News > 2008

AN IOLAIRE
Tri-media Commission Commemorates 90th Anniversary of the HMY Iolaire Disaster on BBC ALBA, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal and bbc.co.uk

The sinking of the HMY Iolaire remains the worst peacetime maritime disaster in British waters, and yet is widely unknown outside the Western Isles.

Iolaire memorial
Mòr and Alasdair MacLeod at the memorial

To mark the 90th anniversary of the tragedy, the BBC has produced a tri-media offering that includes a television documentary to be broadcast on BBC ALBA on New Year’s Day, a radio documentary to be broadcast on Hogmanay on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and a comprehensive multi-media website, documenting in detail the events surrounding the tragedy, to launch on bbc.co.uk/iolaire on Hogmanay.

Over two hundred troops from Lewis and Harris were lost as they returned home on leave, having survived the four years of the Great War. The HMY Iolaire struck the Beasts of Holm rocks early on New Year’s Day 1919, minutes from the safety of Stornoway harbour. Slowly, word of the loss trickled to families and friends waiting expectantly for their loved ones.

Parents lost their sons, wives their husbands, and over 200 children their fathers. The tragedy drew a dark blanket over these communities for generations.

This compelling television documentary includes the following elements:

Powerful and moving archive interviews with survivors of the wreck, such as Donald “Patch” Morrison, who alone managed to cling to the mast through the long stormy night and John F MacLeod, who swam ashore dragging a rope, by which another thirty men were saved.

Originated interviews include Mòr MacLeod, who vividly remembers the preparations for her father’s return, only to be told he would never be coming home, and Sandy “Mòr” MacLeod, whose earliest memory is hearing that they had found his father’s body. John Murdo MacLeod, son of the hero John F MacLeod tells us the story of the life-saving rope, as related to him by his father. Renowned Gaelic poet Anne Frater was first inspired to write by her grandmother’s experience of losing her own father.

Divers

A special dive to the wreck, the first time pictures of the ship have been shown on television, lying only metres from the shore, was filmed for the documentary.

Maritime expert Angus Murray, who with the help of charts and a trip to the site of the wreck helps to outline what might have caused the accident, so close to the boat’s home base.

A visit was also made to the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway where children were creating on a new song about the tragedy; a collaboration between the school’s Gaelic and Music departments.

The compelling radio documentary is narrated by Nan S. MacLeod, who has taken key interviews from BBC Radio nan Gaidheal’s extensive archive on the Iolaire and placed them in a modern-day context.


Mòr and Alasdair MacLeod watch the dive
Mòr and Alasdair MacLeod watch the dive

The website, bbc.co.uk/iolaire, will be live from 31 December and will contain detailed information in audio, text, photographs and video form – offering a comprehensive resource of related material and information in a single site. It will provide details of both the events of New Year’s Eve, 1918 and of the aftermath, including unique archive recordings from survivors and eye witness accounts, as well as information about the fatal accident inquiry and the effect the tragedy had on family and friends throughout the Western Isles.

An Iolaire was produced for BBC ALBA by the BBC and will be broadcast on New Year’s Day, Thursday 1st January 2009 at 21:00.