It’s 40 years since West Cork experienced moving statues, the shocking Air India disaster and gathered around our TV sets to watch the LiveAid concert, writes Maria C Henry
EXACTLY 40 years ago, in 1985, the international headlines discussed famine, Aids and global unnatural climate devastation.
In Ireland, the major taking points included The Troubles, growing employment, and the recession.
While in Beara, we mourned our youth as they left in droves.
Every weekend from Allihies to Eyeries, Castletownbere to Adrigole, the local pubs were seeing regular ‘leaving drinks’ with young ones emigrating for work and a better life.
But it wasn’t just the economic hardships that were driving young people out, though. There were other, deeper and darker issues.
In 1985, discos and nightclubs in West Cork were in their heyday and there was only one place for any self-respected young person to start the New Year in Castletownbere, and that was the legendary Beara Bay Hotel (RIP).
As my friends and I danced to the sounds of Do they know it’s Christmas?, The Reflex and Two Tribes there was a question in the air – which one of us would be next for the boat or plane?
Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Two Tribes was a big hit in the dancehalls of Beara.
LiveAid hit our screens from Wembley Arena.
It was a significant year for Irish sport, with the rugby team winning the Triple Crown, Dennis Taylor taking the world snooker title, and Barry McGuigan won the world featherweight title.
Our new and small country was producing world champions.
The big sporting event down our way took place in March with the West Cork Rally.
As the cars left from Jury’s Hotel on Western Road and raced down the tracks to the finishing line at the Clonakilty Park Hotel, thousands came out to support these road wreckers.
Speckles of fans lined the boreens, stood behind ditches and tractor tyres as their heroes zoomed past.
When it was all over, there was the biggest hooley in Clonakilty.
Richie Heeley, the winner for the second year in a row, was in the right town to celebrate.
The year brought the phenomena of moving statues all over the country, but no more so than the epicentre, Ballinspittle, the small village outside Kinsale.
During the summer, the village found itself the centre of media attention and in the middle of an international news story, when two local women claimed they saw the statue moving while they were praying at the grotto.
And then the people came – thousands of them, by bus, by car, by foot and by tractor.
The faithful swore a miraculous event.
Sceptics said it was an optical illusion.
Sick people who visited the site claimed cures.
They gathered in mass hysteria at the grotto and rattled out decades of the rosary.
Chip and burgers vans headed towards West Cork and by the end of the summer, a public toilet had to be built in order to deal with the crowds.
The vandalism of the statue later that year and the subsequent court cases meant it was a story that seemed to keep on giving.
Whatever your viewpoint, it was an interesting period of cultural phenomena.
But no one could have prepared us for the tragedy that hit our shores on Sunday morning, June 23rd, when an Air India Boeing 747 crashed into the Atlantic sea off the coast of Cork.
There was no Mayday call to declare an emergency.
The plane simply disappeared from radar.
Within hours, West Cork and Ireland as a nation had to suddenly cope with the aftermath of the world’s deadliest act of aviation terrorism.
There were no survivors from the disaster.
All 329 passengers and crew died. Over 80 of them were children.
As relatives arrived at Cork Airport, West Cork became the focus of the rescue mission.
Babu and Padmini Turlapati, who lost their two sons in the Air India flight 182 terrorist bombing, look out towards the crash site from the memorial in Ahakista after the 39th anniversary memorial service. (Photo: Tony McElhinney)
It later emerged that Sikh militants had placed a bomb on board which exploded and plunged the plane into the Atlantic.
A memorial site has since been built in a beautiful and peaceful space in Ahakista and every year relatives and friends of the deceased gather there to remember them.
The 13th of July was a proud Irish day for me because it was Irishman Bob Geldof who organised (with a little help from a few friends) the massive LiveAid concert.
He hoped to raise money and awareness of the famine in Ethiopia.
Ireland was the biggest donor per capita in the world, and our little peninsula helped in its own small way to bring that number home.
While me, my family and friends watched the spectacular show gathered around the TV, I knew it was historic and groundbreaking, even if I didn’t know how to articulate it.
I was part of the 1.5 billion people tuned in to watch the top table line-up of contemporary artists of the time that were performing either in London or Philadelphia.
But when Queen took to the stage, there was a shift that was almost palatable.
The grotto in Ballinspittle made international news.
Edmund Barry in Ballinspittle talking to RTÉ about the moving statues in 1985 . (Photo: RTÉ Archive)
Shortly after, the house landline and many others in Beara were hopping because Jope Van Etten, the then owner of the also legendary Wheel Inn (RIP) announced that whatever was taken at the door that night, he would double it and put it into the LiveAid pot.
So I, along with hundreds of others, did our duty and attended.
The LiveAid concert raised £40m (£100m in today’s money) on the day and over £140m since.
In fact, £7m was raised in Ireland, and President Hillery presented a cheque for this amount to Bob Geldof on behalf of the Irish people.
Cork city was celebrating 800 years in 1985 and had many events lined up for the festivities.
The most important for me was the Lark by the Lee on Sunday August 25th.
It was a free open-air concert celebrating the Irish music scene.
There was a portion of the population of West Cork that went to college or worked in the city that commuted home every weekend and left again after we had our mammy’s Sunday roast.
The night before the gig, as we gathered in the Wheel Inn, a group of us agreed to leave earlier the following day, head off in a convoy and hit the field.
The meeting point was the square in Castletownbere.
As the convoy approached the city from the Ballincollig side of ‘The Mile Road’, Beara cars were parked bonnet to bumper.
As we joined the crowd, rumours began to spread that there was a going to be someone ‘big’ playing and before the end of the concert, it was announced.
‘There’s an up-and-coming band coming on the stage now and playing for you. They’re called ... U2!’
U2 played a nine-song-set in total.
And the crowd was beside themselves and delighted with the surprise.
It was a memorable surprise performance during an incredibly eventful year.
