A service will be held in a Cork harbour this morning to mark the 25th anniversary of the State's biggest maritime disaster at Whiddy Island.
Fifty-one people died when a fire ripped through French oil tanker The Betelgeusein Bantry Bay, west Cork, on January 8th, 1979.
The entire crew died in the blast, which happened while the ship was discharging its 120,000-ton cargo of Saudi crude oil on a jetty off Whiddy Island. The explosion could be heard up to 25 miles away and split the tanker in two.
The sea around Whiddy caught fire as burning oil spread and islanders fleeing to the mainland could do little but watch the ship sink.
A number of Irish employees of Gulf Oil were also killed. Two oil companies were later blamed for the disaster - Total, which owned the ship, and Gulf Oil, which ran the terminal.
The combination of a weakened tanker hull and incorrect ballasting had caused the fire. The terminal was closed for almost 20 years following the accident and was eventually reopened by the Irish National Petroleum Corporation in 1998.
Today's Mass, to be taken at Bantry, is expected to be low-key compared with the 20th anniversary service. Total flew over many relatives of the victims for the event in Cork in 1998. They attended a religious service and visited a cross at the Abbey cemetery, Bantry, that bears the names of all who died.