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The lightkeepers at Duncannon

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  Duncannon Fort light from the wonderful beach below Following on from the previous post about the lighthouses at Duncannon, it is important not to forget that the people who manned the lights are every inch as important as the towers of brick and concrete themselves. Irish Lights did not keep regular lists of keepers at stations prior to 1919, so any further information / corrections are very welcome The Duncannon Fort light having been established in 1791 and probably even earlier, it naturally follows that it needed a keeper to take care of it. Unfortunately, none of the names of any of those early keepers, who came to light the light, have come to light. During a Trinity House inspection cruise in 1859, though, it was reported that the keeper at the Fort at the time succeeded his father in the job. This was probably George Brownell and his son, as Sarah Brownell, George’s daughter, married a soldier from the Fort in 1852. As the keeper at the Fort was not required during the h...
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The lighthouses at Duncannon

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Duncannon Fort light with Duncannon North deceptively close (800m) behind (Facebook page) A couple of years ago, Andrew Doherty, author and guru of the wonderful Tides and Tales blog /maritime community project at Cheekpoint, asked me if I'd like to write a guest piece on the Duncannon lighthouses for the blog. Rather foolishly, I said yes. I am now shamelessly stealing the piece for this blog. Andrew's tireless researching of local history stands as a benchmark for all other communities around the coast. Reposing in the shadow of Hook Head (not literally, except during very peculiar astronomical events), the lights of Duncannon Fort might not enjoy the limelight of its illustrious neighbour but it has an interesting history nonetheless. The problem for shipping bound for Waterford in the 1700s was that, having breathed a huge sigh of relief on rounding Hook Head, they then got caught out by a nasty bar just south of Duncannon Fort. Not the sort that sells frothy pints and sta...
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Green Island and Vidal Bank

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The leading light today on Vidal Bank (photo Pete Goulding) I knew I had posted on these two totally-unknown lighthouses back in the day but it still took me 30 minutes to find them in this blog, as I had called them the Haulbowline Front and Rear lights, little knowing that, 16 years later, I would be googling Green and Vidal and tearing the remains of my hair out. The rear light on Green Island (photo Pete Goulding) The lights are almost identical, situated 500 yards apart in the sandy shallows off Cranfield Beach on the northern side of Carlingford Lough. (For the best views, take Fair Road off the N2 and get out when you reach the coast). The one to the left (east, front) is Vidal Bank; the one to the right (west, rear) is Green Island. The only visible difference between the two is that Vidal Bank has its orange triangle pointing up, whereas Green Island's is down. Even the light characteristics -  a white light occulting every three seconds - are the same. Think I may have go...
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Reminiscences of Sir Robert Ball

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Bobby Ball Sir Robert Ball was the scientific advisor to Irish Lights from his appointment in 1882 until the early years of the 20th century and was practically omnipresent during Irish Lights' annual inspection cruises during that time. From 1903, he took a photographic record of these tours, which are now viewable online on the National Library of Ireland website. Several albums of panoramic photos are also included, Sir Robert probably being one of the first exponents of the art. Personally, I think they're no great shakes - mainly distant islands with a tower on them - but for the time, they were probably highly regaled. He was an all-round scientist, a famed astronomer, and was probably very useful to Irish Lights through his expertise in everything scientific. His 1876 treatise, The Theory of Screws, I have yet to read but its on my bucket list. Towards the end of his life (he died in 1913 aged 73) he jotted down some reminiscences of his life, including his Irish Lights...
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Rules and Regulations for Lightkeepers 1934

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£3 per year for not having a garden at Balbriggan I recently came across this 53-page booklet which, it says in the introduction, completely nullifies the 1930 handbook. Obviously I'm not going to copy the 53 pages here but maybe I'll simply reproduce the section about pay and how rich those guardiands of our coastlines were 91 years ago. Incidentally, if anybody would like a pdf copy of the booklet, just drop an email to gouldingpeter@gmail.com and I'll send it out as soon as possible. Rubber knee boots and dungarees allowed at Straw Island £36 per year to provide an AK at Youghal £12 10s per year for each kid boarding away from home
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The Arbuckle light at Donaghadee?

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Donaghadee really is the lighthouse that keeps on giving. The beautifully photogenic lighthouse at the end of the pier was constructed in 1836 and has very much become a symbol of the town. I was delighted to find mentions also of two other lighthouses in Donaghadee, one dating back to 1640, the other to the mid-1770s. This latter edifice was 'a small wooden tower lit by tallow candles.' If I were a real historian, I'd spend six months trawling through indecipherable ledgers in the National Library to confirm their existence but I have a real job, and grandchildren. I wrote about the two ancient lighthouses here and it was noticeable that, whereas there were reasonably accurate dates for their establishment, there was no mention of their demise. Two months? Sixty years? It was therefore of some interest when I was looking something up on PRONI (the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland) online recently and found a letter dated September 1791 from one James Arbuckle, a ...
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Ballast Board keepers appointed 1854-1860

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This is another list that may be of interest to those people with lightkeeping dynasties stretching back to the 1800s. It comes from The  Report of the Royal Commissioners on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons 1861, a publication which would have knocked Great Expectations off the best-sellers list for that year, if anybody had bought it. Seriously, its available on the internet and contains a lot of great information on Irish and British lights, if you're prepared to wade through a 1,000 pages to find it. Its interesting in so far as the 'Previous Employment' goes, as it shows how many keepers were sons of previous keepers. Even some of those who came through the Tradesman in the service of the Port Dublin route, were often sons of lightkeepers, such as Robert Redmond and William Callaghan. This is a list of the only two Masters of lightvessels appointed in the years 1854-1860. There were only two, as there were in fact only four lightvessels - the Kish (the Seagull ), the Arklow...
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