I’m not sure why I feel compelled to write about this again – here’s my post of three years ago. The rather silly occasion that is Valentine’s Day sparks it off I guess.

It was on 14th February 1981, Artane, North Dublin. Fire broke out at the Stardust nightspot which was packed with over 800 mainly young people. The fire exits were variously locked or chained. The windows were either steel-shuttered or barred. Many were trapped as the fire raced through the building. 48 were killed, hundreds more injured. The toll would have been considerably higher only for the brave and heroic efforts of rescuers including those who had escaped and then risked their lives again by frantically trying to free their friends and others.

Few families in North Dublin were unaffected. To this day the shadow lies heavily over that part of the city. Every morning many Dubliners wake and the nightmare begins all over.

But beyond the human tragedy it is appalling how Irish officialdom – there to serve the people of the country – has treated the issue. The Director of Public Prosecutions deemed that there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to instigate criminal proceedings against the owner of the building. Only a lawyer would be able to explain how that could be possible given the facts.

There was an enquiry. It was headed by one Justice Ronan Keane, appointed by the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charles Haughey. Three times during his report Keane stated that there was ‘no evidence’ that the fire had been deliberately started. Then he shocked everyone with his verdict that ‘the probable explanation of the fire is that it was caused deliberately.’ This astonishing verdict exonerated the owners, protected them from civil claims and allowed them to successfully claim compensation from Dublin City Corporation.

Stardust memorial

There was plenty of evidence at that time – and more has emerged since – that the fire started in an overhead storeroom filled with combustible materials. The electrics were probably overloaded. Flames were seen at roof level by witnesses ten minutes before they appeared downstairs in the club. It was 100% not arson and indeed a 2008 review concluded that this cause be omitted from the public record.

Yet the true cause of the fire remains officially unspoken. The compensation was not repaid. No one has been held to account or charged for breaches of fire regulations, let alone manslaughter. The families are still seeking a further enquiry but this has been refused by successive governments.

It’s the Irish way. The incident threatened to shine a light into too many dark corners. If it’s politically inconvenient then kick it down the road until people forget about it. In most functioning democracies justice would have been served long ago.

The Stardust owner, Eamon Butterly, has been vilified in Dublin ever since. It is difficult to find sympathy. Only the briefest of mumbled apologies, suggesting that he too is a victim. Nothing publicly from the wider family who might otherwise be accounted as innocent. And they have brazenly redeveloped the site under their own name giving the finger to the victims and their families. In less peaceable places it wouldn’t have been possible. The approbation they have brought on themselves.

If you’re a Facebooker you might want to follow the campaign for justice here. And again here is Christy Moore’s song for the victims. And give a listen to this beautiful song of remembrance by Ray Heffernan and the Grand Canal Band.

Enjoy Valentine’s Day.

Not a good day for Anglo-Irish relations, this day in 1920, Bloody Sunday. It tells in a nutshell how there is no such thing as the moral high ground in any conflict much as the extremists on both sides hurry to claim it.

The excellent Facebook page Rare Irish Stuff tells us of the cold-blooded killings of 14 hand-picked British Intelligence working in Dublin at the height of the War of Independence. They were known as the Cairo Gang by the IRA due to their frequenting of the Café Cairo on Grafton Street.

Michael Collins was one of the High Command of the IRA of the day with Intelligence being part of his brief. He orchestrated the murders in various houses and buildings in the Dublin area within hours of one another, wiping out at a stroke most of the British Intelligence presence in the country.

The Cairo Gang

Collins is quoted as saying “By their destruction the very air is made sweeter. That should be the future’s judgment on this particular event. For myself, my conscience is clear. There is no crime in detecting and destroying, in war-time, the spy and the informer. They have destroyed without trial. I have paid them back in their own coin.”

The reprisal did not take long. Dublin were playing Tipperary that afternoon at Croke Park. British Auxiliaries raided the ground and shot about them indiscriminately. Again 14 were killed, 13 innocent spectators together with Michael Hogan of the Tipperary team.

Reprisals, counter reprisals. Only in more recent times has there been some understanding that there was evil on both sides, no matter the underlying claims as to who was right and wrong. Good men, young men, died for a cause they believed in. There was no glory in it for anyone, and little gain.

The whole of Ireland is in uproar.  About the austerity measures imposed by the troika?  About the Anglo-Irish tapes? About the endemic corruption of its politicians? The state of O’Connell Street maybe, now ruled by junkies and alcoholics? Why, nothing so trivial.

The country is sports mad. And they are most successful in international terms at rugby (and boxing, but that doesn’t fit this story). And the demi-god, the totem of the Irish national team is one Brian O’Driscoll. Regarded by many as the greatest northern hemisphere player of his generation he has skill, courage, leadership skills and film star looks. Though now 34 he was chosen for his fourth tour with the Lions, an amalgam of the four home nations, to tour Australia this summer.

‘Drico’ or ‘BOD’ was chosen for the starting XV for the first two Tests. He didn’t particularly shine, but he wasn’t alone in that. The Lions spluttered and the series stands at one apiece, the decider tomorrow. The skipper Gareth Warburton of Wales is unfit and it was unanimously thought that O’Driscoll would step up and fulfil his destiny, leading the side to a series win.

He was dropped. Entirely. Not even on the bench as a replacement. Never mind Ireland, most of the rugby world’s eyebrows shot up. Back home you’ve never seen such anger with everybody denouncing coach Gatland. No one, apart from the curmudgeonly George Hook, remotely agrees with the decision. But even Hook concedes that, even leaving aside the merits of the decision, it is a hugely sad way for O’Driscoll to end his Lions career.

In 1966 Jimmy Greaves was England’s first choice striker at the World Cup, and he played in the first three matches before being injured. He missed the next match but the public demand for him to be reinstated for the semi-final and final fell on the deaf ears of Alf Ramsey. Greaves’ replacement Geoff Hurst scored three times in the final as England beat Germany 4-1. Ramsey was a hero, Greaves the forgotten man.

Will Gatland be a hero tomorrow, or will his goose for ever be cooked?