Stardust Disaster
Encyclopedia
The Stardust fire was a fatal fire
which took place at the Stardust nightclub
in Artane
, Dublin, Ireland
in the early hours of 14 February 1981. Some 841 people had attended a disco there, of whom 48 died and 214 were injured as a result of the fire. The club was located where Butterly Business Park now lies, opposite Artane Castle Shopping Centre.
The fire was first spotted in a seating area in the west section of the building, although the fire was only very small when first seen, a ferocious burst of heat and lots of thick black smoke quickly started coming from the ceiling, causing the material in the ceiling to melt and drip on top of patrons and other highly flammable materials including the seats and carpet tiles on the walls. The fire quickly spread into the main area of the club causing the lights to fail. This caused mass panic as patrons began desperately looking for an escape.
The attendees at both the disco and a trade union
function taking place in the same building tried to make their escape but were hampered by a number of obstructions. Some of the main fire exits turned out to be locked with padlocks and chains. Other fire exits simply had chains draped about the push bars.
The failure of the lighting in the club led to widespread panic causing mass trampling as many of the patrons instinctively ran for the main entrance. Many people mistook the entrance to the men's toilets for the main entrance doors but the windows there had metal plates fixed on the inside and iron bars on the outside. Firemen attempted in vain to pull off the metal bars using a chain attached to a fire engine. Firemen rescued between 25-30 of those trapped in the front toilets. Seven people died in the toilets at the other side of the building while the Dublin Fire Brigade
were attempting to rescue them.
Many of those who had made it to safety became increasingly aggressive from knowing that their friends were still trapped inside, some taking their anger out on emergency services: at one point a fireman searching for a hydrant
down the street was thought to be fleeing the fire and was assaulted by bystanders.
Ambulances from Dublin Fire Brigade, the Eastern Health Board
, Dublin Civil Defence
, the Red Cross
and other organizations were dispatched to the scene. Many left the scene carrying up to 15 casualties. CIE
also sent buses to transport the injured, and local radio stations asked people in the vicinity with cars to come to the club. The city's hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of wounded and dying, in particular the Mater
, Jervis Street
and Dr Steevens' Hospital
s.
The investigation at the time reported that the fire was an arson
. The finding of arson has recently been ruled out by investigators, as there was never any evidence to support the "arson" finding, even at the time of the tragedy.
of inquiry under Mr. Justice Ronan Keane
concluded in November 1981 that the fire was probably caused by arson
. This finding, which has been disputed ever since, legally exonerated the owners from responsibility. However, the inquiry was damning in its criticism of the safety standards. See below for more on factual disputes.
The families of the victims and survivors fought in the courts for compensation, accountability, and, in their eyes, justice. The owners, the Butterly family, were nevertheless free to pursue their own claim for compensation against the city because of the arson finding - and were eventually awarded IR£580,000.
The aftermath led to a huge number of recommendations being made in relation to fire safety
. Comparisons were made to the Summerland disaster
of 1973 in the Isle of Man
and the lessons learned in that jurisdiction. However, some basic rules, such as the provision of fire extinguisher
s and fire exit
s being left unblocked and obviously posted, which have since been implemented, could probably have prevented many deaths if they had existed at the time.
In 2006 the leaseholder and manager of the Stardust at the time of the fire, Eamon Butterly, planned to re-open licensed premises on the site of the Stardust on the 25th anniversary. Described as "insensitive", this action occasioned protests by the victims' families and their supporters. The protests lasted for 10 weeks and ended when the Butterly family agreed to erect a memorial on the site, and change the name of the pub from "The Silver Swan" to the "Artane House". In 2007, the bodies of five victims whom authorities had been unable to identify were exhumed from a communal plot in St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton
. The remains were identified with modern DNA
analysis, and then given separate burials.
Christy Moore
was found guilty of contempt of court
after writing and releasing a song, entitled They Never Came Home, about the plight of the Stardust fire victims, seemingly damning the owners of the nightclub and the government. It contained the following lines:
and
Because it appeared to imply that the obstruction of the exits was solely responsible for the deaths and injuries, the song was banned and removed from the Ordinary Man album it had appeared on. As the album had just been released, it had to be withdrawn from circulation and re-issued with Another Song is Born in its place. Early versions of this album are considered rare and collectible.
The lyrics of the song are still "banned" in Ireland as libelous. Christy Moore was prosecuted, although he has since been known to sing the song on occasion.
This song was played for 10 weeks outside the "Silver Swan" as part of the protest over the re-opening of the pub in 2006. It was played every night from 6PM until 8PM whilst the families and supporters demonstrated in front of the filling station. The song was reputedly played for so long that three tapes failed, leading the protesters to use a CD player, which failed after eight days. They then resorted to an MP3 player (connected to an amplifier), which lasted for the duration of the protest before failing a week later.
, to mark the 25th anniversary of the incident. The series was based on the book They Never Came Home: The Stardust Story by Neil Fetherstonhaugh and Tony McCullagh. Many families of victims objected to this and were upset by the painful memories it brought up. Reasons for objection were the focus on some key families, which some felt portrayed the disaster as only really impacting a select few, the depiction of the actual fire and a silent roll call of all the victims who perished. A preview of this drama was shown to relatives in early February 2006 and after some minor changes it was broadcast on 12 and 13 February 2006. Those changes include: The silent roll call being changes to one were all names were read out by survivor Jimmy Fitzpatrick and a voice-over being used to explain throughout the narrative that this impacted a lot more families and individuals than those portrayed predominantly in the film.
, RTÉ's current affairs
programme, broadcast on 14 February 2006, cast doubts on some of the findings of the original tribunal. The programme produced witnesses who were outside the building on the night. Some outside saw fire coming from the roof up to eight minutes before those inside did. New evidence concerning the building's contents and layout was also presented. Important details were also shown regarding the actual location of a store room containing flammable materials and cleaning agents. The document plan of the building which the tribunal used, and which was critical to its findings, was shown to be confusingly flawed by locating the store room on the wrong level. It showed the store room to be "near the basement" When in fact there was no basement in the building and the store and lamp rooms were located in the roof space.
The list of contents of the store was not put before the inquiry and included large amounts of highly flammable and spontaneously combustible materials, mostly polishes and floor waxes, with the inquiry assuming only normal everyday items were inside.
A re-enactment of the fire suggested that it did not happen as the tribunal had found. The conclusions of the show were that the fire started in the roof space where the store room was located and had already spread across the main nightclub area before those inside were aware of it. Furthermore there were reports that the lamp room adjacent to the store had had several instances in preceding weeks of smouldering, smoking and sparking of the electrical installations within, which could conceivably have been the original ignition source. If this is true, the original finding of "probable arson" is in doubt.
Also if true, it mirrors events decades earlier in the fatal Henderson's Department Store Fire in Liverpool, where a fire strongly suspected as starting in electrical cabling rapidly spread in and across false ceiling space, hidden until it broke out ferociously across a large area.
hanging from the roof. The Gardai are currently probing the cause of the blaze. As of November 2010 the Gardai have still not announced the cause of the 2008 blaze, nor has anybody been charged.
" in a security hut at Government Buildings
. They were asking the government to publish a report that examined the need to open a new investigation into the disaster.
Due to the passage of time and lack of physical evidence it stated that it would not be in the public interest to re-open the Public Inquiry but that the public record should be altered to reflect paragraph 6.167 of the original inquiry- “The cause of fire is not known and may never be known. There is no evidence of an accidental origin: and equally no evidence that the fire was started deliberately” instead of that of arson (which led to the Butterly's compensation)
Following its publication, the Dáil voted on the evening of 3 February 2009 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. This led to a correction of the public record and the original arson conclusion was removed as the cause due to there being no evidence to suggest that the fire was started maliciously.
Despite the clear breaches of fire safety regulations, the owners never faced charges and have never apologized.
and a wreath was placed at the Stardust Memorial Park. The following evening, a candlelight vigil was held in the Stardust grounds.
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
which took place at the Stardust nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
in Artane
Artane, Dublin
Artane, sometimes spelled Artaine , historically Tartaine is a Northside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. Neighbouring districts include Coolock, Beaumont, Killester, Raheny and Clontarf; to the south is a small locality, Harmonstown, straddling the Raheny-Artane border.-History:Artaine, now usually...
, Dublin, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
in the early hours of 14 February 1981. Some 841 people had attended a disco there, of whom 48 died and 214 were injured as a result of the fire. The club was located where Butterly Business Park now lies, opposite Artane Castle Shopping Centre.
The incident
The fire was said to have started on a balcony inside the building, although since the tragedy some evidence has suggested that the fire derived from an electrical fault in the roof space, next to a storage room containing dangerously flammable materials. Staff attempted to extinguish it and failed; they then tried to contain it by closing the door leading to the balcony and ordering the users of a private room to evacuate. Guests in other parts of the nightclub were not informed, nor was an alarm sounded.The fire was first spotted in a seating area in the west section of the building, although the fire was only very small when first seen, a ferocious burst of heat and lots of thick black smoke quickly started coming from the ceiling, causing the material in the ceiling to melt and drip on top of patrons and other highly flammable materials including the seats and carpet tiles on the walls. The fire quickly spread into the main area of the club causing the lights to fail. This caused mass panic as patrons began desperately looking for an escape.
The attendees at both the disco and a trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
function taking place in the same building tried to make their escape but were hampered by a number of obstructions. Some of the main fire exits turned out to be locked with padlocks and chains. Other fire exits simply had chains draped about the push bars.
The failure of the lighting in the club led to widespread panic causing mass trampling as many of the patrons instinctively ran for the main entrance. Many people mistook the entrance to the men's toilets for the main entrance doors but the windows there had metal plates fixed on the inside and iron bars on the outside. Firemen attempted in vain to pull off the metal bars using a chain attached to a fire engine. Firemen rescued between 25-30 of those trapped in the front toilets. Seven people died in the toilets at the other side of the building while the Dublin Fire Brigade
Dublin Fire Brigade
The Dublin Fire Brigade is the local authority fire and rescue service for Dublin City and the majority of the Greater Dublin Area. It is a branch of Dublin City Council. There are currently 14 fire stations manned by DFB, 12 of which are full-time, the other 2 are part-time or "retained"....
were attempting to rescue them.
Many of those who had made it to safety became increasingly aggressive from knowing that their friends were still trapped inside, some taking their anger out on emergency services: at one point a fireman searching for a hydrant
Fire hydrant
A fire hydrant , is an active fire protection measure, and a source of water provided in most urban, suburban and rural areas with municipal water service to enable firefighters to tap into the municipal water...
down the street was thought to be fleeing the fire and was assaulted by bystanders.
Ambulances from Dublin Fire Brigade, the Eastern Health Board
HSE National Ambulance Service
The HSE National Ambulance Service is the statutory public ambulance service in the Republic of Ireland. The service is operated by the National Hospitals Office of the Health Service Executive, the Irish national healthcare authority.- History :...
, Dublin Civil Defence
Civil Defence Ireland
Civil Defence Ireland is the national civil defence organisation of the Republic of Ireland. It is operated at local authority level in conjunction with the Department of Defence....
, the Red Cross
Irish Red Cross
The Irish Red Cross Society , commonly referred to as the Irish Red Cross , is the National Red Cross Society in the Republic of Ireland. It was established by Nurse Elizabeth O'Herrin either on 1 July or 1 August 1939 on the approach of the Second World War...
and other organizations were dispatched to the scene. Many left the scene carrying up to 15 casualties. CIE
Córas Iompair Éireann
Córas Iompair Éireann , or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of the Irish state, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport in the Republic of Ireland and, jointly with its Northern Ireland counterpart, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, between the...
also sent buses to transport the injured, and local radio stations asked people in the vicinity with cars to come to the club. The city's hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of wounded and dying, in particular the Mater
Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin
The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital is a major teaching hospital, based at Eccles Street, Phibsboro, on the northside of Dublin, Ireland...
, Jervis Street
Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin
Jervis Street Hospital was a former hospital in Dublin, Ireland, that became part of Beaumont Hospital, which was completed in 1987. The site of the hospital became the Jervis Shopping Centre.-History:...
and Dr Steevens' Hospital
Dr Steevens' Hospital
Dr Steevens' Hospital in Dublin was one of Ireland's most distinguished eighteenth-century medical establishments...
s.
The investigation at the time reported that the fire was an arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
. The finding of arson has recently been ruled out by investigators, as there was never any evidence to support the "arson" finding, even at the time of the tragedy.
Aftermath
A total of 48 people died in the fire. The community, with most of the dead coming from Artane, Kilmore and greater Coolock, was devastated, with many people being affected in some way. A tribunalTribunal
A tribunal in the general sense is any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title....
of inquiry under Mr. Justice Ronan Keane
Ronan Keane
The Hon. Ronan Keane , S.C., was Chief Justice of Ireland from 2000 to 2004. Keane was educated at Blackrock College, Dublin, and graduated from University College Dublin in 1953 with a BA in Modern History. He was called to the Bar in 1954 and became a Senior Counsel in 1970. He was appointed...
concluded in November 1981 that the fire was probably caused by arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
. This finding, which has been disputed ever since, legally exonerated the owners from responsibility. However, the inquiry was damning in its criticism of the safety standards. See below for more on factual disputes.
The families of the victims and survivors fought in the courts for compensation, accountability, and, in their eyes, justice. The owners, the Butterly family, were nevertheless free to pursue their own claim for compensation against the city because of the arson finding - and were eventually awarded IR£580,000.
The aftermath led to a huge number of recommendations being made in relation to fire safety
Fire safety
Fire safety refers to precautions that are taken to prevent or reduce the likelihood of a fire that may result in death, injury, or property damage, alert those in a structure to the presence of a fire in the event one occurs, better enable those threatened by a fire to survive, or to reduce the...
. Comparisons were made to the Summerland disaster
Summerland disaster
The Summerland disaster occurred when a fire spread through the Summerland leisure centre in Douglas on the Isle of Man on the night of 2 August 1973. 50 people were killed and 80 seriously injured.-Background:...
of 1973 in the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
and the lessons learned in that jurisdiction. However, some basic rules, such as the provision of fire extinguisher
Fire extinguisher
A fire extinguisher or extinguisher, flame entinguisher is an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergency situations...
s and fire exit
Emergency exit
An emergency exit in a structure is a special exit for emergencies such as a fire: the combined use of regular and special exits allows for faster evacuation, while it also provides an alternative if the route to the regular exit is blocked by fire, etc....
s being left unblocked and obviously posted, which have since been implemented, could probably have prevented many deaths if they had existed at the time.
In 2006 the leaseholder and manager of the Stardust at the time of the fire, Eamon Butterly, planned to re-open licensed premises on the site of the Stardust on the 25th anniversary. Described as "insensitive", this action occasioned protests by the victims' families and their supporters. The protests lasted for 10 weeks and ended when the Butterly family agreed to erect a memorial on the site, and change the name of the pub from "The Silver Swan" to the "Artane House". In 2007, the bodies of five victims whom authorities had been unable to identify were exhumed from a communal plot in St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton
St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton
St. Fintan's Cemetery is located in Sutton, on the south side of Carrickbrack Road. It is in two parts: one older, with a ruined keeper's cottage and the remnants of old St. Fintan's Church; one newer, and actively used, lower down the hill. Just beyond the older portion is the still-flowing,...
. The remains were identified with modern DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
analysis, and then given separate burials.
They Never Came Home
In July 1985, Irish folk singerFolk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
Christy Moore
Christy Moore
Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is a popular Irish folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is well known as one of the founding members of Planxty and Moving Hearts...
was found guilty of contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
after writing and releasing a song, entitled They Never Came Home, about the plight of the Stardust fire victims, seemingly damning the owners of the nightclub and the government. It contained the following lines:
- In a matter of seconds confusion did reign.
- The room was in darkness, fire exits were chained.
and
- Hundreds of children are injured and maimed,
- and all just because the fire exits were chained.
Because it appeared to imply that the obstruction of the exits was solely responsible for the deaths and injuries, the song was banned and removed from the Ordinary Man album it had appeared on. As the album had just been released, it had to be withdrawn from circulation and re-issued with Another Song is Born in its place. Early versions of this album are considered rare and collectible.
The lyrics of the song are still "banned" in Ireland as libelous. Christy Moore was prosecuted, although he has since been known to sing the song on occasion.
This song was played for 10 weeks outside the "Silver Swan" as part of the protest over the re-opening of the pub in 2006. It was played every night from 6PM until 8PM whilst the families and supporters demonstrated in front of the filling station. The song was reputedly played for so long that three tapes failed, leading the protesters to use a CD player, which failed after eight days. They then resorted to an MP3 player (connected to an amplifier), which lasted for the duration of the protest before failing a week later.
2006 television drama
In 2006, Ireland's national broadcaster, Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ), caused controversy by producing a docu-drama about the disaster entitled StardustStardust (TV miniseries)
Stardust is a 2006 miniseries produced for RTÉ by Brackside Merlin Films. The first episode surrounds the night a fire broke out at the Stardust Disco in North Dublin on 13 February, 1981, in which 48 people died. The second episode depicts the search for answers and justice by families and...
, to mark the 25th anniversary of the incident. The series was based on the book They Never Came Home: The Stardust Story by Neil Fetherstonhaugh and Tony McCullagh. Many families of victims objected to this and were upset by the painful memories it brought up. Reasons for objection were the focus on some key families, which some felt portrayed the disaster as only really impacting a select few, the depiction of the actual fire and a silent roll call of all the victims who perished. A preview of this drama was shown to relatives in early February 2006 and after some minor changes it was broadcast on 12 and 13 February 2006. Those changes include: The silent roll call being changes to one were all names were read out by survivor Jimmy Fitzpatrick and a voice-over being used to explain throughout the narrative that this impacted a lot more families and individuals than those portrayed predominantly in the film.
Prime Time
An edition of Prime TimePrime Time
Prime Time is an Irish news analysis, current affairs and politics programme. It is broadcast on RTÉ One on Tuesday and Thursday nights between 21:30 and 22:10. It is currently presented by Miriam O'Callaghan, who has presented the programme since its commencement in 1996...
, RTÉ's current affairs
Current affairs (news format)
Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....
programme, broadcast on 14 February 2006, cast doubts on some of the findings of the original tribunal. The programme produced witnesses who were outside the building on the night. Some outside saw fire coming from the roof up to eight minutes before those inside did. New evidence concerning the building's contents and layout was also presented. Important details were also shown regarding the actual location of a store room containing flammable materials and cleaning agents. The document plan of the building which the tribunal used, and which was critical to its findings, was shown to be confusingly flawed by locating the store room on the wrong level. It showed the store room to be "near the basement" When in fact there was no basement in the building and the store and lamp rooms were located in the roof space.
The list of contents of the store was not put before the inquiry and included large amounts of highly flammable and spontaneously combustible materials, mostly polishes and floor waxes, with the inquiry assuming only normal everyday items were inside.
A re-enactment of the fire suggested that it did not happen as the tribunal had found. The conclusions of the show were that the fire started in the roof space where the store room was located and had already spread across the main nightclub area before those inside were aware of it. Furthermore there were reports that the lamp room adjacent to the store had had several instances in preceding weeks of smouldering, smoking and sparking of the electrical installations within, which could conceivably have been the original ignition source. If this is true, the original finding of "probable arson" is in doubt.
Also if true, it mirrors events decades earlier in the fatal Henderson's Department Store Fire in Liverpool, where a fire strongly suspected as starting in electrical cabling rapidly spread in and across false ceiling space, hidden until it broke out ferociously across a large area.
2008 fire
On 14 November 2008, a second fire occurred at the same site, which had been used as a children's play centre. However, no-one was in the building at the time, and there have been no injuries reported. One woman, whose sisters were killed in the original blaze, is quoted as saying that she "froze", and that "a chill went up [her] spine. [She] got a flashback like the whole thing was coming down on top of [her]". Once the flames were extinguished, firefighters found cancer-causing asbestosAsbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
hanging from the roof. The Gardai are currently probing the cause of the blaze. As of November 2010 the Gardai have still not announced the cause of the 2008 blaze, nor has anybody been charged.
2009 protest
Four relatives of those who had died in the fire held a "sit-inSit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of protest that involves occupying seats or sitting down on the floor of an establishment.-Process:In a sit-in, protesters remain until they are evicted, usually by force, or arrested, or until their requests have been met...
" in a security hut at Government Buildings
Government Buildings
Government Buildings is a large Edwardian building enclosing a quadrangle on Merrion Street in Dublin, Ireland, in which several key offices of the government of Ireland are located...
. They were asking the government to publish a report that examined the need to open a new investigation into the disaster.
2009 change in verdict
Following the above protests the Government commissioned an Independent Examination by Mr. Paul Coffey SC of the case submitted by the Stardust Victims Committee for a Reopened Inquiry into the Stardust Fire Disaster.Due to the passage of time and lack of physical evidence it stated that it would not be in the public interest to re-open the Public Inquiry but that the public record should be altered to reflect paragraph 6.167 of the original inquiry- “The cause of fire is not known and may never be known. There is no evidence of an accidental origin: and equally no evidence that the fire was started deliberately” instead of that of arson (which led to the Butterly's compensation)
Following its publication, the Dáil voted on the evening of 3 February 2009 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. This led to a correction of the public record and the original arson conclusion was removed as the cause due to there being no evidence to suggest that the fire was started maliciously.
Despite the clear breaches of fire safety regulations, the owners never faced charges and have never apologized.
2011 documentary
On 31 January 2011, a documentary entitled Remembering Stardust: 30 Years On aired on TV3. The documentary reflected on the events of the night of the fire, the aftermath and the various controversies and legal proceedings that followed. Survivors Jimmy Fitzpatrick and Antoinette Keegan along with retired Dublin fireman Paul Shannon were among those interviewed.30th anniversary memorials
On 13 February 2011, there was an afternoon mass at Saint Joseph's Church in CoolockCoolock
Coolock is a large suburban area, centred on a village, on Dublin city's Northside in Ireland. Coolock is crossed by the Santry River, a prominent feature in the middle of the district, with a linear park and ponds...
and a wreath was placed at the Stardust Memorial Park. The following evening, a candlelight vigil was held in the Stardust grounds.
Publications
- They Never Came Home: The Stardust Story - by Neil Fetherstonhaugh & Tony McCullagh ISBN 1-903582-09-1