Caroline McHugh (17), from Artane, found joy in chatting to her pals on her CB radio, Irish dancing, singing in the choir, and swimming with her dad.
Introduction
We are Phyllis and Maurice McHugh now in our eighties, our golden years. We are the mother and father of our only child Caroline. Aged 17 years. Caroline's young life was cruelly taken away from her that cold February Valentine’s morning in that horrendous fireball. A beautiful young lady with dark complexion, lovely long black hair. She was tall for her age, about 5’4’’. We often wondered if Caroline called out for her mammy and daddy for help as the flames burned her body and did she scream out in pain. We would think about this often in the years that followed with broken hearts.
Caroline was born in this the Rotunda Hospital on the 1st of July 1963. Its ironic to think that the inquest into her death is at the very same Rotunda Hospital.
Background
Caroline was very well educated and finished her schooling in Loreto College, Stephen’s Green, after completing her intermediate exam with merit. Caroline was an avid reader and as a young girl and teenager enjoyed Enid Blyton’s books and reading romantic novels.
At college she was taught and practised Christian politeness, along with public speaking, sang in the college choir with whom they won many an award in the feis ceoil. The choir was later to perform at Caroline’s funeral mass with great sadness. Caroline also joined in many of the sporting events in the college. She was also a member of a very well-known Irish dancing school and competed in many a competition and performed in the Saint Patrick’s Day parades.
During the school holidays Caroline would go to Camp Rockwell with her first cousin Lorraine Tyrell née Hyland, at the age of 13 years old.
Caroline loved to go swimming with her daddy in the local swimming pool. We had birthday parties in the house once a year, and regular get-togethers was par for the course. There would be at least 20 or so friends and school chums there with music, singing, dancing, and having a great time altogether.
On leaving school, Caroline set out to consider a future career by preparing a curriculum vitae and went out for work experience, firstly in Roches Stores as a sales assistant, and then went for hotel catering. She then went to a large building services contractor and enjoyed working in the estimating department. Her excellence in mathematics was of great benefit to her and the company and this may have been the start of her career. Caroline loved the work and got on extremely well with all the office staff.
Caroline was also a member of a local cb club and was known as Slimline and her friend Annmarie Murphy was known as Foxy Lady. They would spend hours in Caroline’s bedroom contacting all the other cb members and chatting over the airwaves. This was all to end too soon on that dreadful early morning in the Stardust ballroom.
Stardust Fire
Phyllis received a wedding invitation in 1980 inviting myself, Caroline, Caroline’s grandmother Betty Allen and grand aunt Angela Dempsey to the wedding of Corinne Allen, Phyllis’s cousin who was getting married in Manchester on Valentine’s day 1981, which was duly accepted.
With this in mind, Phyllis baked and decorated a 4-tier wedding cake as a wedding present. Phyllis had learned the art of baking from her dad who was head baker in Bewley’s of Grafton Street.
A couple of weeks before the wedding, Caroline said she did not want to go to the wedding but wanted to stay at home and go to the dancing competition in the Stardust with her friends. We were very reluctant to allow her to stay but, in the meantime, her best friend’s mother Alecia offered to look after her as we would be only away for two nights. We always regretted this decision and feel guilty about it to this day.
On Friday morning the 13th of February 81, we loaded the car with the carefully boxed wedding cake and some overnight clothes, which we had arranged to travel by ferry to Holyhead and drive on to Manchester. On the way, we dropped Caroline into her workplace. Little did we know that this was the last time we would see Caroline alive as she waved us off, smiling and saying 'enjoy yourselves’ and ‘don’t do anything I wouldn’t do’ with a big smile.
We then collected Caroline’s grandmother Betty Allen, now deceased, and Angela Dempsey, Caroline’s grand aunt, now deceased rip. We stayed that night in Manchester in Phyllis’s uncle Jimmy Allen’s house, now deceased. There was great excitement in the house as the bride was making last minute arrangements.
Caroline set out on Friday night with 3 friends: Ann Marie Murphy, Linda Bermingham and Julie Stone. Caroline remarked to them that she felt that this was going to be a great night.
The following morning after breakfast we decided to get offside and walk up to the Stretford shopping mall, about 10-minute walk away. We noticed Phyllis’ uncle catching up with us and told us that there had been a fire in Stardust nightclub and that Caroline was missing. We were absolutely devastated and could see that Phyllis’s uncle was shaking after given us the bad news.
We made a few phone calls home to each family looking for an update on Caroline’s whereabouts, but there was no new information available as yet. At that stage, we agreed to leave and made our way to Manchester city centre, parked the car and went to look for a travel agent which we found in the Arlington shopping centre. We explained our situation and the staff were very helpful and the earliest flight we could get back to Dublin was from Liverpool at seven o`clock that night. At that time, there was no mobile phones and we had to use a coin box, so every half hour we phoned home looking for updates.
At about 1pm Phyllis’s brother-in-law Bobby Colgan, now deceased, told us that his brother Dr Brendan Colgan, now deceased, was allowed into the morgue to see the bodies. He thought that one of the remains was Caroline but was not 100% sure. We were in complete shock.
We then drove down to Liverpool airport and as we were travelling not a word was spoken in the car such was our grief. We arrived back in Dublin airport about 8:30 pm. Members of both families were waiting for us and drove us straight to the morgue.
We were met in the morgue and introduced to Detective Garda O’ Sullivan and a nun. There was a very chilly atmosphere in the morgue, and it was extremely cold outside. We were advised not to see the remains because of severe burns and that she had no hair, was unrecognisable and unidentifiable.
We were informed that Caroline had been bagged and tagged as no 6. We were then handed a piece of a back pocket of Caroline’s jeans with a melted comb stuck to it. The pocket was soaking wet, also handed to us was the melted remains of a wristwatch and thirdly, the remains of a gold chain partly melted with Caroline’s name on it.
Phyllis remembered that Caroline was complaining of a tooth ache now and again on one of her back teeth which Phyllis had looked at and could see a small hole in her back tooth.
The detective went off and came back half an hour later and confirmed that it was a positive identification of Caroline, we were absolutely exhausted, upset and in unimaginable grief as tears flowed.
Since then
Afterwards, on Sunday morning after a restless night we got a phone call from the gardai to say that Caroline had been coffined and was now down in Stafford’s funeral home in north strand. The coffin remained closed, and it was a horrible feeling that we couldn’t see Caroline and we were deeply upset.
We also got word to say that the wedding was upset by the news of Caroline’s death and that during speeches the bride and groom broke down in tears along with a lot of the guests.
Happily, the four of her friends escaped although mentally scarred and covered with black soot. Ann Marie Murphy, a good friend of Caroline who was with her that night, told us shortly after that she was having a nightmare about the fire and never forgets that Caroline appeared and hovered above her smiling like an angel. Her beautiful long black hair was shining and glowing in the dark as she smiled down on her in a ghostly image.
Linda Bermingham who was also with her that night, 40 years on never forgets her on birthdays and anniversaries and would always every year place a note in the obituary column and birthday remembrance column in the evening herald without fail. A true blue to this day. Linda commented 40 years on that she wished that night never happened.
Neighbours on Ardlea Road never forgot her to this day and would often present us with flowers on every anniversary and remark that they would visualise and remember Caroline walking down the road to her home.
Over the last 42 years, a day never goes by without us thinking of our beautiful daughter now lying in a cold grave buried six-foot underground, marked by a black marble stone engraved with her name on it, we visit the grave once a week without fail to tend to the grave and adorn it with flowers, still grieving for our lost daughter cruelly taken away from us so young. We often wonder on that night did Caroline shout out the names of her daddy and mammy. Caroline loved her daddy and mammy.
We would often discuss between ourselves what could have been if Caroline had of lived, would she have had a successful career, got married, have children and have given us grandchildren.
We feel that we have missed out on a lot. We feel this more when we visit Caroline’s uncles and aunties especially at Christmas time, easter, birthdays, anniversaries and see all her cousins and their children there while thinking to ourselves that Caroline should have been there. It makes us feel so sad and emotional and brings tears to our eyes.
Caroline’s grandparents are now deceased along with a lot of aunties and uncles who loved her to bits, they now rest in peace. Every June the blessing of the graves takes place in St. Fintan’s Cemetery, all of the family’s relations attend and then assemble in our home to remember Caroline.
Conclusion
Caroline grew up to be a very talented young lady whom we dearly loved, and she loved her dad and mam in return and we were very happy together.
When the first tribunal was opened and, in our naivety, we thought that truth and justice would be served and as we now know that never happened. This day, after 42 years waiting for truth and justice to be served, we hope that at the end of this proper inquest we may get some respite and closure to lessen the burden of our grief.
Thank you for listening.
Poem by Maurice
It’s been 43 years since the 14th February ‘81
Try as I may,
I can’t escape the sorrow since you’ve gone away
The sorrow of losing my only child
She who made my life full and worthwhile
It’s hard to be happy
So hard to smile
I try to be strong during this – the utmost trial
A father’s love is the lasting kind
In my mind is a movie stuck on rewind
All I can do is live it over and over
Blessed by the time I got to be your father
Surviving on memories, good and bad
But that’s all I’ve got now – the times we had
I cherish those memories one by one
They are so deep in my heart
You are so deep in my heart
You are a piece of me, my daughter
You’ll always be with me, this much is true
Till the day I come home to put my arms back around you.
Poem by Phyllis:
To my beautiful daughter Caroline -
No words can tell, no tears express
The love, the loss
The emptiness
You’re not just a memory, or part of the past
You are mine to remember
As long as life lasts
They say it’s a beautiful journey
From the old world to the new
Some day I will make the journey
Just to be with you.
