A Stardust survivor who lost two siblings in the fatal blaze has told how she and her sisters were all “holding one another’s hands” and were within six feet of an exit before they were trampled to the ground and she passed out.
“My last words I ever remember saying in there before I lost consciousness was: ‘Oh god help us’,” Antoinette Keegan told the jury at Dublin District Coroner’s Court on Tuesday.
Ms Keegan also told how she had to put her arms up to shield herself from a “fireball” which fell from the ceiling.
She said a man managed to drag her out the door to safety a short time later and said she was still clutching on to her sister Martina as he pulled her outside.
Ms Keegan, who also lost a number of close friends in the fire, described the panic which set in amongst the patrons in the club when she said those trying to escape discovered that one of the exits, exit 5, was locked.
Before her evidence began, coroner Dr Myra Cullinane told Ms Keegan: “Of course we know it’s going to be very difficult for you in particular because you have such close connection to your two siblings who lost their lives” and said if she needed a break at any stage to let her know.
Small fire
Ms Keegan told Gemma McLoughlin Burke, a member of the coroner’s legal team, she first became aware of the blaze when her friend said: “look over there, there’s a fire”. She said she looked over and at that stage it was only a small fire about 18 inches high.
She said a partition was still down, but you could see the fire through the curtain. Ms Keegan said two bouncers came and made an attempt to put the fire out, but to no avail.
She said by this stage the fire was getting “really bad” and the ceiling in that area was “starting to drop”.
She said the nearest exit to her group was exit 5 but when they got there: “The door was locked with a chain and lock on it.”
Ms Keegan said they then made their way to the next closest exit which was exit 4.
She said there was a group of people at exit 5 who were “panicking” because the doors were locked and they couldn’t get them open.
She described how the fire was “racing across the ceiling”, and parts of the ceiling were falling down.
“It was just like a fireball that came down and it was coming towards us. I remember putting my hands over my head,” Ms Keegan said, adding one of her hands was very badly burned as a result.
“I was on the ground, couldn’t get up, with my sisters. We were all holding one another’s hands”.
Asked what direction the fireball came from, Ms Keegan said: “I was lying on the floor with people trampling over me so it would have came from behind because it just shot in front of me.”
The witness added: “We were only about six foot away from the exit, exit 4 when we were pushed to the floor and people trampled on top of us to get out.”
'Knocked out'
She said the ceiling started coming down near them and the last thing she remembered was being “knocked out”.
“I went unconscious, the last thing I remember then was being out in a different atmosphere. The fella that pulled me out was Thomas Larkin.” She said this man later came to her family home and told her father and her sister that he had saved her life and pulled her out. She told how he had seen her with her sister Martina’s white blouse. “He came…pulled me out and my hand was still clutched onto my sister” the witness said, adding that he had to kick her hand away to get her out.
Asked why they went towards exit 4, Ms Keegan said: “We actually never knew about any exits because they were always locked any time we went there,” she said. “There was a practice, whatever way we came in we always had to go out that way, even with the management, that was the practice. You came in the main door you went out the main door.”
Questioned as to which exits she had seen locked in the past, Ms Keegan said she “always” saw exit 4 and exit 5 locked.
Describing the material which fell from the ceiling, Ms Keegan said: “It was like if you have a candle at an angle and the drips fall, it was like that hitting your face and your body.
She added: “It was like it was raining acid that’s the only way I can describe it”.
Des Fahy KC, who represents Ms Keegan’s family and the family of her sister’s friend, Mary Kenny, among others, acknowledged that the witness had lost at least seven people who were related to her or were close friends of hers in the blaze.
He asked if any of the others who lost their lives were beside her group on the night of the fire. Ms Keegan said David Morton, her sister’s boyfriend, was in their company and they also spoke to Michael French, Sandra Lawless and Paula Lewis during the evening. However, she said they were not with the group who made their way to exit 5 when the fire was noticed.
Survivor's guilt
Ms Keegan broke down as she read harrowing details from her own garda statements given in 1981 and 2019, to the jury.
In her supplemental statement given in 2019, Ms Keegan spoke of the guilt she felt because she survived the fire while her sisters perished.
She said their father had begged them not to go because it was taking place on Friday the 13th.
Ms Keegan said thankfully her brother John, 17 at the time, had been refused entry that night.
The inquest continues on Tuesday afternoon.
