Whiddy, Warrenpoint and Phoenix Park
The year began with a disaster on the south-west coast. Shortly before 1 a.m. on 8 January, the French tanker Betelgeuse exploded while discharging crude oil at the Gulf Oil terminal off Whiddy Island in Bantry Bay. The vessel broke apart and burned; emergency crews faced an immense fire at the offshore jetty, while families living on the island were evacuated. Fifty people died in the explosion and its immediate aftermath, among them French, Irish and British workers; a Dutch diver later died during the salvage operation.