They Never Came Home: The Stardust Story

On the eve of Valentine's Day, 1981, over 800 young people celebrated in the 'Stardust' disco in Dublin - forty-eight of them never made it home and others trapped in the fire that engulfed the club suffered horrific, disfiguring injuries. Hundreds more would bear the emotional scars of loss and grief for the remainder of their lives. Politicians who wept at the scene of the fire mounted a full-scale investigation into the disaster. It found that the owners of the ill-fated disco complex had acted with "reckless disregard" for the safety of its patrons, but no charges were ever brought against the owners. In fact, they went on to win substantial damages for the loss of the 'Stardust' complex. The victims have always claimed that the inquiry did not go far enough. The 'Stardust' fire raised many questions: what caused the flames to spread so rapidly? Were fire exits chained or locked? Why were there steel bars on the windows of the toilets? How were the owners able to get away with breaches of fire regulations and building bye-laws despite numerous inspections of the 'Stardust' by Dublin Corporation? As the twenty-first anniversary of the 'Stardust' fire approaches, the authors of They Never Came Home present disturbing new evidence that they believe casts doubt on the original finding of "probable" arson. It is also a story of the forgotten victims of the tragedy: the families and survivors speak openly and honestly about their decades-long campaign for justice. From the relatives' high profile battle for compensation to one father's murderous plot to seek personal revenge for the loss of his two beautiful daughters, the book paints a grim picture of ordinary people's helplessness and desperation in the face of bureaucracy.