Stardust survivor Finola McDevitt says ‘unlawful killing’ verdict is justice for best friend Susan and all 48 victims

"That's what it was. There is no excuse for what happened that night. The doors were barred. I was there. I saw it,” says Finola, who miraculously survived the devastating blaze in the Artane night club 43 years ago.

On Thursday afternoon justice was delivered when a 12 person jury delivered verdicts of unlawful killing in the case of all of those who lost their lives.

“The families deserve that. They so much deserve that. I sit here today and think to myself: why am I sitting here? Why are 48 other people dead? Why is my best friend not sitting here? Why are they all dead? Why did I get out?

"It is about justice for those families, whose wains who were killed, never came home. It's about justice for the survivors and a wee bit of closure.”

Finola has fond memories of growing up with Susan in the 1970s.

“Susan was a very, very happy-go-lucky girl. She played football with a women's football team. She was brilliant crack. She never left my mammy's. We ran about together,” she recalls

In the early 1980s Finola’s sister Anne and a friend took off for the bright lights of Dublin.

“We got good reports back,” says Finola, who soon joined them.

"I only went down in November 1980. ‘Susie’ was there maybe two weeks after me, and my sister and two girls, two friends, the Blackwells [Yvonne and Christine], they were down as well.”

Finola and Susan were working at the Nazareth nuns in Artane.

"You got your board and your wage which was £40, a fortune back then. We were living ‘the life of Reilly’.

"We started going to the Stardust and met up with a lot of Dublin people. We loved it. We didn't want to come home.”

On the night of February 13, 1981, Susan was in two minds about going out. She had work early the next day. But Finola and Susan were going out with two brothers Tony and Paul Wade, local lads from Ardcollum Avenue. It was St. Valentine’s, so they went out on a double date.

Finola still remembers the events of that night clearly.

"There was a dancing competition. We were all out dancing. I remember my sister Anne saying she was leaving because she was working the next morning with Susan.

"Susie had already made me aware she and Paul were leaving. I was chatting to Anne. She had to wait for one of the bouncers to come over. The door was locked. I said I'd see her tomorrow.”

As far as Finola was concerned, by this stage in the early hours of St. Valentine’s Day, Susan and Paul had gone home, ‘then all hell just broke loose’.

"I went back on to the dance floor and all of a sudden I saw this orange...like a lantern up in the corner. The DJ asked everybody to leave in an orderly fashion.”

Finola remembers wearing a new coat she had got on a visit home to Derry. It was a long beige coat like something Debbie Harry would have worn at the time, she recalls.

“I'm making a dive for the coat, my money and my wages is in it, but they are yanking me back. Then you are making a beeline for the exit. The lights go out and there is complete panic,” she says.

Bloody Sunday Trust solidarity with Stardust families as jury selection begins

After this the nightclub descended into utter pandemonium.

"You were falling over things, trying to scramble for the doors but it was jet black. You couldn't breath because the smoke was burning your lungs, burning your eyes, burning your nose. There were hundreds of people scrambling at the one time. I fell and I went to the floor,” she says.

Her boyfriend at the time Tony, grabbed her hand and they tried to make their way towards the door.

"You were scrambling around in the dark but you could see the flames, you could feel the intense heat. Next thing I was outside and a doorman was standing over me. To this day I would still love to know who he was. I don't know if he got me out.”

She remembers the horrific scenes witnessed by those who survived the inferno.

“As you were coming out I remember people with skin burning off them and other people trying to get other people out. People were behind windows that were barred screaming to get out.”

Finola and Tony made their way down towards Ardcollum Avenue and ‘all you could see was black faces, and white eyes’.

"We made it down to Tony' mother's house. She had already been up with some of the other neighbours. A lot of the people who died were from the area. They were all friends and all knew one another. She informed us that Paul hadn't been home. That meant Susie hadn't been home.”

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Tony had a motorbike and Finola remembers the night being hard with frost or snow, she cannot remember which. They did a round of the local hospitals, without realising at that stage the enormity of what had happened.

Susan (19) and Paul (17) were among 48 people deemed on Thursday to have been unlawfully killed in the fire following what was the longest inquest in the history of the Irish State.

Among the jury’s findings were that some of the emergency exits had been locked, chained or otherwise obstructed. This was something Finola has known for 43 years.

"My sister was refused when she asked to leave that night. She had to wait for a bouncer. At the inquest Anne drew out a picture - it was looped like a number 8 around the door - It was 100 per cent padlocked.”

Finola remembers that in the early 1980s very little support was provided to the victims and survivors.

"We never talked. We were never given any counselling. We were never given any help. We were sent into one place and they checked your

lungs. This was 1981 we are talking about. You told everybody you were grand,” she attests.

She remembers only finding out at the fresh inquest how her sister Anne had helped save the life of what could have been a 49th victim.

“There was a fella on fire. So Anne and another girl and fella went over and rolled him on the ground. We had never talked about this until we went down to the inquest.”

Maeve McLaughlin, Director of the Bloody Sunday Trust, which has been supporting the families, sent solidarity to the Stardust families.

"It has been a long road. I remember the story of the Stardust and I thought in my later years it was resolved.

“It was only when we started working with the families that we realised the extent of the unjust nature of what happened.

“I always have believed that if this had happened in another part of Dublin, D4, or somewhere more affluent that these families wouldn't have had to wait this length of time. They really are inspirational.”

Stardust fire vigil takes place in Dublin as inquest venue confirmed