Pete's Irish Lighthouses

  From the Irish Independent 28th March 1955 Exciting times at the Bull Rock or what? First time a keeper has been injured due to extra terrestrial activity, but of course we don't know the full circumstances. The report states that Richard Roddy was struck by a rock while helping to clear debris caused by a landslide. He wasn't actually struck by a meteorite. Could be one of the other keepers was pegging rocks over his shoulder and one of these struck the unfortunate man. Which would be a lot less interesting than being hit by a fragment of rock that had probably travelled billions of miles just to hit you. Richard Roddy (1902-1994) was keeper 330 in the firmament of stars comprised of Irish lightkeepers. As the name suggests he was one of the Dundalk Roddys, grandson of Joseph Roddy the first of that name to man the lights.

The Dublin Time Ball sitting on top of the old Irish Lights offices in Dublin city centre. Photo National Library of Ireland Warning - the lighthouse element of this post is minimal, but I found it interesting anyway. In the olden days, (says he, sounding like his grandad about to embark on one of his tales demonstrating that modern life is rubbish), things we take for granted, weren't. The youngest in the family was the human remote control, photographic film had to brought to the pharmacy and a week later you could collect your 24 photographs of which at least three were black and many had thumbs encroaching on the photos; and time was quite elastic if you weren't rich enough to have a watch. If you were going out to play football in the summer evenings, you were not told to come back by 9 o'clock because neither you, nor any of your equally grubby mates, had a watch. You were told to come back when the street lights went on. If you were late home, it didn't really ma...

  I haven't recovered from this story yet.  As many of you who know me are aware, I am a great man for showing my emotions, for displaying empathy and believe in the power of true love. Just ask my wife. On second thoughts, don't. She's probably too busy humping sacks of compost around to the back garden before she gets my dinner ready. Anyway, I came across this absolute heartbreaker of a tale, courtesy the Evening Echo of 17th October 1938. I believe the journalist must have been reading the latest Barbara Cartland at the time. Oh my God! The poor pretty wee thing, gazing heartbrokenly (great adverb) across the cruel sea, waiting for her imprisoned lover to break free from his chains. How tear-inducing is that? No wonder she's distracted and forlorn. Oh my God (again)! What if she's still there, still waiting like the French Lieutenant's Woman, humming Bring Back my Bonnie to me ? I couldn't bear it, I had to check. James Joseph Dillon, 25 years of age, k...

All photos, except one, myhome.ie Five years ago, give or take, I wrote a piece about the history of Rathlin O'Birne (O'Beirne) and the keepers that served on that illustrious isle off the southwest coast of Donegal.  While listing the keepers I had come across, I wrote that 'Con Murrin,' AK, could not attend his father's funeral due to heavy seas in 1940. Another newspaper report names him as Cornelius Meenan. The minor incident above also references 'Con Meenan.' Obviously, putting Con Murrin in italics indicated that I thought that it was a newspaper typo for Con Meenan, a keeper that I knew to be on the island at that time. Connell Meenan (282) had been born on the 20th or 21st September 1892 at Malinmore, co Donegal, the son of farmer Frank and Anne Meenan. He joined Irish Lights in 1917, became an AK in 1920 and principal keeper at Inishowen on 1st August 1941. During that time, he had served on Tory Island (1919-23); Rathlin O'Birne (1923-29); Bla...

  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 pai...

  In the 1960s, Gulf Oil built large holding tanks on Whiddy Island that would temporarily store crude oil from the Gulf before it was shipped on around northern Europe. Supertankers (300,000 tons +) would arrive and deposit their vast cargoes, and slightly smaller ones (c.100,000 tons) would then arrive and fill up with oil for refineries like Southampton and Rotterdam. With such a vital commodity and multi-billion pound cargo, it was decided that a light needed to be placed at the end of the Sheep's Head peninsula to aid the increase in large ocean traffic to the pleasantly rural location.  At the same time, it was decided to increase the range of the light at Mizen Head. Large tankers would be able to plot their course using the RACON and the Radio Beacon at that station before being guided by the new light into Bantry Bay. The RACON in particular could be picked up by a ship 35 miles out to sea. During June 1968, all the materials needed for the construction of the lightho...