Stardust Fire - They Never Came Home

In July 1985, Irish folk singer Christy Moore was found guilty of contempt of court after writing and releasing a song, entitled They Never Came Home, about the plight of the Stardust fire victims, seemingly damning the owners of the nightclub and the government. It contained the following lines:

In a matter of seconds confusion did reign.

The room was in darkness, fire exits were chained.

and

Hundreds of children are injured and maimed,

and all just because the fire exits were chained.

Because it appeared to imply that the obstruction of the exits was solely responsible for the deaths and injuries, the song was banned and removed from the Ordinary Man album it had appeared on. As the album had just been released, it had to be withdrawn from circulation and re-issued with Another Song is Born in its place. Early versions of this album are considered rare and collectible.

The lyrics of the song are still "banned" in Ireland as libelous. Christy Moore was prosecuted, although he has since been known to sing the song on occasion.

This song was played for 10 weeks outside the "Silver Swan" as part of the protest over the re-opening of the pub in 2006. It was played every night from 6PM until 8PM whilst the families and supporters demonstrated in front of the filling station. The song was reputedly played for so long that three tapes failed, leading the protesters to use a CD player, which failed after eight days. They then resorted to an MP3 player (connected to an amplifier), which lasted for the duration of the protest before failing a week later.