Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

New landmark documentary series Stardust on RT One and RT Player

13/05/2024

New compelling eye-witness testimony of Stardust fire in RT documentary

Series filmed over three years includes interview with Charlie Bird filmed in 2021

New eye-witness testimony from the night of the Stardust fire from bar staff, emergency responders and survivors comprehensively recount the events of the night of the disaster in the first episode of a new landmark documentary series on RT One and RT Player from Sunday at 9.30pm.

Stardust, a three-part documentary series, tells the full and unvarnished story of the Stardust nightclub fire and the 43-year search for justice undertaken by the families of those killed in the fire. The series will be broadcast across three consecutive nights, Sunday May 12th at 9.30pm and continues tomorrow night and Tuesday at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player.

Three years in the making by RT , this definitive account of the Stardust nightclub tragedy chronicles the night of the fire and the fall-out from it, the initial investigation into the fire, the relatives' fight for justice up to the point of a second inquest and concludes with the historic decision of unlawful killing' delivered into the Coroner's Court on April 18th.

Tonight's episode features a sit-down interview with the late Charlie Bird about the nightclub fire that he attended as an RT News journalist in 1981. After campaigning for decades on behalf of the Stardust families, Charlie spoke to RT 's documentary crew in 2021 to recall the night.

Charlie Bird said: I remember getting the phone call that night - my boss he told me to get my backside out to Artane - there had been a fire in a disco called the Stardust, I hadn't a clue where it was. I remember jumping in my car and going over Butt Bridge and I just followed the ambulances from there out to the Stardust So many people there - ambulances, fire brigades, reporters, onlookers from all over the place - it was absolutely chaotic.

He continued: It was a dream - the whole thing was a dream or a nightmare - that was unfolding as dawn came you began to see the shell of the Stardust - that charred and the smell the smoke was still rising from it.

In a way we didn't know then what the scale of the tragedy was, how many people had died and the numbers who were injured. Charlie Haughey arrives and the most bizarre thing of all - we walked through the Stardust! We were allowed in talk about forensics, it's the most bizarre thing! We were actually allowed to trudge through it!

In a rare interview, survivor of the Stardust fire Valerie Deasy describes first seeing the blaze in the nightclub: I looked around for my sister to see where she was and I went up to her and said c'mon we better go' and she said sure it's only a little fire.' We could see it It was in a corner on a seatthat's what it looked like to me anyway and we walked over and we were standing quite close to the exits - but they were chained.

Valerie talks about how the fire grew quickly and in the chaos, she ended up on the floor. She says: Everyone was standing on me, trampling on me but then I thought I had died - because everything went deathly silent - there wasn't a sound and it was pitch black.

She adds: You could see the light coming from a door being opened and slowly but surely there was people just pulling people out and eventually somebody pulled me out. There was guy who worked in the community centre, the youth leaders, and I went over to him and said Mick will you bring me home'. I actually thought I was going to sneak back into the house and my mother wouldn't realise that I'd been out - so he said to me Who are you?' because he didn't recognise me. And I said it's Valerie' and he said to me - what's that?' And all the skin off my face was here it was in my hand, and I just held it in my hand while we got in the car and he drove me into Jervis Street.

Phyllis Campbell was 16years old on the night of fire and was working as bar staff in another part of the Stardust venue. In Sunday night's documentary, Phyllis recounts for the first time in a television interview the first signs of fire and the panic in the venue as they discovered the doors wouldn't open.

Phyllis Campbell tells the Stardust documentary: We were lounge girls and we would serve the drink to the tables, clear the glasses, we would wear a white blouse, black skirt, we were supposed to - that was our uniform.

Everybody was excited to be going to the Stardust on Valentine's night with a disco competition because most of the people that were in the disco competition - we knew

We were in the Lantern Rooms tidying around, that function was coming to an end - one of the lounge staff came in to say there was a fire in the Stardust and we went into see.

She continues: The flames was going across the ceiling then there was a gush of fire and it was like the material from the ceiling was falling on fire

The lights went out People screaming, glasses smashing, the roars of the fire - so we held on to each other and we went through the bar - I slipped and fell.

Phyllis says: When we got outside it was as bad outside - the screams coming from inside People that did go to exit doors had no chance - there was no way that they would have got out those doors because they were chained and because the toilet windows had bars on - there was no way out there. Jesus help us get us out' and then silence. Seeing people that you had spoke to a couple of minutes beforehand coming out black, covered in smoke and there was others trying to get back in cos their families were in there.

I remember my aunt saying is it really really bad - and she saying half of Coolock is gone.

RT 's Stardust documentary project is a comprehensive telling of the s
LINK: https://about.rte.ie/2024/05/13/new-landmark-documentary-series-stardu...
See more stories from rte

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

02/04/2026

HBO and NFL Films Announce Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Seahawks, Debuting August 11

HBO and NFL Films have announced Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Sea...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Haivision Unveils Makito ONE Video Transport Platform

Haivision has announced the Makito ONE, a single-blade video encoding and decoding platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform combines dual-channel video encoding...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Telestream Introduces UP.Lens Cloud-Based Multiviewer and Monitoring Service

Telestream has introduced UP.Lens, a cloud-based multiviewer and monitoring serv...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: MRMC to Showcase Robotic Camera Technology and Mark 60th Anniversary

Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5220, April 19-22, Las Vegas Convention Center), marking the company's 60th anniver...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Net Insight Introduces Programmable Trust Boundaries for Live Media Interconnection

Net Insight has introduced programmable Trust Boundaries, a feature integrated i...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Bitmovin Adds SGAI Support to Playback Products

Bitmovin has announced support for SGAI (Server-Guided Ad Insertion) in its playback products, using HLS interstitials. SGAI combines elements of client-side an...

02/04/2026

Binghamton University Athletics Adds Riedel SimplyLive RiMotion R12 for Student-Run Productions

Riedel Communications' SimplyLive RiMotion R12 replay system is supporting B...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: LTN and Ateme Announce Integration of Video Processing with IP Transport

LTN, a managed IP video transport company, and Ateme, a video compression and de...

02/04/2026

TDF Expands Channel Capacity on Terrestrial Broadcast Network with Harmonic

Harmonic has announced that TDF, a broadcast infrastructure operator in France, has deployed Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor and ProStream X Video S...

02/04/2026

United Rugby Championship Reports First-Year Results with Eluvio Streaming Platform

Eluvio and the United Rugby Championship (URC) have announced first-year results...

02/04/2026

Kansas City Current and Scripps Sports Announce ION as Broadcast Home of 2026 Teal Rising Cup

The Kansas City Current and Scripps Sports have announced that ION will broadcas...

02/04/2026

ESPN Announces Courtside Alt-Cast for Women's Final Four

ESPN will debut Courtside at the Women's Final Four Presented by AT&T, an alt-cast airing Friday, April 3 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and Sunday, A...

02/04/2026

PAMA and Shure Accept Applications for 6th Annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Scholarship

The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are ...

02/04/2026

ESPN's MegaCast Coverage of 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four Begins Friday, April 3 in Phoenix

ESPN's MegaCast Coverage of 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four Begins Friday, ...

02/04/2026

DAZN Launches Playmakers Creator Program

DAZN has announced the launch of DAZN Playmakers, a global influencer program designed to build a network of sports content creators. The programme will give cr...

02/04/2026

NFL Network Unveils New Production Ops Leadership Structure as ESPN Takes Over

Tony Cole, Jessica Lee shift into new roles reporting to ESPN SVP/Content Operations Chris Calcinari....

02/04/2026

TNT Sports and CBS Sports to Reunite Michigan's Iconic Fab Five for Special NCAA Men's Final Four Altcast on truTV & HBO Max

Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...

02/04/2026

Coming of Age: ESPN and NHL's Inside Out Classic Marks Another Step Forward for the Animated Alternative Broadcast

Real-time tracking, virtual production, and Pixar storytelling converge for Apri...

02/04/2026

Streaming Around the Moon: NASA+ Goes Live From Historic Artemis II Mission

NASA's long-awaited Artemis II mission has launched four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon, marking the first manned launch toward the moon sin...

02/04/2026

Release Rundown: What to Watch in April, From Bunnylovr to Omaha

(L-R) Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis, and John Magaro appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courte...

02/04/2026

VEMIA Auction incoming

4 - 11 April 2026 VEMIA's latest gear auction is just around the corner, and there's already a wealth of sought-after instruments and studio gear li...

02/04/2026

Universal Audio's Voice Of God now native

Little Labs emulation now available to all The latest Universal Audio plug-in to become available outside of the company's DSP-powered UAD2 platform has...

02/04/2026

SBS Welcomes Back Cup Fever! For The Biggest FIFA World Cup Ever

SBS Welcomes Back Cup Fever! For The Biggest FIFA World Cup Ever 2 April, 2026 Media releases Santo Cilauro, Ed Kavalee and a host of special guests retur...

02/04/2026

Truth. Power. Perspective: NITV's Flagship Current Affairs Programs Return to Lead the National Conversation

Truth. Power. Perspective: NITV's Flagship Current Affairs Programs Return t...

02/04/2026

L3Harris Powers First Crewed Mission Around the Moon in 50 Years

L3Harris has successfully powered the historic launch of the Artemis II mission, providing propulsion and avionics....

02/04/2026

Scripps Completes Sale of WRTV to Circle City Broadcasting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

GoVertical! AiDi Powers Real-Time 9:16 Autocropping for I...

Already deployed extensively by NBC Sports, FOR-A Corporation will demonstrate GoVertical! AiDi, the real-time 9:16 autocropping feature of viztrick AiDi, durin...

02/04/2026

Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems BATON Fi...

Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its B...

02/04/2026

TDF Expands Broadcast Channel Lineup with Harmonic

Harmonic's Media Processing Solutions Maximize Bandwidth Efficiency for Terrestrial Broadcast Delivery Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that TDF, a...

02/04/2026

FOR-A's Software-Defined, AI-Powered Development Advances...

NBC Sports Deploys viztrick AiDi to Stream Live Events in 9:16 Mobile-First Formats with Auto Tracking, Development Signals Strategic Shift for FOR-A Long reco...

02/04/2026

Evergent showcases innovations in sports streaming and mo...

Evergent will showcase new innovations in subscriber lifecycle management and monetization at NAB Show 2026 (Las Vegas, April 18 22), including: New advances i...

02/04/2026

Binghamton University Strengthens Student Run Productions...

Riedel Communications is proud to be part of Binghamton University, State University of New York, Athletics' milestone year, celebrating the university'...

02/04/2026

Techex and Encompass Launch Industry-Leading Cloud-Based...

Encompass Digital Media and Techex have today announced new, fully managed, cloud-native Master Control services designed to meet the growing operational demand...

02/04/2026

Winning in the new media economy - Avid debuts fully avai...

Avid today announced it will showcase new innovations designed to help media companies win in the new media economy at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas Co...

02/04/2026

PlayBox Neo reinforces MIMO Tech with new Playout capabil...

PlayBox Neo helps AIS PLAY kick-off premier football content direct to fans PlayBox Neo has provided MIMO Tech with a brand-new major installation to extend it...

02/04/2026

Globo transitions primary distribution to SRT over IP wit...

Globo has transitioned its primary content distribution to Secure Reliable Transport over a fully IP-based managed backbone using Synamedia's Quortex PowerV...

02/04/2026

Nexstar Says Pausing Tegna Merger Creates 'Impossible' Challenges

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

FCC Launches Efforts to Strengthen U.S. Drone Ecosystem

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

WAPA+ to Launch on Dish, DishLatino, Sling TV and Sling Freestream

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

Student Spotlight: Al-Fadl Salem

Student Spotlight: Al-Fadl Salem The Danish singer recently performed for the queen of Denmark. April 1, 2026 By Editorial Staff Image by Junia Morrow Wh...

02/04/2026

Taku Hirano's Career Is Defined by Identity

Taku Hirano's Career Is Defined by Identity Whether he's performing, composing, teaching, or developing instruments, the do-it-all percussionist sees ...

02/04/2026

Netflix Unveils Official Trailer for 'The Trials of Winnie Mandela'

Back to All News Netflix Unveils Official Trailer for The Trials of Winnie Mandela Entertainment 02 April 2026 GlobalSouth Africa Link copied to clipboard ...

02/04/2026

Netflix Announces Start of Production and New Cast for Second Season of 'Football Parents'

Back to All News Netflix Announces Start of Production and New Cast for Second ...

02/04/2026

The Trailer for 'Ronaldinho: The One and Only' Features Never-Before-Seen Interviews and Defining Moments From the Star's Career

Back to All News The Trailer for Ronaldinho: The One and Only Features Never-Be...

02/04/2026

Red Seat Ventures Launches Speakeasy, a New Hosting, Distribution and Monetization Platform Built for the Next Generation of Creator Media

Red Seat Ventures Launches Speakeasy, a New Hosting, Distribution and Monetizati...

02/04/2026

GoVertical! AiDi Powers Real-Time 9:16 Autocropping for Immediate Streaming to Mobile Devices

GoVertical! AiDi Powers Real-Time 9:16 Autocropping for Immediate Streaming to M...