Open new inquest on Whiddy – Spillane

BY SIOBHÁN CRONIN

A FOOTBALLING legend from Kerry has backed a call for a new inquest into the deaths of the victims of the 1979 Whiddy oil disaster.

Pat Spillane, a teacher in Bantry at the time of the disaster which killed 50 people, says the ‘out-and out scandal’ never got the publicity it deserved and that the Stardust disaster may have received more attention because it happened in the capital..

Writing in his new memoir In the Blood, the GAA star says that the disaster – which occurred when the oil tanker Betelgeuse caught fire and exploded at the terminal – ‘changed a part of Ireland’, yet it is now almost completely forgotten.

‘That’s 44 years ago and since then it’s been a one-man crusade by Michael Kingston,’ writes Spillane, in a chapter about Bantry called ‘The Klondyke of Seventies Ireland’.

He notes how Kingston, a maritime lawyer whose father Tim died in the disaster, has been campaigning for the families and has been seeking a new inquest on the grounds that the original inquest was unreliable. Mr Kingston is demanding the death certificates record a verdict of ‘unlawful deaths’ and is seeking an apology from the State.

‘Certainly, I’d be happy if this book could raise the issues and add to their work in any way, shape or form,’ writes Spillane.

In response, Michael Kingston said he was humbled by Pat Spillane’s comments, which had come as a complete surprise. ‘I had no idea he felt like that, and I am really honoured that he has given us his full support,’ he told The Southern Star.

Pat Spillane writes about Bantry in new his memoir.

In the book, Spillane adds that Bantry Vocational School faced a lot of issues after the disaster. ‘It was a difficult time for the town, and we in the school were faced with a lot of difficulties as a result … There were generations that never worked after the parents or grandparents lost their jobs in Whiddy.’

Spillane explained that he had recently arrived in the town as a geography and PE teacher at the school, and he brought some of his students to the tribunal of inquiry which was set up in the Westlodge Hotel to examine what happened in the tanker disaster.

‘I felt that it could be as important a part of the kids’ education as any geography lesson,’ he writes. ‘It was the first of the real modern tribunals and the start of a slippery slope when you look at the tribunals since. It opened the kids’ eyes, and it certainly opened mine.’

He adds that there were ‘two different stories’ being given at the tribunal.

‘The locals were giving their version with times and so on, which didn’t tie in with the version we were getting from other quarters, particularly Gulf Oil, which owned the terminal and Total SA, which owned the ship. I thought that was the best education the kids could ever have.

‘The majority of tribunals down the years have been a gravy train for the legal profession, but have never come up with answers, and have certainly not seen justice served for victims.’

‘They [students] knew what their parents had seen, yet some of the witnesses were flatly contradicting that. So, I was showing them how powerful people can influence matters.’

He says Whiddy never got the attention it deserved. ‘I look at the Stardust inquiry and I have huge sympathy for those people ... but the fact that that happened in Dublin helps it to get more media coverage.’

Pat says that Bantry will always have a place in his memory and that when he retired from RTÉ’s The Sunday Game he got a huge number of texts, cards and messages from people he had taught there. ‘I’d never been in contact with them since, so I thought that was lovely.’

He adds that there were ‘two different stories’ being given at the tribunal.

‘The locals were giving their version with times and so on, which didn’t tie in with the version we were getting from other quarters, particularly Gulf Oil, which owned the terminal and Total SA, which owned the ship. I thought that was the best education the kids could ever have.

‘The majority of tribunals down the years have been a gravy train for the legal profession, but have never come up with answers, and have certainly not seen justice served for victims.’

‘They [students] knew what their parents had seen, yet some of the witnesses were flatly contradicting that. So, I was showing them how powerful people can influence matters.’

He says Whiddy never got the attention it deserved. ‘I look at the Stardust inquiry and I have huge sympathy for those people ... but the fact that that happened in Dublin helps it to get more media coverage.’

Pat says that Bantry will always have a place in his memory and that when he retired from RTÉ’s The Sunday Game he got a huge number of texts, cards and messages from people he had taught there.

‘I’d never been in contact with them since, so I thought that was lovely.’