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The inquests into the deaths of the 48 young people who died in the Stardust fire in Artane, Dublin, in 1981 feature pen portraits of each of the deceased read by bereaved family members. Find all of the portraits and more coverage here
Robert was the youngest child to William and Theresa Kelly, who had five boys and four girls.
As a child, Robert was a beautiful lad. He nicknamed himself Spiky, because of his hair, as it used to be very spiky. [He] attended St Malachy’s primary school, then progressed to Killester College to do his Inter Cert.
Robert got a job working on the B+I boats. He loved this job. Although there were six years between Eugene and Robert, they were very close brothers. They both worked on the B+I ships, but would have been on different shifts and different ports.
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Robert loved music. The first band he followed was the Bay City Rollers. As time went on, he started to like the Sex Pistols, Sham 69, the Undertones, the Specials and Blondie.
[He] had lots of hobbies and one of his favourites was embroidery. He had a Wrangler jacket that he loved, even more after he finished it with his personal touch of embroidery.
On the weekend of the Stardust, Robert was due to work on the ship, but it went into dry dock, giving him the week off. His friend, Paul Nolan, lived next door so the two of them made their way to the Stardust together.
As they approached the Stardust, Robert was stopped and refused entrance by a bouncer, as he looked young. Paul declined to go in without him. They both sat on the wall outside for a while, then joined the queue again and were allowed in.
Laughing
Paul recalls the last time Robert was seen alive [he was] standing in front of the stage with Michael Barret while Michael was helping the DJ. They were laughing and joking. Then they noticed the fire.
Paul got out through the main door. Paul was then told to get in an ambulance and was brought to the Mater hospital.
Paul panicked and ran away from the hospital. The driver of a passing car noticed his burnt clothes and offered to bring him home. When Paul got out of the car, he ran next door, straight into the Kellys’ house.
Mr and Mrs Kelly went looking for Robert, couldn’t find him and then tried to contact Eugene, who was working on the boats that night. Eugene was called to the captain of the ship and told to ring home immediately. Getting home as fast as he could, Eugene drove his Ford Cortina to the hospitals.
Eugene was told to go to the morgue. It was confirmed that Robert had been killed. As he lay in a closed coffin, they were told to remember him as he was.
It is clear from talking to Eugene and Sally, the sister of Robert, that the family are still hurting. I would like to thank them for sharing their stories with me to do this portrait of their beloved brother. I would also like to thank Paul Nolan for sharing his stories about the great friendship he had with Robert.
Finally, I wish it was Eugene [who died unexpectedly in 2020] who was reading this portrait of Robert here today. I hope and pray that Robert, his mammy, his daddy and Eugene are happy that this portrait is true to their beautiful boy Robert.