Raid on Rockabill
The suspected Rockabill distillery. Photo courtesy Richard Cummins To: The Secretary, Irish Lights Office, Dublin 10th September 1931 Sir, I respectfully beg to report ( this is the standard lightkeeper's first phrase of any letter) that, at 5.30am on Tuesday morning the 8th inst., Superintendent O'Halloran (Civic Guard) and 7 policemen in plain clothes landed on Rock with a search warrant signed by District Justice Reddin to search the Premises for Illicit Spirits. ( Random capitalisation of nouns and adjectives was not required but the practice seems to have been widespread.) I informed him there was no such thing on the rock and inquired why he was making the raid. He said he was acting on instructions from Headquarters. They searched every room up stairs and down. Keepers and Painters boxes, drawers and lockers. Every stone on the rock and the Lighthouse was thoroughly searched but nothing incriminating was found. They left the rock at 6.45am and landed on the Bill and se...