BBC ALBA and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal today (18th December) announce a special New Year schedule to commemorate the centenary of the Iolaire disaster.
On 1st January 1919, HMY Iolaire, carrying sailors on their return home from the First World War struck rocks and foundered less than a mile away from Stornoway harbour, claiming the lives of 201 men, many of whom were from communities on the Islands of Lewis and Harris. This left a profound and lasting impact on the lives of the surviving families and friends, and the wider island communities.
BBC ALBA and Radio nan Gàidheal have scheduled an extensive season of programming combining poetry, music, arts, animation, documentary and drama to remember those lost in this catastrophic event.
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal will have extensive, live coverage of community commemoration events throughout the evening of 31st December, starting at 7pm running on to the afternoon of 1st January. The station will offer world-wide access to audiences of the main public gatherings including a vigil at the site of the Iolaire memorial at 1.50am and a service of remembrance at noon on January 1st.
On BBC ALBA, a series of eight short films, Guthan na h-Iolaire are to be shown over the 31st of December and 1st of January. The films dramatise verbatim accounts from witnesses and survivors, and include the story of John F Macleod who swam to shore with a rope which saved many lives, and the story of Donald Morrison who spent the night clinging to the mast of the sunken Iolaire.
Also on the evening of 31st December, a specially commissioned animated film, Tha Thu air Aigeann M’ Inntinn, will be premiered. The film has been hand-drawn and produced by Catriona Black using Iain Crichton’s Smith’s poem of the same name as the foundation for an intense and moving depiction of the disaster. The film is accompanied by an original musical score from the award-winning fiddler, Sarah-Jane Summers.
New Year’s Day on BBC ALBA features significant Iolaire programming, with both archive and new commissions: Cuimhneachan – Iolaire presents a selection of poetry and song written about the disaster. This is followed by An Iolaire – Bidh Sinn a’ Cuimhneachadh, a documentary exploring the part that visual and creative arts have had in the healing process for an entire community. Sàl, the suite of music commissioned Singer-songwriter Iain Morrison and Dalziel & Scullion, is scheduled later that evening in Iolaire: Sàl.
BBC ALBA and Radio nan Gàidheal’s news teams will be delivering special bulletins and coverage from the events taking place in and around the communities most impacted.
On 2nd January, Sàr Sgeòil will focus on the Iolaire-based novel ‘As the Women Lay Dreaming’ from critically acclaimed writer Donald S Murray. Cathy MacDonald explores the fact behind the fiction of the novel, an event which had a deep impact on her own family.
Schedule:
BBC ALBA
Monday 31 December
Guthan na h-Iolaire the first four of eight short drama monologues based on verbatim testimony, from 7.55pm
Tha Thu air Aigeann M’ Inntinn (animated film) airs at 8.20pm
Tuesday 1 January
Guthan na h-Iolaire Four remaining drama monologues based on verbatim testimony, from 5.00pm
An Iolaire (documentary first broadcast in 2009) airs at 5.30pm
Home at Last (documentary first broadcasting 1989) airs at 6.30pm
Cuimhneachan (Iolaire poetry and song) airs at 7.15pm
Bidh Sinn A’ Cuimhneachadh (arts documentary) airs at 8pm
Sàl (Musical performances from Iain Morrison, singer songwriter) airs at 10pm
Wednesday 2 January
Sàr Sgeòil: As The Women Lay Dreaming (arts documentary) airs at 9pm
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal will have extensive, live coverage of community commemoration events throughout the evening of 31st December, starting at 7pm running on to the afternoon of 1st January. The station will offer world-wide access to audiences of the main public gatherings including a vigil at the site of the Iolaire memorial at 1.50am and a service of remembrance at noon on January 1st.
Radio nan Gàidheal will continue to broadcast a series of Iolaire-themed programmes throughout the first week in January with a series, Bailtean fo Bhròin, exploring the impact of the disaster on communities and specific districts.
Iolaire-themed programmes have been produced by BBC Gàidhlig, Catriona Black and Am Bocsa, STV, MacTV and Caledonia TV.
