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Lighting the first lamp on Dursey Island

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After slaloming along the never-ending, westerly road from Castletownbere, you finally arrive at the cable-car, the only one in Ireland. If it is operational and not otherwise in use, take it to the island across the sound, Dursey Island, pop. 4, at the last count. Then walk, or run, or hop, or do the mashed potato, the four miles to the far end of the island and, as you traverse the last summit, two buildings will come into view. One of them is the Calf Rock lighthouse, only 15 years old when a severe storm brought the bulk of its tower down in 1881, leaving just a rusting stump to remind everyone that the sea will spot the slightest weakness in man and man's world and punish it accordingly. The other edifice to be seen on this wild and remote spot is the four dry stone walls of an old house, slightly hidden under the brow of the hill, hunched, roofless, moodily staring out to the tiny islet off the coast. You would be forgiven for wondering who on earth would be mad enough to bui...
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Lightship men leave their stations while onshore shock!

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 The Seagull on the Coningbeg station c. 1908 In 1915, when WW1 was just hotting up, an anonymous letter, addressed to the Chairman of Irish Lights, was received. Dear Sir will you allow me to make a suggestion to you about our coast its very nessary (sic) you looked the matter up, all your lightship men leave their stations when on shore please help them to look after their stations like the light keepers they are very good men on their stations, their is Arklow, Kilmore, Wicklow, C_____ (illegible) and all the men go off the stations when they leave their ships, its not write this fearful time, sir you can help the goverment now a good deal keep those men on the stations to watch anything going out and in of the harbour Kilmore is a terrible place now without anyone looking after it Arklow all masters and mates leaves thoses stations, its our duty to do all we can for our King sir keep those men to look after the coasts it should have been done before this the enemy craft can co...
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Raid on Rockabill

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  The suspected Rockabill distillery. Photo courtesy Richard Cummins To: The Secretary, Irish Lights Office, Dublin 10th September 1931 Sir, I respectfully beg to report ( this is the standard lightkeeper's first phrase of any letter) that, at 5.30am on Tuesday morning the 8th inst., Superintendent O'Halloran (Civic Guard) and 7 policemen in plain clothes landed on Rock with a search warrant signed by District Justice Reddin to search the Premises for Illicit Spirits. ( Random capitalisation of nouns and adjectives was not required but the practice seems to have been widespread.) I informed him there was no such thing on the rock and inquired why he was making the raid. He said he was acting on instructions from Headquarters. They searched every room up stairs and down. Keepers and Painters boxes, drawers and lockers. Every stone on the rock and the Lighthouse was thoroughly searched but nothing incriminating was found. They left the rock at 6.45am and landed on the Bill and se...
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Patrick Whelan (273)

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This is the only Irish Lights' transfer sheet I've ever come across, dated 24th March 1944. It appears that, reading from the bottom, PKs Blakely and Colfer swapped stations, as did Crowley and Staniforth. Then, still ascending the table O'Donnell was transferred from District Stores to AK at Kinsale, replacing Cahill, who went to Blackrock Mayo, replacing PV Whelan who went to the Hook, replacing Tom Hyde who went to the Bull Rock, replacing Hearne, who went to Dundalk, replacing Cecil Stocker who went on promotion to PK to the Hook. All this jiggery-pokery with the AKs looks like it was all because the PK at the top of the list, P. Whelan (273) had the misfortune to die on the 15th of the month. New Ross Standard April 21st 1944 Of course, I had to find out what happened to P. Whelan (273). His death cert says he was 54 years old and married, and was principal keeper of the Hook lighthouse where he had died  of a coronary thrombosis (heart attack). I then checked the list...
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Lightkeepers and guns

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Skellig Upper light It can be surmised that many lightkeepers on Irish coasts owned guns, particularly in the real old days when families lived on offshore rocks and islands and needed to shoot wildlife to supplement their diet of tinned food. The bird reports submitted to Barrington by keepers in the latter half of the nineteenth century contain many examples of birds sent to the ornithologist that had been expertly shot by the keepers. Rabbits were another source of nutrition. John Crowley shot a 'sea monster' (probably a basking shark) with a shotgun off Mutton Island in 1935. And so on. It was inevitable, therefore, that the odd accident should occur involving guns, though maybe not so many have come to light as may be imagined. (I'm not talking about fog guns, which were extremely dangerous and resulted in many serious injuries at places like the Tuskar, Rathlin Island and aboard the Princess Alexandra . As well as causing severe deafness in a lot of keepers)  In Novem...
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Another buoy comes a-visiting

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From mayo.ie 6th October 2026 Mayo County Council is coordinating the recovery of an unusual visitor to the county's  coastline after a large Canadian Coast Guard buoy washed ashore on Achill Island  and is believed to have travelled thousands of kilometres from Canadian waters , having  completed an extraordinary journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Following contact with the Canadian Coast Guard, Mayo County Council was informed  that their buoys are known to be "very friendly" and occasionally develop a habit of  travelling far from home. The buoy, which weighs approximately 3.5 tonnes, was discovered on the shoreline in Achill.  To ensure maritime safety, Mayo County Council is arranging to recover the buoy from  the shoreline. There is a risk that it could refloat and become a hazard to vessels or coastal  infrastructure. Plans are in place to refloat the buoy and tow it to Roonagh Pier before  transporting it to one of the Council's depo...
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Sendy nowt a nesso ess

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It is now ten years since the good people of Fanad opened the doors of the lighthouse to the public. Whether you go for the tour only, or stay in the lightkeepers' dwellings, you get a taste of how the keepers lived, you see what they saw when they were up in the lantern room, you climb the same stairs that they climbed. It can never be the authentic experience but it has given thousands of visitors a taste of what the job entailed.  Aside from preserving the maritime heritage of the lighthouse and the local area, the project has given valuable employment to local people in an area that can hardly be said to be heaving with investment. And, as anybody who has visited can vouch, they are lovely people too. As part of the ten year celebrations,  Teach Solais Fhánada  is giving ten people the opportunity to stay at the lighthouse. I did this a few years ago with members of the family and it was a magical experience. I particularly enjoyed the walk to and from the local pub (...
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