Dail charge against Lighthouse Keepers

 

Difficult to get a photo of a Spanish or French fishing boat passing an Irish lighthouse, so here's the Glor na dTonn at Rotten Island (note the complete absence of brandy)

From the Irish Times 15th June 1962 :-

"A charge that some lighthouse keepers around the Irish coast were accepting presents of brandy from poaching trawlers as a reward for signals about the pending arrival of fishery protection corvettes, was made in the Dail yesterday.

'Mr Leneghan (Independent) said that there was mass poaching by French, Spanish and English trawlers. These gentlemen were usually equipped with large stocks of brandy and our coasts were well equipped with lighthouses, and the men in them were not averse to drinking brandy. If his information was correct, these gentlemen were able to signal to those foreign boats when the corvettes were coming in sight.

'Mr Tully (Lab) - I hope deputy Leneghan can prove that statement himself. If not, he should not have made it in the House where these men cannot reply to it.

'I Ceann Comhairle - I don't think he named anyone.

'Mr Tully - He made the charge against the lighthouse keepers – a decent body of men. It's a very serious charge and, unless the deputy is prepared to prove it, he should withdraw it.

'Mr Leneghan said there were several other people engaged in this illicit traffic in spirits  who helped these marauders. There was no use these corvettes setting out, because the French and Spanish boats knew it beforehand. A proper system of protection should be established whereby those raiders and poachers would suffer.

'An Irish lighthouse keeper last night said that Mr Leneghan's allegations were nonsense. "We see the foreign fishing boats anything up to 12 miles away and well outside the limits, and the only time they come near us is when they are entering or leaving port.

'Anyway, it would be completely impossible for such a thing to go on undetected. The only communication which we have with foreign trawlers is over the radio telephone. We are restricted to one wavelength on this –18.4 metres – and anybody could listen in to the conversations. In fact, many people do listen in: so I don't see how this could go on. The only other wavelength which we can use is the emergency one of 137 metres."

Notes - Joseph Leneghan was a publican and served in the 17th Dail 1961-69 for Mayo North. He also served in the 19th Dail 1969-73 for Fianna Fail.

James Tully was the Labour Party whip.

Two weeks later, PG Adams, Irish Lights' Secretary, issued a statement saying that Mr Leneghan had been contacted to provide evidence for his statement but none had been forthcoming. He also said they had every confidence in the integrity of their lightkeepers.