The sinking of the Lusitania, the bombing of Air India flight 182 and the 1979 Fastnet race are among many incidents which will be remembered on Valentia island in Co Kerry today when its Coast Guard station marks its centenary.
Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe is due to pay tribute to former and current staff who have been responsible for co-ordinating air and sea rescues in the Atlantic over the past 100 years.
Valentia, which opened in 1914 and was originally run by British naval staff, is now one of three Irish Coast Guard marine rescue centres.
The sinking of the Lusitania with the loss of 1,195 lives on May 7th, 1915, was one of its first major incidents.
Air crashes the station responded to include a KLM air crash at Shannon Airport in 1954, in which 28 of the 56 passengers and crew on board died, and another KLM crash in 1958 when there were no survivors among 91 passengers and eight crew.
Valentia was involved in one of the most dramatic international rescues of the past half-century when former royal navy submariner Roger Chapman and engineer and pilot Roger Mallinson were rescued after their Vickers submersible Pisces III was trapped 480m below the sea surface 240km off the Irish coast in 1973.
Station staff handled two major incidents in 1979 – the explosion on the tanker Betelgeuse on Whiddy Island which claimed 50 lives, and the loss of 18 people when storm-force winds hit the Fastnet yacht race. In 1985, staff played a co-ordinating role after Air India flight 182 exploded in Irish air space.
Lifeboat stations
The station works with 17 Coast Guard units, 12 RNLI lifeboat stations and seven community rescue services. Staff have developed a proficiency in Spanish due to the number of Galician fishing vessels working close by.
Michael O'Connor was one of five volunteers with Valentia Coast and Cliff Rescue recognised for a bravery award when 11 survivors were rescued from the Big Cat Spanish fishing vessel which grounded off Valentia on January 13th, 1989.
