Podcasts

Stardust 40 years on: "thick black smoke, the flames flashing across the ceiling on top of us"

This weekend will see the 40th anniversary of the Stardust fire which killed 48 people and injured 214.  More than 800 young people, mainly from the Artane and Coolock areas of Dublin, were at the disco for a Valentine’s Night dance competition.  Despite two inquiries, no one has ever been held responsible. In 2019, fresh inquests were called into the events of the fire, with hopes that the families might get the answers they’ve been searching for for four decades. Proceedings are due to begin this year.  Earlier this week, Kieran went to the site of the fire to meet with three families.  The facade of the front of the building remains the same, though other buildings have cropped up all around it in the intervening years. There’s a plaque listing the names of the 48 at the back of the building, where they perished.  In this special feature, you’ll hear from three families Antoinette Keegan who was at the disco with her two sisters, Mary and Martina - both of whom died.  Lorraine and Suzanne, the two younger Keegan sisters who vividly remember the events of that night. Maurice and Phillis McHugh who lost their only child, Caroline And Samantha Mangan, who was just four years old when her mother Helena died in the fire that night Kieran started by asking Antoinette what she remembers about the lead up to the disco, and the terrifying experience inside the building when the fire took hold - and we should say some of what you’re about to hear might be upsetting. see more