Each article written about the Stardust disaster has been taken from the angle of a nation that had to suffer the emotional scars from the aftermath. Parents crushed as they buried their children, one baby left orphaned as a result and a community so strained under the pressure of seeking justice that it leads to the ruination of many families. Having read so many reports it has become blatantly clear that the nightclub should never have been opened in the first place. The Stardust Nightclub was dangerous places that ultimately lead to the death of 48 innocent young people.
In the early 70’s budding entrepreneur Patrick Butterly began his long battle in the North Dublin area with the city’s planning authority to have a once productive jam factory be converted into a thriving entertainment complex comprising of a pub, function rooms and cabaret venue. Throughout the 70’s Butterly would apply many time to the local authorities and he would be declined due to blatant lack of safety regulations on the premises. This however, all changed in 1975 when the local planning authorities granted him permission to create a somewhat social district, Butterly claimed that this would play a pivotal role in creating morale among the community and bringing about a social chnge in time for the city to raise above the economical lull it can been victim to throughout the early 70’s. Political change was already a foot with local Politician Charles Haughey taking over as Taoiseach from Jack Lynch in 1979.
It would seem that Patrick Butterly’s dream of creating some kind of social buzz would be welcomed by all. The ”Stardust” night club opened in However, prior and during the opening of the Butterly premises it would seem that things were not up to the standard hoped by the corporation inspectors, who paid the night clubs up to 24 visits in 1980 alone. With each inspection worrying results to be found; loose tables obstructing the exits, fire exit doors that did not open the appropriate amount and defective light bulbs in the emergency lighting system. However, bizarrely enough none of these problems led to the Stardust being shut down. Patrick Butterly claims he was not aware that all the exits must be unlocked at all times, but he also claimed that as soon as every regulatory lack was brought to his attention they were rectified immediately.
Mr. Butterly’s business savvy and community loyalty was not the reason that the Stardust remained open to the public, it was perhaps convenient at the time of each safety investigation that he was canvassing for local politicians during the pre-election events. It has to be said that his involvement in the political rallies in the area were probably highly beneficial to each of the inspections being ignored by the local authorities.
The buzz outside the Stardust on the eve of Valentines Day was contagious for each of the young people waiting to get inside. As they waited to pay they did not pay heed to the chain fire exit doors or the steel plates covering every single toilet window in the building. They were looking forward to the romantic encounters that would be found inside and the ensuing excitement of maybe meeting someone special before midnight. However, it seems none of these people would forget their night, all for the wrong reasons.
Monday
Where in the world?
In 2004 The Missing Person Association (MPA) recorded that 5,060 people were reported missing in Ireland and 83 of which were never found. With a population just shy of 4 million this is a statistic that is growing alarmingly. Due to this ongoing crisis the MPA have established three categories to help them assist as many people as possible. A Category ‘A’ missing person requires immediate action this person is at high risk, usually someone who has been abducted or a possible suicide threat. A Category ‘B’ missing person may be an individual who has left voluntarily and has notified a family member. A Category ‘C’ missing person is someone who is of absolutely no threat, a person who more than likely just wishes to begin a new life. Sadly not all missing persons in this country disappear willingly; many vanish without a trace and leave behind a heartbroken family desperate to find out what happened to their loved ones.
Philip Cairns had just started at Colaiste Eanna secondary school. On the 23rd of October in 1986 he was walking from his home on Ballyroan Road in Rathfarnham back to school after his lunch break, however he never arrived. To this day no trace of the young teenager has been found, despite countless heartfelt pleas made by the local Gardai and the Cairns Family. It seems that the school boy simply disappeared on this busy and seemingly harmless stretch of road. Even more mysterious was that seven days after his disappearance two teenage girls found his school-bag in a dark, curvy laneway close to his home the had been searched extensively just hours after Mr. and Mrs. Cairns had called the authorities to report their sons disappearance. This can only mean that some one planted the bag in that laneway shortly before the girls came upon it. This person could probably be of great assistance to the Rathfarnham Gardai who investigated Philips case. To this day no answers have been given to Alice Cairns who has lost her eldest son.
Mary Boyle was a pretty and curious six year old girl in 1977 who liked nothing more than to play with her brother and sister. Tragically she is Ireland’s youngest missing person, having vanished in March 18th 1977 near Ballyshannon in Southern Donegal. On that day Mary had been playing with her twin sister and older brother Patrick in the back garden while her parents were in the house preparing dinner. When Mary complained of being bored the other two children were not ready to finish their game and so continued without paying much attention to their sibling. Her parents Charlie and Ann did not see the little girl wander out of the garden. Mary’s uncle and godfather Gerry Gallagher is the last known person to have seen her. At about 3.30 that afternoon he was carrying a ladder back to house of his neighbour. Mary followed him from a distance chatting idly to her uncle. Just before reaching the house Gerry made his way through six inches of mud. Mary hesitated and decided to turn back home. She would never be seen again.
No evidence was ever found to suggest that Mary was abducted. Two theories remain dominant in the case of Mary Boyle. One is that she encountered some marshy bog land that had been an undetected sink-hole, and being less than four foot tall she would not have been able to pull herself back up if she had lost her footing. If Mary had been wearing boots then it is very likely that the little girl would have been walking awkwardly through the marshy land and so if she had fallen over the likely scenario is that she would have become stuck in the mud, if she were to struggle it would have resulted in her becoming further embedded in the reeds and shallow waters. Being such a slight build the little girl could very easily have sunk into the bogland completely unnoticed and sadly her body would never be recovered, although it would remain perfectly preserved. The other, far more sinister theory is that Mary was abducted after she left her uncles company and before she had reached the safety of home. Unfortunately both theories have been entertained for almost thirty years and have shed no light in this tragic mystery.
Without the information and help of the public it has become painstakingly clear to the authorities that many of the missing people of Ireland will remain under that label. The sad truth of the matter is that people like Fiona Sinnot, Jo Jo Dullard and Ciara Breen all remain unsolved mysterious filed away until someone can help unravel, perhaps the last moments of their lives.
Philip Cairns had just started at Colaiste Eanna secondary school. On the 23rd of October in 1986 he was walking from his home on Ballyroan Road in Rathfarnham back to school after his lunch break, however he never arrived. To this day no trace of the young teenager has been found, despite countless heartfelt pleas made by the local Gardai and the Cairns Family. It seems that the school boy simply disappeared on this busy and seemingly harmless stretch of road. Even more mysterious was that seven days after his disappearance two teenage girls found his school-bag in a dark, curvy laneway close to his home the had been searched extensively just hours after Mr. and Mrs. Cairns had called the authorities to report their sons disappearance. This can only mean that some one planted the bag in that laneway shortly before the girls came upon it. This person could probably be of great assistance to the Rathfarnham Gardai who investigated Philips case. To this day no answers have been given to Alice Cairns who has lost her eldest son.
Mary Boyle was a pretty and curious six year old girl in 1977 who liked nothing more than to play with her brother and sister. Tragically she is Ireland’s youngest missing person, having vanished in March 18th 1977 near Ballyshannon in Southern Donegal. On that day Mary had been playing with her twin sister and older brother Patrick in the back garden while her parents were in the house preparing dinner. When Mary complained of being bored the other two children were not ready to finish their game and so continued without paying much attention to their sibling. Her parents Charlie and Ann did not see the little girl wander out of the garden. Mary’s uncle and godfather Gerry Gallagher is the last known person to have seen her. At about 3.30 that afternoon he was carrying a ladder back to house of his neighbour. Mary followed him from a distance chatting idly to her uncle. Just before reaching the house Gerry made his way through six inches of mud. Mary hesitated and decided to turn back home. She would never be seen again.
No evidence was ever found to suggest that Mary was abducted. Two theories remain dominant in the case of Mary Boyle. One is that she encountered some marshy bog land that had been an undetected sink-hole, and being less than four foot tall she would not have been able to pull herself back up if she had lost her footing. If Mary had been wearing boots then it is very likely that the little girl would have been walking awkwardly through the marshy land and so if she had fallen over the likely scenario is that she would have become stuck in the mud, if she were to struggle it would have resulted in her becoming further embedded in the reeds and shallow waters. Being such a slight build the little girl could very easily have sunk into the bogland completely unnoticed and sadly her body would never be recovered, although it would remain perfectly preserved. The other, far more sinister theory is that Mary was abducted after she left her uncles company and before she had reached the safety of home. Unfortunately both theories have been entertained for almost thirty years and have shed no light in this tragic mystery.
Without the information and help of the public it has become painstakingly clear to the authorities that many of the missing people of Ireland will remain under that label. The sad truth of the matter is that people like Fiona Sinnot, Jo Jo Dullard and Ciara Breen all remain unsolved mysterious filed away until someone can help unravel, perhaps the last moments of their lives.
The lost child
Every time the name Kennedy is uttered amongst a group of people the conversation will usually lead onto a discussion about the political inauguration of Jack, the assassination of Bobby, the drunken disasters of Ted and the shame Jackie brought on the family name when she wanted out of the Camelot dynasty. The entire world knows who the Kennedy’s are and what they have become in American political history. Well, at least the Kennedy history that people were allowed to hear and speculate about.
Born on the 13th September 1918 she was the first daughter for Joe and Rose Kennedy and their third child. Rosemary wasn’t like her other seven siblings; she was shy and passive and spent as much time on her own while growing up. Her reaction to public outings that the family took was often to cower in the corner and hide behind her big brother Jack (JFK).
Anthony Summers, a non-fiction writer based in Ireland has researched the Kennedy family intensively for his two non fiction works “The Kennedy Conspiracy” and “Not in Your Life Time”, has spoken to the Express about the faux pas that was Rosemary Kennedy’s “mental instability” within the realms of the American royal family.
“Rosemary’s IQ”, Summers says, “was somewhere in the range of 80-85, which is by no means fantastic, but it doesn’t suggest anything remotely mind altering. However, with the rest of siblings reaching IQ’s of somewhere between 120 and 130, she had no way to compete with them. Therefore Joe had no problem bringing it down to a certain mark, where it reached mild retardation.”
In “The Kennedy Conspiracy” Summers suggests that once Jack was no longer around to deal with Rosemary‘s nervous mood swings would have to take things into his own hands.
“It was clear that Rosemary had a nervous disposition, was depressed and had concerns about the way in which she was perceived by others. Would I call that a mental health issue which warranted such a drastic solution? Most certainly not” was the response Summers gave when asked about how he felt about Rosemary’s treatment.
Joe Kennedy started speaking to doctors about his daughter when she was in her early twenties and spent the majority of her time hidden away from the world. Neuro-surgeon Walter Freeman was called upon to assess the girl and make a decision that would lead to the ruination of a young life. He along with his assistant James Watts came to the conclusion if 1941 that a pre frontal lobotomy would be the best thing for the young daughter of the progressive Kennedy.
The following excerpt is a brief account from James Watts’ medical notes on what procedure they undertook with Rosemary:
We went through the top of the head, I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the skull. It was near the front. It was on both sides. "We put an instrument inside," he said. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer or sing "God Bless America" or count backwards. ... "We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded." ... When she began to become incoherent, they stopped.
It was the 61st surgery for both men and was considered a success by them both. However Summers says the overall result of the young mind that was left in disarray is considered the fist of the Kennedy tragedies.
Left in a darkened room during her post op care Rosemary Kennedy was not the girl she had been prior to the invasive operation. She now had no attention span, rarely converse with others, even her beloved Bobby and Jack found it difficult to keep her distracted long enough for nurses to check on her stitches in the days that followed the surgery.
In ’47 Rose was moved to St. Colleta School for Exceptional Children where she would live out the rest of life and would pass away quietly on the 7th of January 2005. She stared vacantly while being told the sudden deaths of her siblings, the timely passing of her parents and the tragedy that ended her nephew’s life. She, like them was no longer on this earth.
“Mental health was the taboo of 1940’s America and that would not help anyone make their way to Camelot. Joe Kennedy was advised wrongly during the consultations about his daughter’s health, unfortunately she is a statistic of someone “lost” while neuro- surgery was still massively experimental.
Eunice Kennedy, Rosemary’s younger sister suffered greatly from losing her older sister and spent much of her adult life dedicated to the sufferers of mental health, so much so that she founded the Special Olympics which was all “for Rosie” she told Summers during an interview in the early 90s.
The Express did attempt to make contact with Eunice Kennedy but the response was a generic tone explaining that Ms Kennedy had multiple commitments at this moment in time but would ask that any information written about her sister’s medical history be treated with the privacy and dignity she deserved. She never appreciated the lime light before or after her illness in 1940.
The irony of that response is that although she didn’t enjoy the lime light like the rest of her family she ended up in the darkness, alone.
Born on the 13th September 1918 she was the first daughter for Joe and Rose Kennedy and their third child. Rosemary wasn’t like her other seven siblings; she was shy and passive and spent as much time on her own while growing up. Her reaction to public outings that the family took was often to cower in the corner and hide behind her big brother Jack (JFK).
Anthony Summers, a non-fiction writer based in Ireland has researched the Kennedy family intensively for his two non fiction works “The Kennedy Conspiracy” and “Not in Your Life Time”, has spoken to the Express about the faux pas that was Rosemary Kennedy’s “mental instability” within the realms of the American royal family.
“Rosemary’s IQ”, Summers says, “was somewhere in the range of 80-85, which is by no means fantastic, but it doesn’t suggest anything remotely mind altering. However, with the rest of siblings reaching IQ’s of somewhere between 120 and 130, she had no way to compete with them. Therefore Joe had no problem bringing it down to a certain mark, where it reached mild retardation.”
In “The Kennedy Conspiracy” Summers suggests that once Jack was no longer around to deal with Rosemary‘s nervous mood swings would have to take things into his own hands.
“It was clear that Rosemary had a nervous disposition, was depressed and had concerns about the way in which she was perceived by others. Would I call that a mental health issue which warranted such a drastic solution? Most certainly not” was the response Summers gave when asked about how he felt about Rosemary’s treatment.
Joe Kennedy started speaking to doctors about his daughter when she was in her early twenties and spent the majority of her time hidden away from the world. Neuro-surgeon Walter Freeman was called upon to assess the girl and make a decision that would lead to the ruination of a young life. He along with his assistant James Watts came to the conclusion if 1941 that a pre frontal lobotomy would be the best thing for the young daughter of the progressive Kennedy.
The following excerpt is a brief account from James Watts’ medical notes on what procedure they undertook with Rosemary:
We went through the top of the head, I think she was awake. She had a mild tranquilizer. I made a surgical incision in the brain through the skull. It was near the front. It was on both sides. "We put an instrument inside," he said. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer or sing "God Bless America" or count backwards. ... "We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded." ... When she began to become incoherent, they stopped.
It was the 61st surgery for both men and was considered a success by them both. However Summers says the overall result of the young mind that was left in disarray is considered the fist of the Kennedy tragedies.
Left in a darkened room during her post op care Rosemary Kennedy was not the girl she had been prior to the invasive operation. She now had no attention span, rarely converse with others, even her beloved Bobby and Jack found it difficult to keep her distracted long enough for nurses to check on her stitches in the days that followed the surgery.
In ’47 Rose was moved to St. Colleta School for Exceptional Children where she would live out the rest of life and would pass away quietly on the 7th of January 2005. She stared vacantly while being told the sudden deaths of her siblings, the timely passing of her parents and the tragedy that ended her nephew’s life. She, like them was no longer on this earth.
“Mental health was the taboo of 1940’s America and that would not help anyone make their way to Camelot. Joe Kennedy was advised wrongly during the consultations about his daughter’s health, unfortunately she is a statistic of someone “lost” while neuro- surgery was still massively experimental.
Eunice Kennedy, Rosemary’s younger sister suffered greatly from losing her older sister and spent much of her adult life dedicated to the sufferers of mental health, so much so that she founded the Special Olympics which was all “for Rosie” she told Summers during an interview in the early 90s.
The Express did attempt to make contact with Eunice Kennedy but the response was a generic tone explaining that Ms Kennedy had multiple commitments at this moment in time but would ask that any information written about her sister’s medical history be treated with the privacy and dignity she deserved. She never appreciated the lime light before or after her illness in 1940.
The irony of that response is that although she didn’t enjoy the lime light like the rest of her family she ended up in the darkness, alone.
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