Pete's Irish Lighthouses

I always thought this building looked very angry when viewed from certain angles, as if practising for when Napoleon's army/navy hove around Achill, hoping to make land in the calm waters of Blacksod Bay. It is of course one of the 82 Napoleonic signal towers erected around the south-east, south, west and north coasts of Ireland after the French landed at Bantry Bay and at Kilcummin near Killala, county Mayo in 1798. The northeast of Ireland obviously didn't really matter much. Or maybe the money ran out.  The towers were built within sight of each other so that each tower could signal with a flag and ball to the next one. Fires would be lit in case His Emperorship was sighted. Badly paid members of the militia were detailed to man the towers and keep their eagle eyes out to sea. Of course, these places were, as was their nature, completely remote and located at the top of a long steep hill. It is said that, after a week or so, the badly-paid militiamen said, Sod this for a gam...

  Back in December 1969, a new publication hit the streets, or rather, the rocks, with the appearance of Vol 1, Issue 1 of Beam , the journal of the Irish Lighthouse Service. It was B5 in size (182 x 257mms), had 34 pages and, unlike the glossy A4 magazine it morphed into in later years, the only splash of colour was the blue sea on the cover, which featured a generic lightvessel lying offshore from a generic lighthouse, a scene which I'm sure was rare enough in reality. Prior to Beam, Irish Lights had published an occasional newsletter, most of which have never surfaced again but the new journal marked the start of what would become a great source of research for future pharologists, as well as a cracking read for all branches of the service, from lightkeepers, to office staff and light tenders, coastal tradesmen, depot staff and technical staff. There are doubtless complete sets of Beam lying in attics around the country which could easily be digitised and made available to the p...

  Hooker approaching Spiddal Pier (photo by Major Ruttledge c. 1892 National Library of Ireland) Among the glittering pantheon of Irish lighthouse builders, with star-spangled names such as Burgh, Rogers, Halpin, Halpin junior, Sloane and Douglass, it is very possible that the name Patrick O'Donnell doesn't rank very highly among the lighthouse cogniscenti. Very possibly, it doesn't rank very highly in his own family but this master builder, determined to light the seas for confused navigators on the north shore of Galway Bay, deserves belated recognition. It is unknown when Derrynea native, Patrick, first took an interest in marine navigation. A tenant farmer, he was in his early sixties when his innate yearning transferred to a more physical demonstration of the pharological art. Unfortunately for the world of Irish architecture, it was a short-lived and controversial foray into the field. The story began on 8th December 1916 at around 8.30pm, according to the court repor...

  The Old Head of Kinsale (photo from Afloat) On 7th May 1915, the Lusitania was nearing the end of her 202nd transatlantic voyage and was passing the Old Head of Kinsale  en route from New York to Liverpool. It is said that many people picknicking on the grassy slopes next to the lighthouse watched her pass (this was long before the golf club restricted access) although why there should be picknickers there on a Friday afternoon is unclear. Suddenly the air was rent by an explosion from a torpedo fired by a German U-Boat, followed by a second explosion within the ship. It is said the ship sank in 18 minutes, watched by the crowd on the Old Head. Of the 1,960 people on board, 1,197 lost their lives, primarily because all but a few lifeboats had been disabled in the two explosions. Very shortly thereafter, the bodies began to wash up on the south coast of Ireland. Mass graves were dug, the victims photographed and buried. After a time, some more bodies drifted around to the wes...

  Idly waiting in the off-licence in Lidl yesterday for my wife to make up her mind between the Riesling and the Sauvignon Blanc, my bored eye suddenly fell on a picture of a familiar lighthouse. Sure enough, on closer inspection, it turned out to be Fanad lighthouse on the label with a bottle of Kinnegar beer sitting on the Limeburner Buoy off the coast. Fair play to Kinnegar for featuring this and other local landmarks on their advertising and fair play to them for getting into Lidl. Probably won't be long now before they're taken over by Diageo or Carlsberg, which seems to be the fate of many small, local breweries. It did strike me as rather odd that a lighthouse, which was always strictly dry, with no alcohol permitted, should be used to promote an alcoholic beverage. Not that they were ever completely dry, of course. Just officially so. Did I buy one? No, I am a boring old fart and only drink draught Guinness. At home, sitting out in nice weather, with my legs in tractio...

Another of Ireland's under-the-radar lighthouses, Ardnakinna lighthouse on Bere Island Joy Tubby's recent fascinating journal of her lighthouse odyssey of the south and southwest coasts of Ireland (published in Lamp 138-140) mentioned Ardnakinna lighthouse on the western tip of Bere Island in Bantry Bay. I last wrote about this largely unknown light  eleven years ago, when I craftily managed to include it in a hike with my brother-in-law. The reason for this lapse was probably because it didn't appear to have had much of a history. It only acquired its light in 1965 and never had a keeper and so, what was there to write about? Joy's article made me take a second look. According to the I rish Lights website ,  a beacon to mark the western entrance to Castletownbere was first recommended in 1847 by the Admiralty. It was agreed to build a beacon tower on the west point of Bere Island (Ardnakinna). Construction took place in 1850 and the beacon was left in the care of a loc...

  Nelson's Pillar looking out over a strangely deserted Sackville Street in 1811 (Wikicommons) From its inception in Dublin's main thoroughfare in 1809, Nelson's Pillar received criticism from the city's inhabitants, criticism that slowly increased as the mood of nationalism and anti-empiricism grew over the next 150 years. To be fair, much of the displeasure centred on the top and bottom of the edifice. The top was decorated by the 13ft (4m) figure of an admiral of the British Navy, sculptured by Alexander Kirk, and the bottom commemorated four naval battles he won - Trafalgar, Copenhagen, St. Helena and the Nile. Tourists could climb the 166 steps for a small fee and gaze from the figure on top to gaze upon the symbol of anti-British resistance - the GPO - a few yards away. And other buildings, of course. Generally, though, the bit between the top and the bottom, received little criticism. Built of black limestone and Wicklow granite, the 120 ft (37m) doric column, la...