Pete's Irish Lighthouses

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...

Robert French photo showing the two lighthouses on Oyster Island (NLI) Séamus 'ac a' Bháird (1871–1951) - James Ward - was a Gaelic poet, songsmith, stepdancer and author, Prince, and later King, of Tory Island,  and helped lead the struggle in Donegal to keep Gaelic culture alive at a time when Britain was trying to wipe it from the face of the land. Surprisingly, he was part-reared on Eagle Island and Oyster Island. His father, Neal, became assistant keeper on Tory Island on 2nd November 1867, when he was 23 years old. This was a handy posting for him as he had been born and reared in Burtonport in northwest Donegal. It was probably during this first stint on Tory that he married  Éilis (Bessie) Ní Dhubhgáin  of that island.  Son  Séamus was born on Tory in 1871 but his first memories were of Eagle Island. The family were later transferred to Oyster Island in Sligo. He first went to school back on Tory Island, aged around 7 years, when his father, Neal, was tr...