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Drogheda North restoration complete

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  Members of the conservation project team in front of the recently restored lighthouse Nine years after the restoration of Drogheda North lighthouse was announced comes the very good news that it has finally been completed. T he project was undertaken by Drogheda Port Company under the supervision of conservation architect Fergal McGirl and supported through the Built Heritage Investment Scheme administered by Meath County Council. The North lighthouse was one of three lights erected on the Boyne estuary foreshore in 1842. Constructed by Messrs. Carolan of Talbot Street at a cost of £450 each, the East and West lights were built on tramways to guide ships up the channel; as the channel moved, so the lights were moved along the tramways, at least in the early years. The Drogheda North light, the one with the dwellings, is not a large structure, and one might ask how it took nine years for the restoration to be completed.  Covid, of course, took a large chunk of that time and ...
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Dingle pier light

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  Detail from a Lawrence collection photograph in the National Library of Ireland From the British Islands Pilot: January 1917 There appears to be no light at the end of the pier these days. The two breakwater heads flanking it though are lighted (eOceanic)
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Argus and Midge

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  The Princess Alexandra and the Moya off the Skelligs c.1903. Photo NLI. I have no photos, or even drawings of the Argus or the Midge, so this photo will have to do I have, for many years, made fun of the Ballast Board/Irish Lights, particularly in the nineteenth century, for their abject slowness in getting things done. It took them seven years to place a fog bell at the Baily lighthouse; decades to commence building a new light on the Fastnet after its sister light on Calf Rock was swept away; decades too to commence the building of new lights at Fanad and Mew Island; and 150 years to replace the too-high light at Clare Island with a more efficient one at Achillbeg. Often it took a disaster and a newspaper-fuelled public outcry to stir them into action. In the interests of balance, therefore, I give you the story of the Ballast Board tenders, Argus and Midge, to show how the Ballast Board found itself ensnared in red tape whichever way it turned: - In 1851, the  Corp...
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Penguins on Rockabill?

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  Rockabill and the famous roseate terns. Photo Aidan Arnold Aside from the incredible photo above, (I'd have run for shelter and not bothered with the camera!) this piece has only a vague connection to lighthouses, for which I apologise here and now. However, outside the lighthouse, there is very little newsworthy information published about the twin islands of The Rock and Bill and this, I feel, is a peculiar piece which deserves  at least a few lines somewhere! The source of this item is one sentence from an article from page 2 of Saunders's Newsletter of 26th January 1856. Written after the announcement that a lighthouse would be built on Rockabill, the piece throws a spotlight on the island and why the new edifice will be such a boon to the local area in north county Dublin. After talking about Rockabill being 'remarkably free from fogs' and hitherto scarcely visited, it then goes on to talk about its birdlife. Myriads of birds, including the penguin, solan goose,...
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Visiting the Tuskar?

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View from the balcony. Photo Damien Mcaleenan Many thanks to the  Steady As She Goes  maritime podcast, no 11, for alerting us to the intriguing news that a social media video (reel? short? - sorry, too old to learn new tricks!) has recently appeared on Facebook from Saltee Sea Safaris, based in Kilmore who have hitherto run exciting trips to the Saltee Islands off the south coast of Wexford. Not only Facebook but Instagram too and probably Tinder and Spotify and Snapchat and other internet places I have never visited. There  is no commentary to the piece. It says that they have, or are going to have a 'new boat.' The graphics read 'Something exciting is coming,' 'A New Adventure' 'Soon To Be Revealed' 'Prepare for What's Next' and 'Are You Ready?'  Following this, there are three arty shots of Tuskar Rock lighthouse!
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The Dingle keepers

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  The Dingle lighthouse and the slightly over-kitsch dwelling house at the entrance to Dingle harbour. Photo Dave Lowcher My previous posts about this picture-postcard lighthouse and other Dingle navigational marks   here, here and here  failed to touch on the history of the light and the people who manned it. As usual, there are gaps in both chronology and detail that I hope local knowledge might be able to fill. An Irish Fisheries report for 1884-6 mentions that the Dingle fishermen were complaining of the shallowness of the water in mid-channel and the absence of a light at the entrance of the harbour. Combined, this meant they often had to lay their boats to under small canvas at night and wait for daylight before safely landing their catch. The Dingle Harbour Board, good men themselves, sought tenders at the end of October 1886 and the lamp shone forth on 1st April 1887, costing £589, a considerable saving on the £800 tendered. It was a fixed red light, ostens...
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Hank Marvin at an Irish lighthouse

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Hank Marvin with shadow at a lighthouse I f you didn't already know, and were asked at which Irish lighthouse the first helicopter rescue occurred, where would you say? And what was the reason for it? And who was rescued? Possibly, like me, you'd probably plump for some lighthouse off the west coast, maybe Tearaght or Skellig, where a keeper had suddenly become very sick and had to have urgent medical attention. Somewhere noted for its maroonings and overdue reliefs and not being able to get home for Christmas. And like me, you'd be wrong on all accounts, except the fact that it was off the west coast. Black Rock Sligo (like its namesake in Mayo, I never know if its one word or two) was not a station that made headlines for its overdue reliefs, particularly as it had been automated very early in 1934, more than 99 years (but less than 100) after the light was first established. From the shoreline at Rosses Point, it doesn't seem that far away – almost wadable at low tid...
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