The scene inside the Stardust as fire took hold

Tonight marks the 34rd anniversary of the Stardust fire. In this edited extract from the book 'They Never Came Home - the Stardust Story', we recall the scene inside the doomed nightclub as the blaze took hold.

•The Stardust nightclub pictured after the fire

The excitement in the Stardust was reaching fever pitch. Hundreds had gathered around the dance floor to see who would win the disco dancing competition. Albert Buckley joined his sister-in-law, Christine, on the floor. Together they watched Albert's younger brother, Errol, going through his moves. He was getting the loudest cheers from the crowd and easily stood out from the other competitors taking part in the final.

Just after 1.30am, DJ Danny Hughes stopped the music momentarily to announce that a boy and girl had been selected as the winners. The Buckley brothers were ecstatic when Errol was announced as the best of the men. The girl chosen from the three dozen hopefuls was 15-year-old Paula McDonald from Coolock.

Errol had brought the house down with his fantastic dance routine to the Patrick Fernandez disco hit, 'Born to be Alive'. He punched the air as he stepped up onto the stage to be presented with his prize by Hughes - a £25 K-Tel record voucher. The winning couple were invited to perform a victory dance on the stage and the large crowd of onlookers gathered to clap along to the song. Another DJ, Colm O Briain, took the microphone and encouraged the audience to join in on the dance floor. Hundreds took him up on the offer and danced to what was to be one of the last songs of the night. It was now 1.41am.

At the western side of the ballroom approximately fifty people were sitting or standing around five tables. Behind them was a roller blind made from a PVC-coated, polyester fabric. Split into five sections, the curtain was lowered to partition off an alcove of banked seating stretching to and along the side wall. The west alcove itself was the smaller of two such sections in the the Stardust. It measured over seventeen metres in length and ten metres in depth. There were eight tiers of seats, with each tier containing fifteen units of double seats. Some of the regular patrons of the Stardust remember being surprised when they arrived at the disco that night to find that the west alcove was sealed off and the larger north alcove was open. Usually the reverse was the case, with the north alcove only opened if the numbers warranted it.

Some of the people in this area were standing on tables and chairs to get a better view of the disco competition. A couple of girls stood on the ledge where the curtain came to the floor and were resting their backs against the partition. While the attention of most people was directed towards the dance floor, those standing against the curtain started to notice the smell of something burning. Linda Bishop was sitting at the first table in front of the blind, next to the main bar. As she was watching the end of the competition, she noticed a sudden rise in temperature. This surprised her because she had spent most of the night feeling cold. She mentioned to her friend, Sandra Hatton, that she thought the management had switched on the central heating. They both wondered why anyone might have done that, considering it was close to the end of the night. The girls shrugged their shoulders and got up to dance to one of their favourite songs, 'Lorraine', by Bad Manners.

Those remaining at the tables also started to smell smoke and they, too, felt a surge in temperature. Moments later, others sitting or standing in the area noticed a glow behind the curtain. Jacqueline McCarthy, from Kilbarrack, had just returned to her seat when she caught a strong smell of smoke. Suddenly she felt a blast of heat. More curious than her friends, Jacqueline lifted up the curtain beside her to glance underneath. What she saw filled her with instant dread. She ran past groups of people and rushed towards the main door. She grabbed the arm of a bouncer standing inside the foyer and shouted at him: "They've started a fire up in the corner."

More people peered behind the curtain as the glow behind it intensified. On top of three seats in tiers seven, eight and nine of row A, they could see a small fire. One girl described it as "quite small". An eyewitness later told police that the back of just one seat was on fire and "it could easily have been put out if somebody had thrown a coat over it". Gerard Quinn said he thought there was something in the shape of a coat lying on the seat in flames. By now, most of the people sitting in this area could smell what they would later describe as "burning tyres". While hundreds still danced away to the music, people standing at the side of the dance floor sensed a commotion and turned around, thinking that a fight had broken out behind them.

On stage, the assistant DJ was sifting through the record collection to select the final track of the night. He put a popular Adam and the Ants song on the turntable. The attention of some of the dancers facing the stage was now drawn towards the curtained-off area to the right-hand side. At first, all they noticed was a small flickering glow behind the curtain. However, as they turned around to get a better look, some light smoke appeared to slowly rise over the partition and drift across the ceiling. Most of them thought it was just a special disco effect that the DJ had set off to coincide with the end of the competition. They ignored it and continued on dancing.

•'They Never Came Home - the Stardust Story', by Neil Fetherstonhaugh and Tony McCullagh, was originally published in 2001 and was reprinted as an updated edition in 2006. The book was adapted for the award-winning RTE two-part drama, 'Stardust'. Limited copies still available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/They-Never-Came-Home-Stardust/dp/1903582636

©Neil Fetherstonhaugh and Tony McCullagh