Pete's Irish Lighthouses

  On holidays in Ireland, my wife and I will sometimes ramble around an old cemetery, reading the gravestones, seeing which are the dominant surnames in the area and keeping our eyes out for unusual inscriptions. Yesterday we visited St. Columba's Church of Ireland in Glencolmcille, an 1828 structure, built on the site of another Protestant place of worship, a good distance away from the main part of today's village and quite near to the old lightkeepers' cottages there. Some of the headstones are very ancient, mere rocks with no markings but there are a number of quite legible slabs dating back to the 1700s and others with interesting hieroglyphics depicting freemason membership! The dominant surname, far and away, is Maxwell, with Blain being a long-distant second. Located just up the road from the cottages where the off duty lightkeepers from Rathlin O'Beirne lived, I had idly wondered if any old keepers or their wives or offspring were buried there, as many of them ...

  All photos except the bottom one taken from Malin Beg The last time I was in South west Donegal was a flying visit to photograph 1) the lighthouse at Rathlin O'Beirne 2) the keepers cottages at Glencolmcille 3) Rotten Island lighthouse and 4) St. John's Point lighthouse, as well as trying to find evidence of a short-lived lighthouse at Bruckless . Naturally enough, the day I chose for my blitzkrieg was overcast and cloudy and the photos I had travelled so far to get were kind of disappointing, particularly those of Rathlin O'Beirne, half-shrouded in a murky mist. So, this time, we are actually staying in between Carrick and Kilcar and so, visiting the incredible beach at Malin Beg and the even more incredible cliffs at Sliabh Liag, I was able to get a few snaps of RoB, with a blue sky background. On the Mullet peninsula in county Mayo, the keepers used the Napoleonic signal tower at Glosh to semaphore Blackrock lighthouse. I wonder if they did the same here? The lady in ...

  The sinking of the Gunboat Wasp off Tory Island, stylised sketch that appeared in the Illustrated London News 4th October 1884. By all accounts, the sea was relatively calm at the time! When the question is posed - as it is regularly at dinner tables across the country - as to which is the most photographed Irish lighthouse of all time, bitter arguments normally ensue. Fanad and Hook are soon at loggerheads while the Fastnet tries to stand aloof and watch the bedlam unfold. In the meantime, Poolbeg nips out to rob some hubcaps before returning to the fray. In short, there is no definitive answer to the question and all claimants to the throne have merit on their sides. When it comes to paintings, however, most lighthouses reluctantly admit there is only one real Supermodel on the coastal beacon scene. And the answer is quite surprising as it is a difficult subject to approach without a large volume of retching (well, in my case, anyway) - Tory Island. "Evening (from Derek Hill...

The Maidens light, county Antrim This is a poem wot I wrote many years ago and which I actually set to music a few years ago. However, I am no Donnacha O'Laoghaire either vocally or on the geetar, so I'll reproduce the poem without the musical violation. Incidentally, there is, nor ever was, a lighthouse off Tremaine, nor any village of that name, that I am aware of and the events only happened in my morbid imagination. Eeragh lighthouse, the Aran Islands Come hear my strange story, repulsive and gory, about one who was ruthlessly slain. It happened, you see, back in 1903 on the lighthouse two miles off Tremaine. The storm lashed the bay on that terrible day, clouds darkened the sea like a stain. And when evening fell, it became black as hell, with no beam from the light off Tremaine. By eleven o’clock, there were crowds on the dock, all willing the tempest to wane. But the winds from the north meant no boat could set forth for the lighthouse two miles off Tremaine. Still no li...

Edward McCarron, author of 'Life in Donegal' was a keeper at Dundalk, Arranmore, Inishtrahull, Tearaght, and others from the 1870s I came across this poem by somebody called A.M.C.(a strange name with very few letters in it?) in the Cork Examiner of 5th November 1892. Imaginatively called ' The Lighthouse Keepers,' its message is basically to appreciate the lightkeeper while he is around, for there would be carnage if he ever stopped lighting his lamps. Francis James Ryan and Mary nee Redmond,  married in 1867, and then circumnavigated the country. Far away on a rocky coast where great waves dash and roar, And vessels passing to and fro keep off the dreaded shore: The lighthouse stands, silent and cold, in solemn loneliness: Towering far above the sea, and the ocean's wild caress. William Landers, a devout Methodist, served at Clare Island and Inishgort for many years in the mid-1800s Ever and ever the breakers crash; ever the seabirds fly, Mingling the noise of t...

Roseate terns at Rockabill lighthouse. I have no idea if they are migratory. Photograph  Aidan Arnold On March 29th to 30th 1911, a great rush of birds was observed along the south and east coasts of Ireland from the Old Head of Kinsale up to Balbriggan. It was apparently so noticeable that newspapers commented on it for days afterwards. The excessive numbers appeared for several days afterwards but the night of March 29th / 30th appears to have been the peak. Ornithologist, Richard Manliffe Barrington, whose work with lightkeepers in the last 20 years of the nineteenth century had done so much to aid our understanding of bird migration, wrote a paper on the event a few months later. Thanks to his lightkeeping connections, he was able to pinpoint the extent of the bird rush and suggest a probable cause. I quote from his paper. Turning now to the light-stations on the coast, the most northerly from which any special number of birds was reported is BALBRIGGAN Mr. E. A. Kennedy, lig...

  Barrels lightship c.1908. This was the LV Torch, an iron-framed ship, built in 1881, sold and scrapped in 1945 The Barrels lightship was established in 1880 at a point two miles south of Carnsore Point. It gave two red flashes in quick succession every thirty seconds, warning boats to keep to the seaward side of it. Like all Irish light vessels of the time it was painted black and had the words 'BARRELS ROCK' painted in large white letters on her sides. This was subsequently changed to 'BARRELS' in order to minimise painting costs. Position of Barrels Lightvessel, centre of page, south of Carnsore Point. LV Coningbeg is bottom left of page Life on board light vessels was no bed of roses  at the best of times unless the roses were the really thorny ones that can lacerate someone's finger just by looking at it. With no power and held in position by a massive chain, the crew had practically no control over the elements in a boat that was built with absolutely no noti...