DJ who ‘ran away’ to US to escape fire memories back to see justice done

A friendship forged in the Stardust fire survived 43 years and 5,000km.

Gertrude Barrett was a grieving mother who lost her 17-year-old son.

Colm O’Brien was a guilt-ridden survivor who lost his pal. Michael Barrett was their shared loss. Mr O’Brien was a DJ on the night of the fire in 1981. Young clubbers heard him asking them to remain calm and make their way quietly to the exits.

The voices of the young girls who climbed onto the stage begging him for help, because those same exits were locked, would later torment him.

He fled Dublin at the end of the 1980s for a new life in Boston, getting a job in a removals company where he still works.

“Basically, I ran away. I had a lot of suppression around it and I had to get out,” he said. “I don’t think living here was doing me any good – socialising too much and drowning my sorrows in the pub. It wasn’t healthy.”

He stayed in touch with Ms Barrett. Whenever he was back in Ireland, he called to see her.

Ms Barrett became one of the most outspoken of the Stardust relatives.

“I’ll be nice today,” she said, stepping up to microphones to speak after a verdict confirmed the 48 Stardust victims were unlawfully killed. Those gathered around her smiled knowingly.

“Gertie tells it like it is,” said Mr O’Brien. “I love that about her.”

It was another strong woman who initially put him on the path to exorcising his bad memories. Mr O’Brien’s wife said he could have unresolved issues.

“She was the one who read the transcript of the tribunal (the original inquiry that wrongly concluded the fire was set deliberately by young people in the nightclub),” he said. “She read all this stuff that I would have nothing to do with and she pushed it.

“When I was going around kicking doors, full of rage, she was the one saying ‘it’s not me you should be mad at – you need to focus your anger where it belongs’. And thank God she did because I got involved. I gave evidence to the inquest and here we are.”

Ms Barrett introduced Colm to us with pride. “Here he is now, talking to my daughter and my other son. They’re all my family,” she said.

Of course, her family is incomplete. The death of 17-year-old Michael was utterly devastating.

“According to the tribunal, my son had the potential to be an arsonist, so it was up to his mammy to give him back his identity, give him back his character and good name, and his mammy did it,” she said. “I hug him and talk to him every day. I promised him I wouldn’t let him down and I didn’t.”

Mr O’Brien is now a father of three. He added: “I’m grateful for all of them and I’m thankful for today. I didn’t know how it would go.

“When I spoke to Gertie before it, I knew she was anxious too and I said ‘let’s just pray on it’. So we did, and our prayers were answered.”

“I talk to him every day. I promised him I wouldn’t let him down and I didn’t” Gertrude Barrett