The head doorman of the Stardust nightclub admitted to a tribunal that he knew the practice of locking doors while people were inside the complex was illegal.
Tom Kennan also agreed that as many as 700 people could have died had the fire broken out when all exit doors and the main door were locked.
He told the 1981 tribunal of inquiry before Mr Justice Ronan Keane that the reason he did not go to his nephew, Stardust manager Eamon Butterly, and tell him the practice of locking doors was not only illegal but also dangerous was because Mr Butterly “was aware of it”.
“And you knew he was aware of it?” he was asked by counsel. “Oh yes,” Mr Kennan replied.
The evidence given by Mr Kennan to the 1981 tribunal was read to the jury at the inquests taking place into the fatal Valentine’s Day blaze by Mark Tottenham BL, a member of the coroner’s legal team.
Exit doors
When a barrister at the tribunal put it to Mr Kennan that the fire could easily have broken out when not only were all the exit doors locked but exit two [the main door] was also locked, the doorman agreed “it could have”.
“That could easily have happened by virtue of your procedures and your lack of procedures?” Counsel asked. “Yes,” Mr Kennan replied. “And you agree with that?” “Yes,” Mr Kennan said.
“In that situation the conservative estimate of 600 or 700 would have perished?” Counsel continued.” “Yes”, Mr Kennan confirmed.
“The conservative estimate of deaths in that situation could easily have happened as a result of your procedures?” The barrister asked.
“That is definitely so,” Mr Kennan replied.
The head doorman also claimed that, immediately after the fire, he had said to Mr Butterly: “Thank God all the exits were open”.
Statement
In his evidence to the inquiry, Mr Kennan denied he only told gardaí he had unlocked the doors because he knew Michael Kavanagh - another doorman at the club who had previously claimed he had unlocked the emergency exits – was going to retract his statement.
Mr Kennan agreed that it wasn’t his “usual practice” to open the exit doors and said that he had only done it once before.
The jury at the inquest heard on Wednesday that Mr Kennan did not mention opening the doors in his initial garda statement but did reference it in his second statement made a week after the fire.
Mr Kennan was asked why, after news emerged that dozens of people had died and many others were injured, he had not gone to the guards in the meantime to give them this important piece of information.
“I suggest you knew by then questions were being raised as to which doors were open or not,” counsel at the tribunal said. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“Because the exits were open, it was obvious to see to people the exits were open,” Mr Kennan replied.
The doorman said he “imagined” that he had said it to Mr Butterly’s solicitor when he spoke to him the day after the fire.
Mr Kennan said doormen from the club had met with the solicitor in the Lantern Room of the Stardust complex on the afternoon of February 14th for the purpose of making statements.
Asked if a decision had been made on that Saturday that he would say as little as he “could get away with” Mr Kennan said he did not want to “say anything about it on Saturday whatsoever”.
Questioned as to why this was the case when he was the one person who could clear up any suggestion that the doors were locked by telling people he had unlocked them, Mr Kennan said he did not know why.
“Not alone did you not say it, you did not say it in the context that you knew someone else was telling lies about it. Why?” counsel pressed. “I do not know why,” Mr Kennan repeated.
It was suggested to him that the reason for this was because it “suited very well” as long as he was sure that “Mr Kavanagh was going to persist in his original lie”.
Asked what he would say to the suggestion that the only reason he had to alter that situation was when he discovered that Mr Kavanagh was going to “come clean” and admit that he did not, in fact, open the doors, Mr Kennan replied: “I would say that is completely false”.
Second statement
It was pointed out that Mr Kennan’s second statement was made a week after his first and up to that point he had allowed the police to proceed on the basis that the doors had been opened by Mr Kavanagh.
Mr Kennan said he thought the police knew during that week that the doors had not been opened by Mr Kavanagh.
He said doorman PJ Murphy had called to his house and said that he and deputy head doorman Leo Doyle had interviewed Michael Kavanagh. He agreed that this “could have been” before he gave his second statement to gardaí.
In response to a question from a barrister, Mr Kennan said he could not identify anyone who had seen him opening the doors on the night.
The head doorman told the tribunal that the system of chaining doors “worked very well” and “a lot of people got out of the premises” on the night of the fire. He said he could not identify any deficiencies in the procedures.
“Your system of chaining doors and opening doors worked well?” he was asked. “You’ve no criticism to make of that?”
“I’ve not really, no,” Mr Kennan replied.
Asked if he believed it was perfectly legitimate that people should have been led to believe that by chains being draped that doors were locked, Mr Kennan said: “It was a case of pushing the doors and the doors would open as far as I could see.”
“You did know it was illegal to lock the doors when people were in?” he was asked. “That is right,” said Mr Kennan.
He confirmed to lawyers at the tribunal that his “normal crew” of doormen would have been “grossly insufficient” to maintain security without the use of chains and that there weren’t enough staff to man the doors without the use of chains.
He agreed that five or six entrance fees would have covered the cost of a bouncer for the night.
The doorman said he and Mr Butterly had a discussion about security in the hours before the fire broke out and he “got the impression” that Mr Butterly was thinking of replacing the bouncers inside with a security company.
Asked if this was because Mr Butterly was finding the bouncer system “deficient”, Mr Kennan said that was “probably true”.
Evidence was also heard today from Kenneth Fagan who worked as a doorman at the Stardust for one week in January 1981 and said during that time he noticed that exits four five and six were always locked with chains. He said this would have been between 10pm and 1am and they were “never taken off as far as I know”.
Mr Fagan told the inquest that he was aware of the practice of chains being draped over doors and said a fireman passed a remark to him that it was dangerous.
