Eamon Butterly gives evidence at Stardust inquests

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Eamon Butterly gave evidence at the Stardust inquests at Dublin District Coroner’s Court on 21 September 2023. The inquests concerned the deaths of 48 people in the Dublin fire on 14 February 1981.

The former Stardust manager said he had never seen fire exits locked on disco nights. He said he told the head doorman not to have the exits locked and to stop doing it. Asked what he had done to ensure the practice had stopped, he replied: “I trusted him.”

Statements Butterly gave to gardaí in 1981 were read into the record on 21 September 2023. In them, he said the policy of locking exits for a time on disco nights had been forced on him because large numbers of people were entering without paying. He also said the doors had never been left locked for an entire evening.

Butterly told officers in October 1981 that doormen had originated the practice of draping chains around exit bars to make the doors appear locked. He said he had not ordered it, but knew about it and did not stop it. Asked about the impression this might give someone fleeing a fire, he said the door opened immediately when the panic bar was pushed.

Butterly also told the inquest that staff received no fire training. The inquests were being heard by coroner Dr Myra Cullinane and a 13-person jury in the Pillar Room at the Rotunda Hospital. The report said Butterly was expected to spend several days giving direct evidence.