Pete's Irish Lighthouses

Again I am indebted to Barry Pickup for drawing my attention to this tragedy. Barry, who spent his early years in Blackrock co. Louth, is also responsible for the photograph above, situated, in Barry's own words, "at Soldiers' Point (Dundalk) with the Cooley Peninsula and Bellurgan in the background -  a very scenic location, which is more than can be said for the eastern side of the ship channel." Normally, when we think of lighthouse tragedies, we normally think of the construction workers working under difficult conditions or lighthouse keepers and assistants succumbing to the wrath of the elements. This double tragedy, which happened back in 1936, falls into neither category but harks back to a time when the lights in Dundalk Bay - and the Foyle, the Boyne etc - had to be manually lit every evening. In my innocence, I had always thought this was the job of the lighthouse keeper. The following story, which appeared in the Argus on the 70th anniversary of the...

One of the many lights I have yet to photograph, Straw Island is located at the southerly end of Inish Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands. I'm sure I must have passed this light many years ago on the boat from Rossaveal in the days before my interest in these edifices was whetted, in the days when you were very careful what you photographed because so many of them didn't come out! Anyhow, this one is still on my To Do list. The reason I mention it is that it recently fell victim, albeit temporarily, to the heavy winds that ravaged Ireland at the end of the month. CIL has a good piece on it at http://www.cil.ie/who-we-are/news/straw-island-storm-damage.aspx . The thing that I found fascinating was the fact that the alarm raised on the far side of the British Isles in Harwich!

The last time I was up in the Dundalk area  in 2011, I bemoaned the fact that I thought I ought to have been able to see Blackrock Pile Light from the sea front, yet when I got there, there was no sign of it. (I managed to get instead a hazy photo from down along the Cooley peninsula) I received a very nice email today from Barry Pickup, along with the fantastic photo above.  Barry says, " I spent my early years up to age seven in a seafront house at Blackrock, Co Louth, and I was often lulled to sleep by its  flashing red light and the sound of the tide. I saw your comment about how difficult it is to see the structure from Blackrock - you must have been there on a hazy day as it is  visible on a clear day.   I took the attached picture of it from aboard the SS Waverley paddle steamer many years ago ( I forget the date!) which operated Dublin North Wall - Dundalk Harbour & return."  Built in 1855 by the blind Belfast engineer Alexander Mi...