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Families of Whiddy Island Betelgeuse Victims Seek State Apology in New RTE Doc on One

2nd October 2021
International maritime lawyer Michael Kingston
International maritime lawyer Michael Kingston

Relatives of the 50 people who died in the Whiddy island Betelegeuse tanker explosion 42 years ago are seeking an apology from the Government for “appalling failures “

The call has been made in a new RTE Documentary on One programme on the disaster in Bantry Bay, West Cork, which is due to be broadcast this weekend.

International maritime lawyer Michael Kingston said his father, Tim, was one of 50 people who died in “atrocious circumstances” where “no rescue took place” due to “catastrophic safety failures” in the early hours of January 8th, 1979.

Interviewed on RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland, Kingston said his father was “determined to have died by accidental drowning”, when “in fact he died because of unlawful breaches of regulation”.

He said that families had never received a State apology for the "appalling regulatory failures".

The Betelgeuse, broken in two leaving 50 Irish, British and French citizens deadThe Betelgeuse, broken in two leaving 50 Irish, British and French citizens dead

He said the families appeal in the documentary for the Government to "show decency and....issue that apology for the appalling failures in administration of justice and failure to implement regulation".

Kingston, who is vice president of the French Irish Association of the relatives and friends of the Betelguese, said families of the French, Irish and British victims who died that night have had to live with the fallout, with "no resolution".

The Documentary on One by Michael Lawless and Donal O’Herlihy includes an interview with former president Mary McAleese, who was working as an RTÉ reporter at the time, and fireman Brendan O’Donoghue who has never previously spoken about the fire.

It is due to be broadcast on Saturday, October 2nd at 2 pm and Sunday, October 3rd at 6 pm on RTE Radio 1 here

Published in Coastal Notes
Lorna Siggins

About The Author

Lorna Siggins

Email The Author

Lorna Siggins is a print and radio reporter, and a former Irish Times western correspondent. She is the author of Search and Rescue: True stories of Irish Air-Sea Rescues and the Loss of R116 (2022); Everest Callling (1994) on the first Irish Everest expedition; Mayday! Mayday! (2004); and Once Upon a Time in the West: the Corrib gas controversy (2010). She is also co-producer with Sarah Blake of the Doc on One "Miracle in Galway Bay" which recently won a Celtic Media Award

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