Stardust Fire News Today

The new issue of Hot Press is en route to shops now, and is available to order online below

A civic reception was held for the family and friends of Susan Morgan who tragically lost her life in the Stardust Fire in Dublin in 1981

Bruce Arnold once wrote that he would never believe in the political demise of Charles Haughey until, like Dracula, he saw a stake driven through his heart.

The Taoiseach’s strength in dealing with the Stardust survivors is that he listened with his head but also with his heart.

One by one their shades flickered into life before us. Elvis impersonators, Dubs fans, young parents, messers, serious youngsters, some on the verge of careers, others focused still on family, all of them ­going places that they never got to.

Sir — On Saturday morning, February 14, 1981, I was 11 — in fact, my birthday was the day before. My mother was doing the laundry, using a twin-tub washing machine that was dragged into the middle of the kitchen.

It is instructive now to look back at the Dáil debates and newspaper reports at the time of the Stardust fire to examine what Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald described last week as “The Big Lie”.

It is instructive now to look back at the Dáil debates and newspaper reports at the time of the Stardust fire to examine what Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald described last week as “The Big Lie”.

Like most people, I welcome the recent findings of the Stardust inquest. Simon Harris is right to apologise, but this should not be empty rhetoric.

Nothing is as cold or as suffocating as anonymous and unaccountable officialdom. In the guise of a state it can be an irresistible force killing off all innate humane reflexes.