Whiddy diver is searching for his beloved ‘Breda'

IF there were any silver linings from the awful tragedy of the Betelgeuse, it was the many friendships which blossomed between the French and Irish, and which endure to this day.

But one particular friendship has left a man from Brittany wishing he had spent more time in Bantry.

And now French military diver Marco Rudzkv is hoping to find the young girl who became a close companion during those dark days of 1979.

In Bantry for this week’s 40th commemoration, he revealed that he had formed a strong bond with teenager Breda, who was then a young girl working in a bar known as the Spanish Tavern.

‘She was small, and blonde,’ he told The Southern Star, adding that she had given him a scarf and had sent him a postcard on St Patrick’s Day, after he had returned to France.

Marco, who was then in his early 20s, was on the diving team employed to survey the Betelgeuse as it lay in the bay off Whiddy. He had vowed to come back to Bantry to find Breda, and would dearly like to meet Breda again, or anyone who might have information on her whereabouts. If Breda gets in touch, The Southern Star can pass on her details to Marco.