the 20-week timeline.
In an attempt to speed up the process, Dr Cullinane suggested that the “pen portraits” of the Stardust victims be read out without a jury, but this course of action was decided against.
The coroner also said that a list of 312 witnesses had been sent around to the legal teams involved.
“I’ve conducted a very careful selection process involving consideration of all available statements numbering in the region of 1,400 statements,” she said.
She added that duplication statements and those who had expressed an unwillingness to attend would be excluded from the witness list.
Mr O’Higgins said that a “good flavour” of witnesses was needed to recount what had happened that night.
The coroner said that if any additional witnesses were to be added to the list, that a legal argument would have to be submitted to the court arguing its case.
In response, a legal representative for the Chief State Solicitor’s Office said this could delay the inquest further.
“On the basis of the work that has been going on identifying and gathering witnesses, we understand and are advised that for every 50 to 60 additional witnesses that might be identified hereafter, the experience to date would suggest it will take six to nine months to identify the current whereabouts of those witnesses, and to locate them, and to establish their availability to give evidence,” he said.
The Stardust families said they were disappointed with the long timeline but were hopeful that an earlier date would be set with the help of additional resources from Government.
“It’s a little bit disappointing, but at the same time it’s positive, it’s the first that we’ve actually heard that the inquest is going to start, we’ve been left in limbo for so long,” said Antoinette Keegan, whose two sisters – Mary and Martina – died in the fire.
She said the Stardust families were hopeful that the inquest would take place before April.
“We’re very hopeful, we’re very hopeful. We’re hoping that we can actually bring it forward to possibly after the 42nd anniversary, mid-February, end of February, possibly February 1.”
Gertrude Barrett, whose son Michael died in the fire, said she was not surprised by the delay.
“I’ve been dealing with, you know, all these governments – this is not new,” she told reporters.
“But what more would you expect? There’s always something.”
The families’ legal team is to ask the Minister for Justice for resources, with the aim of holding the inquest before April.
The next pre-inquest hearing will deal with witness procedure and will be held on Thursday December 15 at 11am.
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