New Iolaire exhibition opens in Sandwick hall

An exhibition on the Iolaire tragedy is to be held in Sandwick Community Hall – the hall nearest to the site of the disaster – and will be formally opened today, Thursday December 6, at 6pm.

The exhibition has been put together by Stornoway Historical Society (SHS) and will be on display throughout December, January and February, three days a week. Although it will shut for Christmas, it will be open on New Year’s Day, the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

The idea for the exhibition came from Sandwick Community Council, which began planning a commemoration programme for the Iolaire back in 2013.

It was strongly felt that material about the Iolaire should be exhibited in Sandwick Community Hall as this was the public venue closest to the disaster site, being less than one mile away from the Beasts of Holm, where the vessel hit the rocks with the loss of 201 lives.

The idea for an exhibition in the local area was taken up by SHS and has also been supported by Point Community Council and Point Historical Society.

Organised by the women of the SHS committee, society chairman Malcolm Macdonald – who has written a book on the tragedy, The Darkest Dawn – said the exhibition would be ‘substantial’, adding: ‘Point and Sandwick Community Councils and Stornoway Historical Society got together to recognise that Holm is the place where the tragedy occurred and a lot of the dead are buried in Sandwick Cemetery. It was certainly very important to those living in the community that the exhibition was in Sandwick Hall and the Stornoway Historical Society backed that.’

Councillor Angus McCormack, chairman of the exhibition working group and a Sandwick resident himself, said: ‘Stornoway Historical Society has been absolutely excellent and very committed. I’m absolutely blown away by the commitment – it’s first class.

‘I think a lot of people are going to come to this exhibition. There is a lot of interest in anything to do with the Iolaire. Everything sells out right away.’