THE SISTER OF one of the Stardust victims has told how her loved one has been “lost in the smoke and devastation” of the fire for too long and how her family want to reclaim her from the darkness and bring her “back into the sunlight where she belongs”.
Delivering a pen portrait of Marie Kennedy (17) on the eighth day of the inquest today at the Coroner’s Court, her sister Michelle described her “godmother and best pal” as someone who was “warm and caring”, “lively” and “fiercely protective”.
48 people lost their lives in the fire at the Stardust Ballroom on February 14, 1981 and pen portraits of the deceased are being delivered during the preliminary stage of the inquest that is currently taking place in the Pillar Room of the Rotunda Hospital.
Michelle told the jury at the inquest that she had intended to add a section about the night Marie died, describing how her parents had found her in Jervis Street Hospital and how their Mam had recognised her daughter by her feet.
She said she was going to tell how Marie’s loss had destroyed their family but said that, in the end, she decided not to.
Michelle said the decades-long fight had taken far too much from the family already so instead they were focusing on remembering Marie’s life, “taking her back” and reclaiming her from the “darkness and despair”.
She said the pen portraits have been incredibly difficult for family members to write for many reasons, with decades of “unprocessed grief, shock and anger” as well as unanswered questions and memories.
She told how Marie had passed away ten days before Michelle’s fifth birthday and how her big sister was her godmother and her best pal.
Her memories of her sister have been “clouded by sadness and the passing of 42 years”, she said, adding she and all those who lost loved ones have been cheated out of so much.
She said for some family members, providing memories of Marie for the pen portrait was “just too upsetting”.
“The good memories can be as painful as the bad. But their silence told me everything. I could feel the weight of it like a noiseless, deafening scream.”
She said what she did get from them though, was the image of a kind-hearted and fun-loving person, a “larger than life personality” with a smile to match.
She said the same words came up over and over: “Beautiful, warm, caring, funny and the smile. Everyone mentioned her smile”.
Marie was a Christmas baby, born exactly a week before Christmas Day and the family tradition of putting up the Christmas decorations on her birthday started then and continues to this day, Michelle said.
Marie had an enormous love of singing, music and dancing from a very young age and was dancing almost as soon as she could walk.
She started going to Irish dancing lessons when she was about four and won lots of medals, eventually taking part in the St Patrick’s day parade, Irish dancing her way across O’Connell Bridge in the freezing cold and pouring rain.
Michelle told how their grandparents once took Marie on holidays to Butlins and entered her in a singing competition which she won.
“She was forever making up dance routines and teaching them to us younger ones and our friends. One of our cousins specifically remembers her lining us all up to teach us how to sing and dance the hucklebuck,” she said.
However, disco music was Marie’s really big thing, and she loved the Bee Gees, Jackson Five, Leo Sawyer and Abba.
“Her love of music and dancing was the reason she was in the Stardust that night. She wanted to see the dancing competition,” Michelle said.
“She was our dancing queen, young and sweet, only 17.”
Marie also had a love of fashion and worked at tailoring while she went to secretarial college. She adored shoes and would spend her pay on them.
“I remember using her high heels to sit my dolls in, pretending to drive them around in their glamourous shoe cars,” Michelle said.
She told how her big sister once turned up to their grandparent’s house wearing a pair of men’s steel toe-capped shoes. Their granny expressed her dismay, but Marie laughed and told her: “This is the fashion Nana” while their grandad looked over his newspaper and said: “leave her alone Mary, she looks great.”
She said Marie “looked glorious in her Aran jumper and silver jewellery with her beautiful black hair and mischievous green eyes”. As a result they all wanted their own Aran jumper and their “poor mother was tormented knitting them for us”.
Michelle remembered her big sister as “cheeky, fun loving and mischievous”.
“She would hug our Mam from behind and call her Patsy. The two of them would smile at each other and Mam would say: ‘what are you looking for’,” she said.
As the eldest of six children, Marie always looked out for her siblings.
“She was our best pal but we knew she wasn’t to be trifled with. She was in charge, and we knew it. She was the ultimate big sister.”
“The decades-long fight for answers has taken far too much from us already. So today we’re taking her back and we’re remembering her life. We’re reclaiming her from the darkness and despair and bringing her back into the sunlight where she belongs,” Michelle added.
“She’s our sister, daughter, sister-in-law, niece, aunt, great aunt, cousin and friend. She’s our Marie”.
A young man was so traumatised by what happened on the night of the Stardust fire, which claimed the life of his sister, that he still cannot talk about it more than 40 years on, the Coroner’s Court has heard.
In a separate pen portrait, Mary Kenny was remembered as a much-loved daughter, sister, and friend.
She was 19 when she died in the fire at the Stardust Ballroom.
Her brother Paul, who had also been at the Stardust dance that night, still cannot talk about it because he is so traumatised by what he experienced, their sister Angela Kenny told the inquest today.
Providing a pen portrait of Mary, Angela Kenny described how they had been a very happy family but “everything changed once Mary died”.
She said Mary and many of her friends perished that night, including her best friend Mary Keegan, whom she called for on her way to the disco after saying goodbye to her family for the final time.
Angela said she was just 15 years old when her sister Mary was tragically killed in the fire.
“We were not financially well off but we were very united as a family and happy,” she said. “We were always well cared for and our house was always one of love and laughter. “
Mary was a “much-loved daughter, sister and friend who was “kind, funny and popular”.
The eldest daughter of Sarah and Michael Kenny, she had just turned 19 a month before the fire and was a “wonderful big sister” to Carol, Paul and Angela herself.
Angela said Mary had a “lovely group of friends” when she left secondary school and they all remained friends until the end.
“Several of them also died in the Stardust fire on that terrible night,” she said.
After leaving school, Mary worked as a receptionist in Dublin city centre, a job which she loved.
“She had just started on her career and had her whole life ahead of her,” Angela said.
She told how Mary was a very kind girl, visiting their elderly aunt who lived on her own in the city centre every week. “She would cycle all the way from Coolock into town just to make sure she was okay and had everything she needed. She did that trip every week for years.”
She said their great aunt was devastated by Mary’s death and grieved for her until the day she died.
Mary didn’t drink or smoke and her passions in life were “dancing and fashion”.
She loved going to the Stardust nightclub on a Friday night to dance with her friends and loved music. Queen, Marc Bolan, T Rex and Barry Manilow were her favourite groups.
Angela relayed how, on the Friday night before Mary left home for the last time, they were all sitting chatting and laughing about who had received Valentine’s cards.
“Mary was sitting with me guessing who had sent me my first Valentines. I wanted her to help me write one in return because she was older and knew the verses to use. She said she was getting ready to go out and she would help me in the morning.”
She said Mary was trying to persuade their sister Carol to go with her that night.
“Fortunately, Carol was saving up for a holiday she had booked with her friends and decided not to go.”
She said Mary was “very happy” going out the door that night and called around for her best friend Mary Keegan.
“She said she would see us later. That was our last happy memory of Mary,” Angela said.
Shortly before 2am, their brother Paul came home in a distressed state shouting repeatedly if Mary was home.
The family didn’t have a car, so they had to walk to Coolock Garda Station which was “in chaos” with countless people looking for news on their loved ones. They were told to go home and check with the hospitals but there was no record of Mary anywhere.
“Our parents were distraught with fear and my mother was checking with neighbours to see if anyone had seen Mary. They did not know what to do. We were all hoping and praying that Mary would walk through the front door.”
Angela told how a couple of days later, their sister Carol was asked to go to the city morgue to identify Mary’s jewellery.
“She had only bought her [Mary] a silver ring for her birthday a few weeks before and never thought she would be identifying it in a morgue,” said Angela.
“She identified the ring and wristwatch Mary was wearing that night and they were all black from the fire. A day later we were told officially by the gardaí that Mary was one of the deceased.”
What followed was “surreal” and felt “like a nightmare”, she said.
“Our family could not take it in. We were all in shock, totally devastated and it slowly dawned on us that we would never see our lovely sister again.”
She said their dad died two years later “broken hearted” over his eldest daughter’s tragic death and their mother’s life changed completely.
“She went from having a happy family to losing her eldest daughter and her husband within two years. It was more than any person should have to bear,” said Angela.
Her mother visited the grave every weekend for years and never got over the loss. She was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years later and passed away in 2004, Angela told the inquest.
Angela said their sister Mary had missed out on so many family celebrations over the years and the family have missed her presence and always wondered what life would have been like had she survived.
She said the Stardust fire had had a big impact and there was “always a sadness” in their family.
Angela said her sister was very overprotective of her children, especially when they are going out as teenagers as she was terrified that “something awful” would happen to them as it had done to her sister Mary.
Their brother Paul had been at the Stardust dance that night also and still cannot talk about it as he is still traumatised by what he experienced. “We just thank god every day that he got out alive,” she added.
Angela said she has also been affected over the years by what happened and said she would give anything to go back to that night when they were all laughing and happy, and stop Mary going to the Stardust dance.
“We dread every year when it comes around to St Valentines Day and we are forced to relive the nightmare and the absence of justice our loved ones were shown. That awful night we lost our sister Mary.”
She said that the family hopes that once the inquest concludes, Mary and all the victims of the Stardust can finally rest in peace and their loved ones can finally have closure after more than 40 years.
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