Families of those who died in the Whiddy Island disaster have renewed calls for justice in a new documentary that explores the events leading up to the West Cork tragedy. In the early hours of Sunday, January 8, 1979, a fire began onboard the Betelgeuse which was docked at the jetty just off the shore of Whiddy Island. A subsequent explosion claimed the lives of all 50 people who had been on the tanker and jetty that night. Another powerful voice in the documentary is that of Michael Kingston, who had just turned four when his father Tim Kingston, the pollution officer for Whiddy, lost his life that night. He is determined that a disaster like the one at Whiddy Island should never happen again, and has advocated strongly for an investigation into the subsequent conduct of authorities who investigated the Whiddy Island disaster.

Source: Irish Examiner October 02, 2021 05:26 UTC