Twenty years after the worst industrial disaster in the history of the State, the Whiddy oil terminal in Bantry Bay is resuming operations.
Yesterday a Norwegian vessel, Prospect, carrying 70,000 tonnes of crude oil as part of the required national reserve, arrived at the terminal to begin unloading at a specially designed single-point mooring system (SPM).
In January 1979, 51 people were killed when the Betelgeuse tanker exploded at the Gulf oil terminal, setting the sea ablaze in an inferno which lit up the night sky as far away as Dunmanway.
Most of the casualties were French seamen, but local oil workers also perished in the disaster. A stone cross overlooks the town of Bantry as a memorial to the victims.
The terminal is now owned by the Irish National Petroleum Corporation (INPC), which took over the Whiddy Island terminal and the wrecked jetty on which local Gulf Oil staff died in 1979.
The terminal has since known bleak times, with only a care-and-maintenance crew, but now there are plans for an £18 million investment to restore it as a trans-shipment and storage centre. This should lead to new employment and a better future for Bantry.
The SPM system allows huge tankers like the Prospect to transfer oil via floating lines without tying up at the jetty, which has been inoperable since the Betelgeuse explosion.
The ruined jetty is likely to be improved at a cost of £300,000, and the INPC is convinced that it can again look forward to an active role in the Irish oil industry.
In the mid-1970s oil spillages in Bantry Bay caused serious damage to the local shellfish industry. This is again flourishing, although producers have expressed concern that the reopening of the terminal could prove a new threat. Their fears will be addressed today at a news conference in Bantry, which will be attended by Government officials and members of the INPC.
The Cork Environmental Alliance (CEA) has warned that despite the extent of the 1979 tragedy, organisations such as the Health and Safety Authority are still insufficiently funded and without the necessary resources to monitor operations such as Whiddy.