Stardust campaigner and survivor, Antoinette Keegan, who lost two sisters in the fire, has described being trampled on in the rush to get out of the burning building and how she thought she was going to die in the blaze.
Ms Keegan was giving evidence at the inquests into the deaths of the 48 people who lost their lives in the 1981 St Valentine's Day disaster at the Artane nightclub.
Ms Keegan described how she first noticed smoke seeping across the ceiling and first thought it was a dj’s special effect. She and her group then headed for exit 5 but she said that it was locked with a chain and lock."I remember a ball of flame coming towards us and I put my hands over my head. The heat of the fire was so hot, and the thick black smoke, we couldn't breathe, I thought this is it we are dead," she said.
The court was told that as well as losing her two sisters, five of her friends were also killed. Mary Kenny , Michael French , Michael Griffiths , Sandra Lawless and Paula Lewis .
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