On the 8th of January, 1979, a woman drove herself to hospital in Bantry, Co. Cork, unaware that an explosion had just killed her husband and 49 others in what would become Ireland's worst maritime disaster. A number of Liveline callers shared their memories of The Whiddy Island Disaster today.
The year 1979 has been in the news lately, with many people taking the opportunity to remember Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Ireland, the violence in Northern Ireland and other generation-defining moments that followed. Eileen told Joe Duffy that her brother, Liam Shanahan, should be remembered too. He was one of 50 people who died that night inn 1979, in a tanker explosion just off the coast of Bantry in Cork.
'That fortnight was awful in West Cork.'
One of the survivors, Brian McGee, told Joe that he doesn't know how he survived.
"I thought I wouldn't make it. I thought I would go down with the whole thing...My family lost their father for about 30 years because I cracked up…I got no help from no-one."
Listen back to the full discussion on Liveline here.