WHIDDY

In production

It’s hard not to be struck by the beauty of Whiddy Island as you make the short ferry journey from Bantry town in the south west of Ireland. What is most striking of all, and shocking, is the extraordinary sight of the offshore Jetty, situated 400 meters out from the island. Accessible only by boat, it stands above the sea, with its charred concrete pillars. Like the remains of a car crash. It is now home to thousands of seabirds and sits as a reminder of two very different moments in its history; the glory days in the late 60’s and the horror of a fateful night in 1979 that still haunts the local community to this day.

When Gulf Oil announced it was building a massive new oil terminal on Whiddy Island in Bantry, West Cork, in the late 1960’s, the locals celebrated like they had won the Lottery. With talk of jobs and prosperity, the decision was huge for this neglected and depressed corner of Ireland. One local man commented that ‘our lives will never be the same again’. Farmers left the land. Fishermen hung up their nets. It was boom time in the town.

Ten years later, on a dark night in January in 1979, that dream turned into their worst nightmare. A French oil tanker, the M.V. Betelgeuse, owned by another oil company, Total, was off-loading its cargo at a jetty located just off Whiddy Island when a fire started on the vessel. The French crew and local Irish Gulf oil employees, who were stranded on the offshore jetty, cried for help, and waited to be rescued. Suddenly, a massive explosion, with vibrations felt for thirty miles across West Cork, ripped the vessel in two. Fifty lives gone. Forty-two French crew, seven local employees, and an oil inspector from the UK, killed. Ireland had never witnessed a disaster like this. Many, many lives were indeed never the same again.

A subsequent shocking tribunal report and the blame game that ensued among the powerful players responsible failed miserably to provide closure for the ordinary people of West Cork and Brittany (where many of the French crew were from). They remain haunted by the tragedy and are still looking for answers and some form of justice for those who lost their lives.

The development for this film began in early 2019, with support from SCREEN IRELAND and RTÉ, allowing for research and some initial filming. Over the last five years we have met with numerous people connected to the story and that night. In January 2025 we finally began production with support from SCREEN IRELAND, RTÉ, ARTE, COIMISIÚN na MEÁN (Sound & Vision Fund) and S481 IRISH TAX CREDIT with filming in Ireland and France. A co-production with MILLE ET UNE FILMS.

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