Another maritime tradition comoes to an end as lighthouse fog signals sound for the final time.
Hook Lighthouse in south County Wexford is one of the oldest operational lighthouses in the world, having been in existence for eight hundred years.
Lighthouse keepers along Ireland's beautiful but treacherous coastline used aural warning systems from the 1830s onwards. Bells, cannon shots, explosives and latterly manually operated fog horns were
From the 1830s onwards, bells, cannon shots and explosives were used as warning devices when fog obscured lighthouse beams along the Irish coastline. Manually operated fog horns arrived in the 1960s, and in more recent times, electronic fog horns.
However, the Commission of Irish Lights has said that advances in technology mean fog signals no longer serve as a navigational aid.
Hook Lighthouse attendant Thomas 'Tux’ Tweedy has spent fifty two years in the service of Irish Lights. Before the advent of modern navigational technology, the fog signal was of major importance for seafarers,
You couldn’t calculate what lives were saved.
Joe Molloy worked as a lighthouse attendant at Ballycotton Lighthouse in east County Cork, and has become so accustomed to the sound of the foghorn that he will sleep through it.
I will miss this one.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 11 January 2011. The reporter is Damien Tiernan.
