Eamon Butterly loses challenge over possible unlawful killing verdict at Stardust inquest

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

Former Stardust manager Eamon Butterly lost a High Court challenge over whether a verdict of unlawful killing could be available at a new inquest into the 1981 disaster. On 2 November 2022, Mr Justice Charles Meenan refused his application.

The inquest concerns the fire at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, which killed 48 people and injured 128 on the night of 13 and 14 February 1981. Butterly managed the venue, which his family owned.

Butterly had sought to prevent Dublin City Coroner Myra Cullinane from conducting the inquest in a way that he believed could make him a target for an unlawful killing verdict. The coroner, the Minister for Justice and the Attorney General opposed the application.

Mr Justice Meenan held that the coroner had been correct in law to rule that an unlawful killing verdict could not be ruled out at that stage. He said such a verdict could be returned in appropriate circumstances only where no person was identified or identifiable. The coroner would direct the jury on permissible verdicts after hearing the evidence and considering submissions.

In a separate judgment, the judge also refused Butterly’s application for a declaration that his rights had been breached by the failure to provide free legal aid at the inquest. He said Butterly was entitled to fair procedures, but those procedures were not of the order that arose in an adversarial process; Butterly was not a party defending himself against allegations.