Pete's Irish Lighthouses

It would be fair to say that the Stocker line of Irish lightkeepers is one of the longest in the country, dating back to at least 1818 when Edward Stocker was first sent down to the Tuskar. Henry Aquila Stocker was on Tory when the Wasp was wrecked in 1884. Former keepers may remember Stephen and Henry and Lenny Stocker, who were all cut from the same cloth. One of the later Stockers who should really have continued the lightkeeping line was Leonard Vincent Stocker, born at the Baily lighthouse in Dublin on 5th August 1944. He later went on to write a remarkable book called Born on the Edge of White Water, in which he describes his lighthouse life through the eyes of his childhood self. His father was also called Leonard, though Leonard junior was always called Vincent from the day of his birth. In fact he never realised his name wasn't Vincent until much later in life! Leonard retired from Irish Lights in 1958 and Vincent wanted to sign up when he was old enough. Unfortunately, ...

Mine Head lighthouse, county Waterford, Ireland's highest lighthouse. The lantern is 285 feet above sea level Henry Thomas Murphy (Service no 97) was a Donegal man from Falcarragh, born to a coastguard on 15th July 1868. He joined Irish Lights in April 1892 and, after 2 years at the Baily, he was off on his travels. He was in Slyne Head in 1899 and on the Spit Bank in Queenstown (Cobh) in 1901 and 1903. He was made PK in August 1905 and was in Rockabill for the 1911 Census. Shortly thereafter he was in Mine Head and was moved to Haulbowline in December 1916. He was still there in mid-1918 but was back at Queenstown by February 1919. In 1903 he had married Susan Gertrude Crowley, daughter of a shopkeeper from Kilrush in county Clare. According to the 1911 Census, they had three children together before 1911, all of whom died. One Irish Lights record from 1918 indicates that he was married with no children. Keeper's cottage, Mine Head On the night of 14th January 1913, while Henr...

  Mackerel fishermen at Helvick Harbour c. 1960 (Photograph from the Capuchin archives) I know very little about Helvick harbour. In fact, I'm not even sure it is spelled with a 'k' or not, though I recognise the 'vik' part of being of Norse descent. Nor have I ever visited, although I must have skirted past it while driving from Ballinacourty lighthouse to Mine Head. In all photos I have seen, it looks absolutely stunning and is definitely a place where I would like to spend a bit of time, if only the Airbnb prices would come down a bit. It is located across Dungarvan Bay from the aforementioned Ballinacourty lighthouse and seems to be well sheltered, with a north facing aspect. For older people like myself, the name is probably associated with a gun-running incident in 1973. I think it was on the Waterford Maritime History Facebook page that I came across the photograph above. A lot of the comments were focussed on the identity of the four gentlemen centre stage b...

Photo Andrew Doherty Harbour lights, in general, get much less coverage than the CIL lighthouses, probably because they employ awful PR consultants, who simply take the money but don't produce the gigs. Yet they each deserve to be recorded in the annals of maritime navigational history before the inevitable happens and they are replaced by rectangles on sticks. The Guide Bank light is situated on the approach to Waterford port on the very eastern point of Little Island. Here, the river Suir rejoins itself after splitting in two to circumvent the island. The northern channel - known as the Queen's Channel - is the normal route as it is straighter and simpler, though smaller craft can negotiate the longer King's Channel. Prior to 1818, the Queen's Channel was often shallow enough for Kilkenny people to cross from the northern shore, a state of affairs that the Waterford people could not tolerate for long. E-Oceanic chart The Guide Bank light is located at the end of a 700...

  The above photograph was sent to me by Andrew Doherty, of Waterford Harbour Tides and Tales fame, and evoked a very strange sense of Deja-vu in me. I probably haven't thought about it in over 55 years but when I was very small, there was an object very like it in our house. I think it was black and the top unscrewed and then one of the adults did something and there was a smell of paraffin and the top was screwed on again and we had a light. Why we had it, I don't know, nor what became of it. As I said, I've never thought about it until now. The lamp and the plaque above are on the wall of the sailing club in Dungarvan. As it says, it was exhibited at Wyse Point, one of two white leading lights there. From the British Islands Pilot Guide 1917 , it seems that these fixed lights led ships through the channel from the Pool. Then two fixed red lights led up to the green light on the bridge at Dungarvan. I'm hopeful this will mean something to somebody. Lamplighters were ...

Dunmore East lighthouse 2014 For some strange reason that I haven't been able to fathom, my Google Newsfeed, when not telling me there's going to be some melodramatic weather ahead, keeps slipping in lighthouse articles. The World's most iconic lighthouses; Sierra Leone's most remote lighthouses; Milton Keynes' oldest lighthouses, that sort of thing. A recent one was "Ireland's prettiest lighthouses." Now I'm well aware of the saying about beauty and eyes and beholders but Poolbeg pretty? It's iconic, for sure, but pretty? I always found it rather squat and dumpy. Blackhead, county Antrim? Yes, its nice enough, but nothing to make it stand out in the prettiness stakes. The article contained most of the so-called Great Lighthouses of Ireland, most of which are pretty due to their location, rather than any prettiness in themselves. Ones that stand out for me are Donaghadee in county Down, Beeves Rock on the Shannon, Little Samphire Island in coun...