A new film on the Betelgeuse disaster at Cork’s Whiddy Island is to be screened at this year’s Cork International Film Festival. As The Irish Examiner reports, the film is by Adrian McCarthy, whose father, a firefighter, was one of those called out to respond to the disaster on January 8th, 1979.
A total of 50 people died when the oil tanker MV Betelgeuse caught fire and exploded. The victims included 42 French crew members, an inspector and seven Irish workers.
McCarthy’s film, co-directed and edited by Brenda Morrissey, recalls the disaster but also, as the newspaper reports, “looks at the bigger picture of what can be gained and lost when a small community welcomes an international corporation into their lives”.
McCarthy, of Curious Dog Films, has been working on the documentary for seven years.
Entitled Whiddy, the film explores the human cost of the disaster through the testimonies of local people and bereaved French families.
Read the full report in The Irish Examiner.
