In Memory of Carol Bissett (Ringsend) and my sister Thelma Frazer (Sandymount) and the 46 other victims.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank most sincerely Mrs. Bissett and all her family for organizing the fund raiser at Clanna Gael for the Stardust Victims Legal Challenge (SVLC). Despite all the promises from the political forums, our plea has to this date still fallen on deaf ears.

The SVLC was set up to find the real cause of that inferno, to bring to justice the guilty, and to clear the names of the innocent.

The fire engulfed the Dublin nightclub ‘Stardust’ in the early hours of St. Valentine’s Day 1981. Some 850 attended the disco that night of which 215 were severely injured and 48 young people were killed.

The tribunal found that the owners had acted with “reckless dissregard” for the safety of their customers (by chaining exit doors, fixing steel plates to windows). After 122 days of the tribunal of inquiry, it was found the most likely cause was arson, and yet the owners of the club won costs for damages to their business to the value of £500,000. But now new evidence suggests that arson was not the cause.

I lost my sister Thelma (20) in the fire that night, the fact that the inquiry found that arson was the cause, meant that all the 850 (including the 215 wounded and 48 dead) were in some way guilty of arson that night.

No charges were ever brought against the the owners despite their “reckless disregard” for the safety of their customers.

Anyone wishing to donate to the ‘STARDUST LEGAL CHALLENGE FUND’ can do so at AIB in Raheny Village,Dublin 5, Ireland, Account Number- 21334030 Sort Code- 93-23-45.
Maurice Frazer
Sandymount