Lighthouse keepers recall turbulent seas in new RTÉ documentary

By Lynne Kelleher

Ireland’s lighthouse keepers have revealed how they faced down monster waves and death-defying storms in their roles keeping the coastline safe.

In a remarkable new RTÉ documentary, keepers perched on the most remote outposts in the country tell how they survived being engulfed by waves crashing over their lighthouse towers.

When Ireland’s lighthouses were automated, the role of lighthouse keeper was consigned to history, but a new four-part series shines a light on this dwindling group of unsung veterans.

In Great Lighthouses of Ireland, they reveal the gruelling challenges they endured which included isolation, treacherous conditions, long periods of separation from their wives and children, and a formidable yearly inspection by the Commissioners.

Eagle Island, off the coast of Co Mayo, is more than 220 feet above sea level but in 1986, a vicious storm toppled the station’s radio beacon mast and hurled capping stones weighing nearly a tonne each at the tower.

Former keeper Gerry Sweeney, who was stationed on the west of Ireland station on that night in November 22, 1986, said it was his most frightening experience as a keeper.

“The first thing that happened was the tower was hit by a wave and some stones. We heard the glass breaking when the sea hit and we just looked up and the light was gone.

“There would be an unearthly silence for half a second and then all hell would break loose and the sea would hit the yard and hit the buildings. It was frightening.

“On Eagle Island when the big wave would come you’d hear a rumble from the bottom of the cliff and the sea would come up the cliff over the storm wall and over the building.

“When the sea came over the building you could actually feel the air being compressed in your ears, like flying in an airplane, after a second or maybe half a second there would just be a splash”, he recalled.

Hook Head Lighthouse, features in the RTÉ One documentary, ‘Great Lighthouse of Ireland’ next Sunday. Speaking of his time on Fastnet, Gerry Butler said: ‘Waves were so high they would dwarf the tower and blot out the moon’.

The documentary tells the story of Ireland’s lighthouses and their continuing importance to the country’s survival with spectacular scenes from Hook Head, Skelligs, Blacksod, Galley Head and Ballycotton.

Mr Butler tells how the one storm on Fastnet Lighthouse off the Cork coast was so powerful that water shot up through the kitchen sink and up into the air.

The lighthouse keeper said: “Inside in the lighthouse you would hear the rush of water as the wave is coming straight up over the lighthouse.

“It sounded just like an explosion.

“This massive thing hits the tower, the water, everything gushes right past you, a spurt of water came tearing up through the kitchen sink right up in the air.

“That was the first time I ever experienced a wave so vicious, so high, so powerful.

“Before the next wave would hit the tower, I would open the storm shutter and see the wave rising so high it would just dwarf the tower and blot out the moon. Then it would hit the tower.”

Skelligs Lighthouse, where huge waves were part and parcel of the lighthouse keepers’ roles.

He adopted a stoic attitude in the face of the wild storms that became part and parcel of his role.

“I used to think to myself you are never going to live forever, something is going to happen someday.”

Lighthouse keeper Dick O’Driscoll said there was a particular silence around the wildest storms.“It is all very quiet. There is an eerie feeling of great quietness.”

The black beauty that is Ballycotton Lighthouse in east Cork, much loved in the region.

Great Lighthouses of Ireland will be shown on RTÉ One next Sunday at 6.30pm