Peadar Kearney and the Tory Island lighthouse

 

Tory Island lighthouse c.1905 (CIL)

(Apologies for the formatting of this post. A number of features of Blogger have decided not to work. I hope its only temporary)

Soldiers are we, whose lives are pledged to Ireland,
Some have come from a land beyond the wave. 
Sworn to be free, no more our ancient sireland,
Shall shelter the despot or the slave.
Tonight we man the bearna bhaoil,
In Erin's cause, come woe or weal,
'Mid cannons' roar and rifles' peal,
We'll chant a soldier's song.

The lines above are the chorus of a song, the words of which were written by Peadar Kearney 

in or around 1909. 

Peadar (1883-1942) had quite the life, playing truant from school in Dublin, then getting a job 

in a bicycle repair shop and eventually gaining an apprenticeship with a house painter.

Politically, he joined the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. With lifelong 

friend and neighbour, Patrick Heaney (or Heeney), he wrote the lyrics to many of Heaney's tunes. 

Peadar taught Irish in night classes and helped to found the Irish Volunteers in 1913, took part 

 in the Howth Gun Running in 1914 and fought at Jacob's Biscuit Factory. Active in the War of 

Independence and the Civil War, he gave up politics after Michael Collins' death, andreverted back to his main trade as a house painter.

The Soldier's Song, above, was a favourite with the nationalists and was often sung while the 

Volunteers were out marching. Around 1923, the lyrics were translated into Irish and, three years 

later, the song, now called Amhrán na bhFiann, became the Irish National Anthem.

All very interesting, I would hear you cry if my hearing was not pretty abysmal, but what has this got to do with Irish lighthouses?

Well, apparently, in 1907, Peadar spent seven months on Tory Island, co Donegal, in order to learn the nuances of the Irish language, as spoken there. It was a Gaelic hotspot with the scholar and musician Séamus 'ac a' Bháird (Jimmy Ward) holding court with the likes of Roger Casement visiting. Séamus had been born on Oyster Island in Sligo Bay (his father was the lighthouse keeper there) and he had lived on Eagle Island too. But that's too incidental to be the lighthouse connection.

                 Tory Ireland lighthouse (photo the State Library of South Australia)

Peadar of course, 24 years old, did not have the financial luxury to take a break from life for seven months. He had to earn his keep. So, when he saw an Irish Lights advertisement looking for a painter to go up to Tory and paint the lighthouse there, and him a qualified house painter, he was in like Flynn. Presumably, he had a buddy, because lighthouse painters always worked in pairs. The lighthouse at the time was black, the lantern white and all the outbuildings and houses white too. As much as there was to do, it was quite impressive that he managed to stretch it out to seven months.

As a footnote, Peadar's sister, Kathleen, married Stephen Behan. He was therefore the uncle of playwright Brendan Behan, probably the most infamous lighthouse painter of them all. Behan, who was in jail in 1942, was refused leave to attend his uncle's funeral.

Peadar Kearney in 1912, five years after giving the Tory Island station a lick of paint