WITH the completion of the automation programme, thee keepers have been organising their departure from the Baily Lighthouse on the tip of Howth. They are the last representatives in Ireland of a vocation that goes back many centuries, warning mariners in rough seas and stormy weather of treacherous rocks around our coasts.
The first of their number was a monk from Wales.
St Dubhan came to Ireland in the 5th century to establish a monastic community on Hook Head in Co Wexford. The settlement was surrounded by treacherous seas and frequently buffeted by gales and high winds, so that shipwrecks were a common sight as vessels seeking shelter in Waterford Harbour were dashed at night against the rocky headlands.
Dubhan erected a mast on the edge of the cliff, and in a basket suspended from it he lit a fire to warn sailors of the danger he maintained the fire day and night throughout his life. After Dubhan died, his monks continued the practice for 600 years.
Priestly involvement in such facilities, however, was not unusual. The very first light houses are believed to have been built by the early Egyptians along the banks of the river Nile.
The towers were painted in brilliant colours to make them clearly visible by day, and the fires were contained in braziers of bronze or iron, suspended from a pole near the apex of the tower.
But these towers were also temples, each dedicated to a particular deity, and the keeper priests taught astronomy, map making and the navigational arts to budding seamen.
The oldest beacon intended solely for sea faring purposes is believed to be that built at Sigeum at the entrance to the Hellespont around 740 BC. But the most famous was undoubtedly that commissioned by Ptolemy Philadelphus in the third century BC on the island of Pharos near Alexandria.
It was a massive structure of white stone 450 ft high, visible from a distance of over 40 miles, and listed among the Seven Wonders of the World.
During the 16th and 17th centuries the building of lighthouses around the coasts of Britain and Ireland under licence from the Crown became a lucrative source of income for many individuals who were allowed to extract exorbitant dues from passing ships.
Early in the 19th century, however, responsibility for the provision of such facilities, and their operation, was vested in Trinity House in London. There followed the golden age of lighthouse building, epitomised in Britain by the prolific designs and structures of Robert and Thomas Stevenson, and by those of George Halpin here in Ireland.