Eamon Butterly says Stardust exits were unsafe to lock

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

Former Stardust manager Eamon Butterly told the Dublin District Coroner’s Court on 4 October 2023 that keeping exit doors locked on disco nights was unsafe.

Butterly said the doors should not have been locked, but maintained that head doorman Tom Kennan and staff could watch them and open them if needed.

Des Fahy KC, representing ten victims’ families, said 24 bodies were found near three exits and suggested those people died because the exits were locked when the fire broke out. Butterly denied this. He said he had been told by Kennan at around 11.30pm that the doors were unlocked and that, when he went outside, all the doors were open. He also suggested smoke, darkness and panic as an explanation.

Under questioning, Butterly said he could not remember why the locking policy had been allowed. Fahy recalled Butterly’s evidence to a 1981 tribunal that he had no plan if an inspector arrived while exits were locked and would have been in serious trouble.