The Irish Lightkeeper's Legacy


No prizes for guessing the trio of lighthouses on the front cover!

As part of the production of the next issue of Lamp, I was blessed with the opportunity to write two reviews for books recently published. I'm not particularly easy about writing reviews because it implies I know what I'm talking about, which is not always the case, and I'm also not happy about criticising people who may have struggled for years to produce their own labour of love. Fortunately neither of the two books warranted criticism.
One of the books is Lighthouses of Wales by Warren Kovach - naff title but a great read, telling the story of lighthouses generally, through examples of the Welsh variety. But that is outside the jurisdiction of this blog.
The other book is The Lightkeeper's Legacy by Martha Power Baxter, the story of her Power ancestors and how they ended up in America.
It would be wrong of me to reproduce my review of the the latter book before Lamp 146 comes out at the end of November. But I would like to heartily recommend the book to anybody who may be considering buying someone a Christmas present. Or, if you're like me, suggesting to someone a present that you might like yourself, particularly if you're notoriously difficult to buy for.
The book chronicles the life of Alex Power, a labourer on the Hook peninsula who, around 1840, became a lightkeeper with the Ballast Board. The story follows his travels around the light stations of Ireland and carries on into the next generation, through his son, John Power. Like all lighthouse families, they had their hardships and tragedies and the children married into other lightkeeping families, like the McKennas and the Reillys. As such it is very much a universal template for lightkeepers during the Ballast Board era. I can't think of another book that describes the keepers' lot in Ireland during this period.


The book is incredibly well-researched and very, very readable and is dedicated to Frank Pelly for all his help and advice. Frank, the archivist at the Baily for many years, died earlier this year, much to Martha's devastation.
The Irish Lightkeepers' Legacy is published by Whittles Publishing, now an imprint of Porto Press, and is, I see, widely available in Easons, Dubray, World of Books, Amazon etc. My advice would be to shop around, as there is a difference in the price!
 

Martha Power Baxter

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