O Meara and Robinson, Irish Lights painters

 

Patrick O Meara, in heroic pose, possibly on the Tuskar. Photo courtesy Liam O Meara

Back in the day, when I had ludicrous notions that I could make it as a serious poet, I used to enter the odd poetry competition and, if feasible, attended the awards, whether I was nominated or not. One of my favourites was the annual Francis Ledwidge Poetry Awards competition, run essentially by Liam O Meara from Inchicore, a legend in that suburb for his work on Ledwidge, on poetry and on local history.

Memories of Liam and those poetry nights came flooding back when I came across a Facebook post in which a Liam O Meara commented that his grandfather had served as a painter on Loop Head. Eager to learn more, I messaged him and we agreed to meet in Small Changes, a wine and coffee house on Emmet Road in Inchicore, despite the fact that this was deep in St Pat's territory. And yes, it was the same Liam O Meara!

I have written previously about the Black family, a father and son and grandson painting team who roamed the highways and byways of this land painting lighthouses and their compounds as they went. They invariably worked in pairs and could be away from home for months, even years at a time, which was doubtless worse for the wives and children.

Liam's grandfather was Patrick O Meara and he worked with fellow Dub, Joseph Robinson. Most Irish Lights painters seem to have been Dublin men. The men were around the same age, born in the 1880/1 period. Joseph married Mary Kate Kavanagh of Capel Street in Dublin in 1909 and Patrick  married Mary Walsh of Ushers Island, Dublin in 1913.

Patrick and Joseph, all scrubbed up and wearing borrowed keepers' jackets and caps at Loop Head lighthouse. Photo courtesy Liam O Meara

Liam said that, if his father ever wanted to see Patrick, he would have to apply to stay at a chalet or hut on the station where he was staying. As remarked, the men were away from home for months at a time, a strange life for married men. 

Shortly after partition, Patrick and Joseph were sent up to Antrim to paint the stations at Ferris Point and Blackhead. Irish Lights and its predecessors have always been an all-Ireland employer but, so soon after the country was split in two, not all the fine points of employment had been sorted out. It seems that their social welfare contributions that they earned in the North were not valid in the South, and questions were asked in the Dail by Alfie Byrne, TD and later Lord Mayor of Dublin;-

One assumes that, with keepers, technicians and tradesmen based in the South being sent up North, this problem would have to be sorted out fairly quickly and that some sort of reciprocal arrangement would have to come into force. Liam though suggests that the two men were never adequately sorted out.

Liam is also in possession of one of Liam's record books, detailing his painting assignments and it is incredible the amount of detail that the painters were expected to give. I don't know if, in later years, they got away with 'Painted Broadhaven' or 'Painted the Baily' but it certainly wasn't done in the 1920s!

With detail like that, is it any wonder that painting took such a long time and the men were away from their families for so long? I reckon 10% of the time must have been taken up with filling out reports.

Incidentally, the Broadhaven assignment must have taken place at the end of 1931, as Liam has the Irish Lights work assignment for the job. It is noticeable that Head Office didn't go into quite the same amount of detail that they expected from their employees!

There are many interesting parts to this contract. Foremost, the fact that they are only employed by Irish Lights on a case by case basis. This presumably means that, if they finished a job and were not assigned another one, they were out of work? I have also not been able to work out what the daily allowance of '3/6d country money' means. Maybe the currency of the country that they are working in? 

The conditions that the men worked under were pretty grim and the accommodation was similarly sub-standard. Liam says this contributed to the early death of his grandfather, aged only 49, in 1933, barely 13 months after the Broadhaven assignment above. 

Joseph Robinson presumably was assigned another partner, attained retirement age and died in 1956 aged 74 years.

Joseph (L) and Patrick (R) on the Skelligs. No date given but November 1930 would be a good guess, seeing as Alan Hayden's phenomenal work deciphering the graffiti on that rock lists the two painters as being there at that time! Presumably, their assignment before being sent to Broadhaven. The man in the centre is named as Edmund Duff, who appears on the newly-released 1926 census as a stone mason working for Irish Lights.

Incidentally, if you haven't visited Small Changes in Inchicore, it is a fascinating place, unlike any coffee shop I have seen. It is very much community-orientated and hosts regular poetry and music nights and a host of other events, like Wine Tasting as Gaeilge and the Silent Book Club. Shame its so near Richmond Park.