The Kish Lighthouse

The Kish Lighthouse

You cannot always see it but you know it’s there, helping sailors navigate the tricky waters of Dublin Bay. It’s seven miles from the coast, a dot on the horizon when visible, but the Kish Lighthouse plays an important role and has done so in one form or another. The name kish means to trap or snare and many a ship was lost due to the shifting sand bank.

The treacherous waters just beyond Dublin Bay have been the cause of many ships demise, and in August 1810, the Corporation for Improving the Port of Dublin, later known as the Commissioners of Irish Lights, decided to install a floating light on the Kish Bank. The following year they purchased the Galliot Veronia Gesina (103 tons), fitted it out and hired a crew to operate and maintain a floating light. The light was first operational on 16th November 1811. A gong was sounded off in time of foggy weather, and an 18-pounder gun was fired when the Holyhead Packet was passing.

In 1842 the Corporation tried to build a permanent at the site  but the piles were destroyed in a sever gale and the project was cancelled.

In 1960, the Commissioners decided to erect a platform style lighthouse, similar to those used in offshore oil rigs. A competition was held and the design submitted Christiani & Nielsen Ltd, was eventually selected. This design, for a  concrete lighthouse, was designed to last for at least 75 years.

Work began in 1963 and the lighthouse was towed from Dun Laoghaire marina to the Kish Bank on 29^th June 1965. It is 100 feet high and surmounted by a 32 feet diameter helicopter landing platform. On 9 November 1965 the Kish Lightvessel was withdrawn and replaced by the new lighthouse whose equipment includes a catoptric lantern giving a two million candlepower beam. On 7 April 1992 the lighthouse was converted to automatic operation and the Keepers were withdrawn from the station.

Dublin’s Georgian Squares – Northside

It is often said that parks are ‘the lungs of cities’ and Dublin has plenty of them, particularly its Georgian Squares. The five squares were laid out from the late 1700s with Rutland Square (now Parnell Square) and Mountjoy Square being laid out on the Northside of the city. Such squares were developed to improve the image of the city by linking new wide street with elegant, appealing squares.

Parnell Square was the first the Georgian squares where Bartholomew Mosse opened the lying-In Hospital in 1757 which was designed by the renowned architect Richard Cassells. Mosse also developed the gardens, which were laid out by Robert Stevenson, and used to raise funds for the hospital. The Rotunda and Gate Theatre were added later and helped the fund raising.

The Gate Theatre

The popularity of the gardens was significant in getting property developers to complete other three-sides of the square with beautiful houses with fantastic interiors. Oliver St John Gogarty, doctor, writer, politician was born in No. 5 and the wonderful The Hugh Lane Gallery sits imposingly at the top of the square.

Oliver St John Gogarty

A short distance away is Mountjoy Square which was developed by Luke Gardiner, 1^st Viscount from the 1790s and completed in 1818. At that time is the most desirable address in the city with such luminaries as Arthur Guinness, and the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin. Down the years other famous folk who lived on the square were Sean O’Casey who set his Dublin Trilogy of plays mostly set in in Georgian Dublin, with the square featuring. Similarly, James Joyce, who lived nearby, mentions the square in his books Dubliners, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

Many of the original paving stones can still be seen on the square, and in 2005 architecture critic Christine Casey claimed that the ‘Neoclassical plasterwork is finer even that that found in the contemporary terraces on the south side of Merrion Square’. And it is a ‘square’ with each side measuring 140 metres!

Kathleen Lynn

Kathleen Lynn, born 28 January 1874 in Mullafarry, Co. Mayo, was the second of three daughters and one son of Robert Lynn, Church of Ireland clergyman, and Catherine Lynn of Drumcliffe, Co. Sligo.

Kathleen Lynn

Although she had a privileged childhood she was exposed to poverty and disputes over land in her native county, which informed her political outlook in later years. She attended Alexandra College, graduated in 1899 before taking-up postgraduate work in America. Ten years later she became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

She worked in both Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital and the Rotunda Lying-In Hospital before taking up the post of clinical assistant at the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital, where she was, notably, the first female resident doctor.

Work in the soup kitchens during the 1913 lock-out brought a sharper focus to her politics and she joined the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) and later instructed members of Cumann na mBan in first-aid techniques. During the Easter Rising she was the chief medical officer of the ICA and helped combatants from her post at City Hall. She spent time in Kilmainham prison before being sent to England where she worked with a doctor in Bath. She returned to Ireland later that summer and soon had re-established her medical practice at 9 Belgrave Road, Rathmines.

However, Kathleen Lynn is best remembered as being one of the founders, along with Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, of St. Ultan’s Hospital for Infants on Charlemont Street in 1919. This was very much in response to the need for access to appropriate care for the poorer women in society.

In 1923 General Election she was a winning Sinn Fein candidate for Dublin county, but did not take her seat. She lost the seat in the 1927, but was a member of Rathmines  district council between 1920 and 1930.

She died on 14 September 1955 at St Mary’s Nursing Home and, in recognition of her contribution during the Easter Rising, she was given a full military funeral and is buried in Deansgrange Cemetery.

City Hall

Freedom

Roses are red, and masks are few

What a change, do what you do

Keep head held high

Reach for the sky

Breathe in freedom, you got through

Breathe, breathe in the air...

Ditch It

C an we do this thing? some people ask

O f course, yes, but it’s no easy task

V alue your time

I t will be fine

D itch this virus, then the mask

Breathe in the fresh air…

Wave

I’m the wave, that tickled your toe

All washed up, with nowhere to go

But wait a second

The tide’s just beckoned

Off again, nature’s ebb and flow

Ebb and Flow

Turn the Page

It was definitely time to turn the page, I thought, as I stepped into Book Deals on Lower George’s Street, Dun Laoghaire. Like so many shops that seemed to have been closed forever it was a real treat to once again browse, shuffle about and enjoy a familiar experience. The owner, Dave Cassidy, and known as ‘The Librarian’ for his encyclopaedic knowledge of books, was busy, but made time for a quick chat with shoppers. The shop is full of new books, and if you are looking for a deal – 3 books for €10 – then you’ve found a new home. I actually overheard someone say ‘The place is cheaper than Amazon,’ and that’s about as good as it gets!

Dave Cassidy (The Librarian) with the ever watchful Murphy!

Roll Up, Roll Up

Roll up your sleeve, yes that’s fine

A quick sharp jab, it took no time

I slept like a log

Not a drop a grog

Feeling much better, what a good sign

A quick jab..

The Same Old Story

It’s the same old story, as Rory G* once sang

Over everything now, Covid clouds do hang

The days are numbing

But brighter ones coming

Back to us soon, like a timely boomerang

Coming our way…

*Rory Gallagher, guitarist (2 Mar 1948 – 14 June 1995)

The Program

Uncertainty rules, there’s no doubt

Covid’s still creeping, around and about

Mask-up where you go

This is not for show

Stay with the program, do not flout

Keep your distance…for now