Pete's Irish Lighthouses

There is a famous story of the late Irish playwright, Brendan Behan, being sent up to St. John's Point in county Down to paint the lighthouse there. Behan, a staunch Republican, was asked, as his first job, to repaint the lighthouse 'no trespassing' sign, which he did, adding, off his own bat, the words, 'By order of Mr. De Valera.' The lighthouse keeper present was later to write back to Dublin, requesting they get rid of Behan because of his laziness. I am reminded of this by a piece that appeared in the Irish Examiner recently, looking for painters to paint every lighthouse under the control of the Commissioner of Irish Lights. There are 65 of them in all, ranging from the very very large to the very large. This is probably my dream job in terms of access to practically inaccessible islands like Inistearaght and Inistrahull.  I have two problems with applying for the tender, though. The first is that I already have a job, as well as a part-time unpaid ...

Poolbeg Lighthouse stands guard at the entrace to Dublin harbour, built on a remarkably long breakwater that dates back to the 1750s. It is one of the iconic buildings for returning emigrants, approaching their homeland from Holyhead, though admittedly these days, most people opt for Ryanair. I photographed this lighthouse from land in 2007 and from the sea in 2014, yet it occurred to me that I have never given a historical view of Ireland's second most-famous lighthouse In a bid to stop drifting sand from silting up the River Liffey, an ambitious project was begun in the 1740s to construct this breakwater, using first wooden piles and then granite blocks. Slightly further out from the end of the proposed breakwater was a sand bar, which had caused many wrecks. During the construction of the breakwater, a light ship was placed on the bar. I can find no picture of this lightship, save for the very crude representation in the 1750 map above. The lighthouse ...

In Ireland, there are examples of lighthouses bein built on the same site as original lighthouses (Fastnet, Ferris Point, Ardglass etc) There are also many examples of lighthouses being built very close to existing lighthouses, Wicklow Head, Loop Head, Clare Island, to name but three. But, off the top of my head, ( a part of my body diametrically opposite another part that I often speak out of) there have only been two examples in Ireland of lighthouses having been moved from one location to another. This has happened in England and in the US, normally when coastal erosion has threatened a particular lighthouse. The two are Roches Point Lighthouse in county Cork which was taken down in 1838, transported to Wexford and rebuilt as the Duncannon Rear Light . The other one is the North Wall Quay on the northside of the River Liffey in Dublin. The original lighthouse here was built in the early nineteenth century (see previous post ) The rapid development of Dublin as a port was do...

The illustration above comes from the Dublin Penny Journal of 1834 and shows a rather grand lighthouse at the end of the North Wall, near where the Point Depot, or O2 or 3 Arena (depending on your age) is now. Basically, this view is looking across the East Wall Bridge from where the Dodder joins the Liffey (the bridge obviously not yet built!) This was the extent of the north quays in Dublin at the time, before the incredible north bank reclamations and extensions carried out by the legendary Bindon Blood Stoney in the mid 1800s. (Rather confusingly, the current North Bank lighthouse, near Poolbeg, having been built at the end of the Great North Wall, is also sometimes called the North Wall lighthouse. This lighthouse is two miles upriver from that)) There is evidence to suggest that this light was built in 1809, though the lighthouse directory, which is rarely wrong, dates it back to 1820.  To confuse matters, maritime historian John de Courcy Ireland, writing in 1996,...

The light at the end of the Eastern Breakwater at the east side of the Alexandra Basin in Dublin's north port area was demolished in 2004. It consisted of a  square brick tower, which had four storeys with a lantern on top. It also had a fog bell on the side of the wall near the top. The pierhead was demolished to make way for a new pier wall, to take Berth 50a. The lighthouse measured 4.875 meters by 4.875 meters and had a height of 15.3 meters to the apex of the lantern. It was built in 1904 and replaced an earlier lighthouse, smaller, but still probably brick, that dated from the time that the new breakwater was completed in 1884. Now, the good news is that plans are afoot to create a new Industrial Heritage Park at the very eastern extremity of the north Dublin Port. This will be a place the public can come and enjoy with great views up and down the Liffey. The centrepiece of the Park will be an entity called The Marker, which will comprise a pole, an elevated walkway ...