Great Lighthouses of Ireland.

NUTLEY BOY

I see that a series with above title starting on RTE 1 television starts on Sunday 30.9.2018 @ 18:30.

I think it is a 4 part series.

I don't know if it is a history programme or if it is technical or both !

Might be of interest.

Atlantic Dawn

Will be interesting to see the internal living space of the lighthouses, particularly those in really remote offshore areas.

islanderre

Excellent so far I think..... some great footage most likely from drones.

Cool to see some footage of the Arklow ship in heavy seas.

jasper100

Interesting stuff.

What is happening with eagle rock, looks like the light has been removed?

I guess they will all be decommissioned in years to come.

You would wonder is there a tourism product there for storm chasers to be helicoptered out to somewhere like Fastnet or Eagle rock to experience a severe storm where you are completely blasted by the storm.

HeidiHeidi

Just watched the first one tonight.


Spectacular photography, and really interesting hearing the former keepers talking about the life. A neighour of ours in Donegal was one of the last keepers of the Bailey light (or maybe it was his last station) - I'm only sorry I never got talking to him properly about it before he died.



But I wish they'd name or caption the lighthouses they're showing! I recognise some, but there are ones I've never seen and I'd love to know where they are.


The book "A History of the Fastnet Lighthouse" by James Morrissey is a great read, a really fascinating story.

Dial Hard

Oh I must tell my dad about this, he worked for Irish Lights in the dim & distant past and did a stint on many an Irish lighthouse.

L1011

jasper100 wrote: »

Interesting stuff.

What is happening with eagle rock, looks like the light has been removed?

I guess they will all be decommissioned in years to come.

You would wonder is there a tourism product there for storm chasers to be helicoptered out to somewhere like Fastnet or Eagle rock to experience a severe storm where you are completely blasted by the storm.

LED unit on Eagle Rock is so small it doesn't need the old head I believe

Tabnabs

A challenging lighthouse redevelopment project has been completed on one of the most testing sites on the Irish Atlantic coast. The Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL) has completed a re-construction and modernisation project at Eagle Island Lighthouse in Co. Mayo – a landmark lighthouse safeguarding Ireland's north-westcoast. The new light is being commissioned today.

This demanding project on Eagle Island consisted of the replacement of the entire upper part of the lighthousestructure using a helicopter. This is one of the mostchallenging construction projects undertaken by CIL in recent years.

Captain Robert McCabe, Director of the Operations and Navigation Services with CIL stated "Eagle Island lighthouse stands 220 feet above the Atlantic ocean, yetover the years waves from winter storms have damaged buildings and equipment in the walled lighthouse compound. Eagle Island lighthouse must provide a reliable and effective aid to navigation in extreme conditions because it is, at these times, when marinersmost require CIL aids. The new light on Eagle Island will provide a high quality, highly reliable 18 mile LED light and, for the first time, an automatic identification system. The solar battery system will remove the requirement for diesel generation with consequent environmental benefits and maintenance savings."

The Commissioners of Irish Lights (CIL) is actively involved in consolidating its coastal infrastructure which is the latest chapter in technology change that CIL is currently implementing; first came automation, then solarisation and now consolidation. The overriding purpose of consolidation is to provide a low-maintenance, low-energy, and low-cost Aids to Navigation service around the Irish Coast.

Eagle Island's unique location saw the establishment oftwo lighthouses on the island, both completed in 1835.Because of its close proximity to the continental shelfEagle Island experiences unusually large waves and over the years the lanterns have regularly been damaged by waves and water-borne rocks.

Due to these ferocious conditions, a huge storm wall was constructed surrounding the lighthouses. This wall was destroyed by the sea, reinforced and eventually abandoned after a particularly large storm in 1894 when it was decided to abandon the lower lighthouse.

The lighthouse keepers were withdrawn with the automation of the current lighthouse in 1988.

After almost 200 years of guiding mariners to safety, the lantern room and domed roof of the lighthouse tower had reached the end of their working life. The old lighthouse dome, the lantern room, the large glass lens and the bath of mercury in which the lens rotated were all removed. They were replaced with a stainless steel structuredesigned by CIL to withstand the aggressive and relentless marine environment.

This structure was manufactured by Shortt Stainless Steel in Limerick which incorporates a new roof, a guarded access platform and light pedestals. The roof also supports new waterproof and weather resistant flashing LED (light emitting diode) lights.

A temporary works system was also designed to access the previous dome for demolition works. This platformincorporated the means to manhandle heavy equipmentand the helicopter deck on which to land the new dome.Constructing all of this on top of the lighthouse tower was extremely challenging.

Commenting on the success of this unique construction challenge, Captain Robert McCabe of CIL stated "The CIL team who delivered this complex project have demonstrated exceptional engineering, planning and construction skills and made a positive contribution to safety at sea and the marine environment."

https://afloat.ie/port-news/lighthouses/item/23849-replacement-of-crucial-eagle-island-atlantic-lighthouse-by-helicopter-lift

DOCARCH

Good episode last night on the design and building of lighthouses, inlcluding the Kish....

....which I sailed round recently.



Really well maintained!

HeidiHeidi

Bah, this obviously isn't in the sky planner as a series :mad:


Anyone know if it's repeated during the week?

Tim the Enchanter

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Bah, this obviously isn't in the sky planner as a series :mad:


Anyone know if it's repeated during the week?

Its repeated at half seven Thursday evening.

neris

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Bah, this obviously isn't in the sky planner as a series :mad:


Anyone know if it's repeated during the week?

On the rte player to (if you can get through the 2 minutes of ads before and during)


Havent been around the kish in years but remember going round it before and the smell of bird crap was awful

Atlantic Dawn

Just caught up watching them, very interesting episode last week about the building of The Kish, I never knew it was all built ashore and floated out and sunk, great engineering for us back then in the 60's.

https://www.irishlights.ie/tourism/our-lighthouses/kish-bank.aspx

HeidiHeidi

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

But I wish they'd name or caption the lighthouses they're showing! I recognise some, but there are ones I've never seen and I'd love to know where they are.

Delighted to see they're doing this in tonight's show!

AndyBoBandy

DOCARCH wrote: »

Good episode last night on the design and building of lighthouses, inlcluding the Kish....

....which I sailed round recently.

Really well maintained!

I always remember doing the annual Kish race out of Poolbeg when it was still manned. The keepers would always come out and wave at the boats going around.

Just watched the final episode and loved every bit of the series. Fair dues to RTE, they do really good documentaries.

HeidiHeidi

inthehat wrote: »

Just watched the final episode and loved every bit of the series. Fair dues to RTE, they do really good documentaries.

Agreed, that was a fascinating series.

islanderre

Drone shots of the Lighthouses was amazing. The Fastnet lighthouse really is a miracle of Engineering.
Delighted they also spent a few minutes on the Granuaile ship.... had thought they would skip over it despite it been a key part Irish lights....

Great overall and the Narrator was great too.

AndyBoBandy

inthehat wrote: »

Just watched the final episode and loved every bit of the series. Fair dues to RTE, they do really good documentaries.

And ironicly the series was made by Lighthouse productions (not RTÉ).

NUTLEY BOY

Sorry the series is over. Enjoyed it. A proper job and fine example of how well documentaries can be done.

BTW does anyone know where the dry dock was ?

Mefistofelino

NUTLEY BOY wrote: »

Sorry the series is over. Enjoyed it. A proper job and fine example of how well documentaries can be done.

BTW does anyone know where the dry dock was ?

Cork Dockyard (the old Verolme dockyard in Rushbrooke, Cobh)

Plumbthedepths

Great programmes and the seascape is magnificent in some of the shots. I would like to have seen more interior shots of the lighthouses particularly Fastnet. The attention to detail eventhough it would have a limited audience was incredible, mosaic floors and curved brass.

Stovepipe

Some parts of the last episode came across as a glorified ad for the Commissioner of Irish lights; the stuff about the ship was interesting enough in it's own right but not strictly about lighthouses, was it? I mean, they didn't follow the helicopter into the hangar to watch it being overhauled. It smelled of a campaign to justify itself, ie, big up the CIL, in case anyone wants to cut funding. The old footage taken by the former Commissioner was lovely; he had a real eye for it. over all, a good show.

beauf

I would like to have seen more about the service. Like the ports TV show or the Customs one.

NUTLEY BOY

Stovepipe wrote: »

Some parts of the last episode came across as a glorified ad for the Commissioner of Irish lights; the stuff about the ship was interesting enough in it's own right but not strictly about lighthouses, was it? I mean, they didn't follow the helicopter into the hangar to watch it being overhauled. It smelled of a campaign to justify itself, ie, big up the CIL, in case anyone wants to cut funding. The old footage taken by the former Commissioner was lovely; he had a real eye for it. over all, a good show.

I suspect their view is probably that lighthouse tenders are still an integral part of the overall service.

L1011

The show was done in cooperation with CIL who would definitely have legitimate concerns over funding with brexit due to their cross-border setup. We have funded the ROI operations entirely for a few years now - previously they were part-funded by the UK on the basis that many ships entering UK ports relied on ROI lights and navaids - but they still fund the NI lights. There is some shared tendering and purchasing with the two GB/IOM lighthouse bodies still.

Nominally I believe its still officially "owned" by HM Government also, so there could be significant changes in operations and ownership that some good PR could only benefit. Although it is now a registered charity and charities don't have "owners" as such.

Stovepipe

Calling it a charity is probably an act of accounting and political convenience, rather like the RNLI. There is probably no good reason why we don't have an INLI, except for the presence of the North. Depending on volunteers to save lives instead of full time staff is a cop out.

neris

Stovepipe wrote: »

Calling it a charity is probably an act of accounting and political convenience, rather like the RNLI. There is probably no good reason why we don't have an INLI, except for the presence of the North. Depending on volunteers to save lives instead of full time staff is a cop out.

Its easier to let the Brits fund and run the RNLI here with a bit of pocket change thrown at them from the dept of the marine every year. Beyond the boats and stations the RNLI have some in house set up down in Poole where crews are trained, boats designed and the logistics, spares & gear for all the stations are sent out of. It would take to long and be to costly to try set up a similar Irish lifeboat. Sure alot the yellow packs (coast guard) are volunteers aswell with a heightened sense of their own importance

tricky D

Stovepipe wrote: »

Calling it a charity is probably an act of accounting and political convenience, rather like the RNLI. There is probably no good reason why we don't have an INLI, except for the presence of the North. Depending on volunteers to save lives instead of full time staff is a cop out.

We don't have an INLI atm for the simple reason that our funding is nowhere as high as UK-based funding so we need to get a large subsidy from the UK to cover the significant shortfall.


Having full-time staff would just result in them doing a helluva a lot of sitting around, waiting. Only very busy stations like Tower can justify full-time due to their number of shouts.

View Profile

Is the series viewable on any platform other than RTE player? I can't stand the low res quality of player.

AndyBoBandy

View Profile wrote: »

Is the series viewable on any platform other than RTE player? I can't stand the low res quality of player.

Only other option would be the RTÉ player on Sky. It allows you to download in HD

L1011

Stovepipe wrote: »

Calling it a charity is probably an act of accounting and political convenience, rather like the RNLI. There is probably no good reason why we don't have an INLI, except for the presence of the North. Depending on volunteers to save lives instead of full time staff is a cop out.

The RNLI do rather a lot more than just provide the staffing. They even build the lifeboats themselves after the first few of each class.

We don't have the scale to provide the back office elements on our own.

I'm not sure if we are actually subsidised by the UK - plenty of donors and members here as well as the small state contribution - but the advantage of being part of a larger body in reducing cost is critical. Could just check the accounts, which I'm sure I've even got a copy of as a member!

neris

L1011 wrote: »

The RNLI do rather a lot more than just provide the staffing. They even build the lifeboats themselves after the first few of each class.

We don't have the scale to provide the back office elements on our own.

I'm not sure if we are actually subsidised by the UK - plenty of donors and members here as well as the small state contribution - but the advantage of being part of a larger body in reducing cost is critical. Could just check the accounts, which I'm sure I've even got a copy of as a member!

we are subsidised in part by them and in the past they have run media driven fundraising from the UK alongside the same happening in UK. The back office stuff in the uk goes beyond just sending funds over here

Stovepipe

I have a friend who is quite high up in the RNLI. Her experience of meeting the RNLI staff at Poole is that while the crews are sound and totally embrace the two-nation spirit of the RNLI, others, especially the further up the foodchain you go, would happily cast Ireland aside if given the chance. The opinion that Ireland is some bastard stepchild hanging onto British coattails, as a legacy of Empire, is not uncommon. A particular point is the naming and classification of boats, which has long been a bone of contention with the Irish stations.

neris

Stovepipe wrote: »

I have a friend who is quite high up in the RNLI. Her experience of meeting the RNLI staff at Poole is that while the crews are sound and totally embrace the two-nation spirit of the RNLI, others, especially the further up the foodchain you go, would happily cast Ireland aside if given the chance. The opinion that Ireland is some bastard stepchild hanging onto British coattails, as a legacy of Empire, is not uncommon. A particular point is the naming and classification of boats, which has long been a bone of contention with the Irish stations.

alot of the higher ups in the UK are ex royal navy (or were). very fond of their red trousers to.

AndyBoBandy

I'm sure they'll have no issue with the €6,000,000 that was just left to them by an Irish lady who passed away recently, and it's distribution around the organisation.

JDERIC2017

Is it possible to see kish from Howth with Binoculars?

DOCARCH wrote: »

Good episode last night on the design and building of lighthouses, inlcluding the Kish....

....which I sailed round recently.



Really well maintained!

HeidiHeidi

JDERIC2017 wrote: »

Is it possible to see kish from Howth with Binoculars?

You'll easily see it with the naked eye on a normal day from the top of Howth Head, or somewhere on the east/south side of the head. It's roughly 6.5 miles away.



If you mean from Howth village/harbour, then no - they face north, and the headland is in the way.

JDERIC2017

Great thanks, 18 lighthouses seen lots more in Ireland to see.

AndyBoBandy

JDERIC2017 wrote: »

Is it possible to see kish from Howth with Binoculars?

You can see it from any coastline in Dublin with a line of sight view towards it, and on a clear day.

I live in Rush and can see it from my attic window (15 nautical miles away).

dogmatix

Years ago (during my failed attempt at becoming a radio officer), you could tune in to the kish lighthouse radio beacon with a marconi radio direction-finder - it transmitted a morse signal K-S-H (see link for pic of equipment). Although any short wave radio could pick it up. I think the radio beacon is now discontinued.

Said marconi equipment was also handy for listening in to car phone conversations of the well-heeled as they drove up and down the appian way! This being back in the day when car phones where analogue, not digital.

http://jproc.ca/britishmarconi/758e.html

JDERIC2017

Could see better through binoculars but another one off the list

Charlie-Bravo

https://www.heritageweek.ie/whats-on/event/open-day-at-wicklow-lighthouse

Open day at Wicklow Lighthouse 25th Aug 2019 from 10am-4pm if anyone is interested.

JDERIC2017

astrofluff wrote: »

https://www.heritageweek.ie/whats-on/event/open-day-at-wicklow-lighthouse

Open day at Wicklow Lighthouse 25th Aug 2019 from 10am-4pm if anyone is interested.

wow. thanks for sharing

JDERIC2017

Had a lovely visit to Wicklow Lighthouse yesterday. gorgeous sunny day.
Got to get inside and have a good look around, lots of people there.... might look into staying there, not cheap though!