There were unique developments at the Stardust Inquest on Wednesday when, during a recess, it is alleged the former floor manager of the club was heard on microphone speaking to a person off-camera who said the doors in the nightclub were locked on the night of the fire, to which the witness replied: “It’s nothing to do with me, so I’m not saying that.”
The incident happened as Phelim Kinahan was giving his evidence remotely to the Dublin Coroner’s Court sitting in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital, during an inquest into the blaze that swept through the Stardust ballroom in the early hours of February 14th, 1981.
During a recess in Wednesday's proceedings, Mr Kinahan’s microphone was still switched on, and when the court resumed, Des Fahy KC, who is representing a number of the families of the victims, told the jury that a disagreement was overheard between Mr Kinahan and someone not visible on screen.
“You were heard having a disagreement with someone. The person who overheard it heard a person say that the doors were locked, and you said: ‘It’s nothing to do with me so I’m not saying that’,” Mr Fahy said to Mr Kinahan.
“I don’t remember saying it,” Mr Kinahan replied.
“If the doors were locked, is your position that it was nothing to do with you?” Mr Fahy asked, to which the witness replied that it was.
The coroner, Dr Myra Cullinane, warned the jury that the matter of what may have been said when the microphone was still on was only second or third-hand evidence.
Locked
Earlier in the day, Mr Kinahan said he did not remember the doors being locked in the Stardust.
Mr Fahy said that the inquest will hear evidence from the head doorman, who will say that he was given a direction around midnight to open all the other exit doors which had been locked up to that point.
“It appears every single exit door was locked,” Mr Fahy said.
Mr Fahy asked whether, if every door was locked at some point, if that was part of or against the policy in place at time.
“As far as I can say, that was against the policy. They were closed, but not locked,” the witness said.
“As far as I can remember, all the exit doors were open. There might have been a chain over them to give the impression they were locked, but they were not locked,” Mr Kinahan added, going on to say that he did not remember what system was in place for opening the doors if they had been locked for a period of time on any given night.
A member of the coroner’s legal team, Simon Mills SC, told the court that the deposition of Mr Kinahan which was read out the previous day contained an error.
He said the deposition indicated that Mr Kinahan said he believed the doors were locked, but in a handwritten version of the same statement he said the doors were unlocked. Mr Mills said the existence of the earlier written statement had not been brought to the attention of all parties, and he apologised for this.
Mr Fahy replied that this did not matter “one iota” in terms of Mr Kinahan’s credibility. He asked the witness which doors he believed were unlocked, to which Mr Kinahan replied that it was all the doors.
Mr Kinahan said that when all customers were in the Stardust and a concert was on, all the doors were unlocked in case of necessity. He said the policy was to keep the doors locked for roughly the first hour until the people were inside.
“So, when you told the gardaí in the handwritten statement that you thought the doors were unlocked, that was not correct?” Mr Fahy asked.
Mr Kinahan replied that the impression given was that the doors were locked because there was a chain over the bar.
Statement
Mr Fahy asked him about the morning after the fire, when staff members were asked to go to the Stardust to make a statement to the management’s solicitors.
He asked if the reason might have been that statements were required from staff to help with a compensation claim.
“I do not know fully. Eamon Butterly did his own thing,” Mr Kinahan said.
Mr Fahy put it to Mr Kinahan that the witness was “an Eamon Butterly man” in 1981 and he remained “an Eamon Butterly man” now.
“I think so,” Mr Kinahan replied.
Bernard Condon SC, representing 10 of the families, asked Mr Kinahan about the description of the fire he had given in statements. He said that in the statement he had given to Mr Butterly’s solicitors, he saw “the fire jump” from one seat to another.
Mr Condon said Mr Kinahan had not said this in his statements to gardaí and suggested that this detail was added to support other people’s versions of events.
Mr Kinahan replied that he did not remember, nor did he remember giving evidence about seeing smoke that seemed to be coming from a hole in the ceiling that may have been an air vent.
Chained
Michael O’Higgins SC, representing a number of families, asked him about the practice of putting a chain around the bar of the door to give the impression it was locked. He asked Mr Kinahan how he got the impression that the door would still open easily.
“I was there, in every hotel, that’s what they did,” the witness replied, going on to confirm that he never tried to force open the doors.
Mr O’Higgins said a substantial number of patrons complained that when they tried to push the bars the doors were jammed and they could not open the doors. He said that, if correct, it would appear that wrapping a chain around a door like that was very dangerous.
Mr O’Higgins said that experiments were carried out after the fire where chains were wrapped around the doors to see if there was any resistance, and it was discovered that if someone pressed both bars down at the same time, the doors jammed.
“Now it’s been brought to your attention, do you see how dangerous it was?” Mr O’Higgins asked. “A bit dangerous, yes,” Mr Kinahan replied.
“No one in their right minds would be doing this if the situation were being done again?” Mr O’Higgins said, to which the witness agreed.
Séan Guerin SC, representing a number of families, asked him if he remembered getting a very bad smell of rubber in the Stardust on a previous night, a smell that disappeared when the heaters were turned off.
The witness replied that he did not recall that, nor did he recall Eamon Butterly later telling him that he had put a new motor into the heater. Mr Kinahan also said that he did not remember DJs having a problem with equipment overloading the electric system in the Stardust.
Mr Kinahan’s evidence will continue on Thursday.
