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FAMILIES OF THOSE who died in the Stardust fire say that they tasked experts to review transcripts of the original inquiry into the case who came to a different conclusion.
The original inquiry into the 1981 fire that killed 48 people in Dublin found that it was caused by probable arson.
A 2009 examination of evidence by barrister Paul Coffey concluded that there would be no public interest for a new inquiry to be established because of the passage of time and no new physical evidence.
But spokesperson for the Victims’ Committee Antoinette Keegan says that they will tomorrow release pages from the independent review of the case which they say recommends a new inquiry.
The families say that the information they intend to release has ‘not been made public before’.
The Victims Committee also say that it was not within the remit of the Coffey report to determine the cause of the fire.
As a result, they say that the Government can not point to the review as a reason to disagree with their their claim that there is new evidence in the case.
The Department of Justice (DoJ)say that they have seen nothing to suggest anything different to the conclusion of the 2009 Coffey inquiry.
Keegan says that they have contacted the DoJ to request a copy of the terms of reference of the Coffey report.
The DoJ say that the Victims’ Committee has previously been advised that requests for access to records can be made by submitting an FOI request in the normal way.
They also say that the terms of reference for the Coffey examination of the inquiry are included in his report which is still available and were made available to the committee at the time.
The families’ continuing campaign comes after Minister for Justice Alan Shatter again ruled out another inquiry into the tragedy.
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Lets see can the department of justice give us their submission to contadict our evidence this week, we have been asking for this for quite some time. Its time they gave us their evidence to say what we have is not new evidence
Best of luck Antoinette
Thank you Lesley Alan
I bet you were promised everything before the last election and still nothing
Well done Antonette, still fighting for the memory of the 48. I hope justice will finally be served
Best of luck, keep going
Best of luck Antoinette, keep up the brave fight.
Best of luck with everything Antoinette. You have a lot of people behind you <3
Good luck to you, Antoinette, and to everyone else fighting with you. You deserve answers and i sincerely hope you get them.
Hope the wait is nearly over Antoinette, best of luck…
What more do these familys have to go through, they only want the truth, if there is new evidence the government should take this on board and do whats right and let these people rest in peace.
I’m from Coolock and the plain truth of the matter is that if 48 young lads & girls from Dublin 2 or Dublin 4 had died that dreadful night, then the whole thing would not have dragged on since 1981. And the fact that the Stardust site is now a pub is a sarcrilege. It should be a memorial place.
Well said anne Marie. ..I was there that night and luckly left early. .. But you’re right about the double standards that exist according to post code in our city
Just proves FF FG LAB all the same, this stinks to high heaven, politicians have the morals of a crack head junkie, they would lie and pimp out there family just to get power, if any of them were any good they would have made it in the private sector but no one of them have any life experience or business experience
Nothing will change
It’s been over 30 years and a new enquiry won’t happen
Never give up
Can’t imagine any of the current lot of cowards and liars to do anything. After all there’s no benefit to them. Now if itwas a current ministers constituency? They’d be all over it . Disgusting this hasn’t been gotten to the bottom of properly before now. Then again there’s always the link to charlie and the drumcondra mafia.
Looks like fg labour media office is out in force
There was a man named Brian Keenan who was a fire man on that morning if he is still alive he should explain what happened
Why don’t they release this new evidence ?
We have, and years of research. All ignored by successive government’s throughout the last 32 years.
I was at the reconstruction at Borehamwood and saw how the fire started and spread so rapidly but why it started is the question and I would love to see the evidence pointing to whoever did this. Professor Molhotra was not happy with the statements given to him at the inquiry.
Ipsum if you go to our Face book page, this will give you a basic inseight to some of the work of our researchers Robin Knox and Assoc. and Geraldine Foy. Plus there is more damming evidence to be released on the 14th Feb. https://www.facebook.com/JusticefortheStardust
I look forward to the release of the new evidence. I was on a training course at the time and the reconstruction was an eye opener as to how fast fire spreads. I did not see the witness reports so can’t comment on that aspect of the fire but the reconstruction was painstaking in getting the detail of the place right.
The main contention is that the fire did not start in the west alcove, but possibly in a store room (full of flammable plastic plates and cutlery and 50 x 5 gallon cooking oil drums) at a upper level which then ignited the roof space. Question Ipsum how many (takes) did it take to actually ignite the seat?
This message is to ipsum oleum its awful to think that the state paid for fire test that excluded the first floor store room malhatra and hinkley drew a map with only a ground floor level and the report noted the behaviour of a single storey construction fire development imagine all that money spent on a shite test that had nothing to do with a fire and do you know what the fire was in the roof space first and they didnt even know it they never asked for the 999 call record. They were told to find arson at a meeting in march 1981 with keane present.
What difference will a new enquiry make, will it bring any of the victims back.
Because they need the truth thats been denied to them for so long. Not the whitewash verdion
I ask again, what difference will it make?
Tom please show some respect!
Yes tom it will bring back all the dead! Case closed, do everyone a favour and do one! Why would you even bother with ridiculous comments like that? Go away and troll somewhere else, have some humanity and compassion.
Tom. … No it won’t bring people back. … But closure is required for the bereaved and the survivors….. have some compassion and Try to imagine how you would feel after 30 plus years of trying to find out who is responsible for the death of your family member or friend
Like all decent-minded people, I sympathise with the families of the victims and understand their desire to establish the truth, but please just present this new evidence.
Zozzy please check our face book page https://www.facebook.com/JusticefortheStardust
Hi Maurice, I had a look at the Facebook page, but I’m afraid I wasn’t exactly sure which part to read. I’m not familiar enough with the details of this, so I don’t understand what it is that’s alleged to have been covered up. I’m not suggesting there’s nothing to uncover – I’m just saying I don’t understand what it is.
The discussion on this page seems to contain some conflicting messages. The article above states “The families say that the information they intend to release has ‘not been made public before’,” but when Ipsum asked “Why don’t they release this new evidence?”, you replied “We have, and years of research. All ignored by successive government’s throughout the last 32 years.” But is the information you’re presenting tomorrow already on the Facebook page or is there something else that will only appear for the first time tomorrow?
Apologies if I have this all mixed up – I appreciate that people have fought an incredibly long and presumably frustrating fight over several decades to establish the truth about Stardust, so I certainly don’t wish to cause offence.
Useful summary of background:
https://www.facebook.com/JusticefortheStardust/info
This is a message to ipsum oleum, how old were you when you were on the training course in Borehamwood as you call it
I drove down to Butterly Park on Valentines day a few years ago. I had just read a book about the Stardust and wanted to leave flowers. Butterly couldn’t even leave out a memorial for those who perished that night. He should have at the very least, seeing as the fire exits chained shut.
Antoinette Keegan, your sisters would be so very proud of you. You have fought long and hard for justice.
Zozzy Yes there is more to come, on the 14th Feb
Wow can’t believe someone can be so insensitive as to ask what difference a new inquiry would make . It’s called justice if a family member of yours had died and there appeared to be a huge cover up would you not go to end of they earth to uncover the truth also look at the point of those fire doors chained closed that in itself would never allow me sleep again until I found justice if it was my love one .
We all feel very sorry for the relatives of the victims of the Stardust fire but realistically what are the prospects of a new inquiry getting closer to the truth? I would have to say very very slim.
We have to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again and that is through proper health and safety legislation and proper enforcement of that legislation.
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