Pete's Irish Lighthouses

Bobby Ball Sir Robert Ball was the scientific advisor to Irish Lights from his appointment in 1882 until the early years of the 20th century and was practically omnipresent during Irish Lights' annual inspection cruises during that time. From 1903, he took a photographic record of these tours, which are now viewable online on the National Library of Ireland website. Several albums of panoramic photos are also included, Sir Robert probably being one of the first exponents of the art. Personally, I think they're no great shakes - mainly distant islands with a tower on them - but for the time, they were probably highly regaled. He was an all-round scientist, a famed astronomer, and was probably very useful to Irish Lights through his expertise in everything scientific. His 1876 treatise, The Theory of Screws, I have yet to read but its on my bucket list. Towards the end of his life (he died in 1913 aged 73) he jotted down some reminiscences of his life, including his Irish Lights...

£3 per year for not having a garden at Balbriggan I recently came across this 53-page booklet which, it says in the introduction, completely nullifies the 1930 handbook. Obviously I'm not going to copy the 53 pages here but maybe I'll simply reproduce the section about pay and how rich those guardiands of our coastlines were 91 years ago. Incidentally, if anybody would like a pdf copy of the booklet, just drop an email to gouldingpeter@gmail.com and I'll send it out as soon as possible. Rubber knee boots and dungarees allowed at Straw Island £36 per year to provide an AK at Youghal £12 10s per year for each kid boarding away from home

Donaghadee really is the lighthouse that keeps on giving. The beautifully photogenic lighthouse at the end of the pier was constructed in 1836 and has very much become a symbol of the town. I was delighted to find mentions also of two other lighthouses in Donaghadee, one dating back to 1640, the other to the mid-1770s. This latter edifice was 'a small wooden tower lit by tallow candles.' If I were a real historian, I'd spend six months trawling through indecipherable ledgers in the National Library to confirm their existence but I have a real job, and grandchildren. I wrote about the two ancient lighthouses here and it was noticeable that, whereas there were reasonably accurate dates for their establishment, there was no mention of their demise. Two months? Sixty years? It was therefore of some interest when I was looking something up on PRONI (the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland) online recently and found a letter dated September 1791 from one James Arbuckle, a ...