Dotted around our shores are reminders of our defence architecture throughout the centuries; from Iron Age promontory forts and Martello towers, but also the period of time known as 'the Emergency'.
Despite the Irish Free State’s neutrality during the Second World War, the country was on a defensive military footing for the duration of the war. This led to the construction of LOPs (Look Out Posts) which were constructed at strategic points around the entire Irish coastline to monitor shipping, submarine and aircraft activity. One such hut still dutifully guards Sligo at Aughris Head.
Meet the architect
Following the handover of the Treaty Ports in 1938 (Cobh, Berehaven and Loch Swilly), Irish coastal waters were largely unprotected. With the outbreak of war, the Marine and Coastwatching Service was established in 1939 (disbanded in October 1945). The Office of Public Works were tasked with designing a standard coast-watching service hut. The design of these LOPs was done by Howard Cooke in 1939.
William Henry Howard Cooke (W.H Howard Cooke) Cooke was an English-born architect with the Office of Public Works and was President of the RIAI in 1938. Earlier in his career he designed the Clontarf Automatic Telephone Exchange (1927) and Rathmines Post Office (1934). A list of the LOPs and their locations was given to Allied pilots to help them navigate and locate themselves when flying over Ireland.
From Ballagan to Inishowen
A network of 83 Look Out Posts were built around the coast of Ireland at ten to twenty mile intervals from Ballagan Head in Louth to Inishowen Head in Donegal. These posts were monitored 24 hours a day in eight or twelve hour shifts. Two men manned the station, one to operate the phone and the other to patrol outside. All sighting of military activity in their area was recorded in log books and reported in by telephone.
With the possibility of a German invasion looming, telephones were installed at the LOP huts during the summer of 1940. Prior to this, coast watchers’ reports had to be conveyed by bicycle or by foot several miles away to the local Post Office. LOPs were also equipped with binoculars, semaphones, morse code machines, drawings of various aircraft and ships, a logbook, signal flares, lamps, oilskin jackets and hats for each member.
The Men of No.67
The coastal path at Aughris Head, Templeboy, Co. Sligo has a turn off for a LOP. Aughris was given the number 67 which was etched in a lime filled trench in the field adjacent to the LOP. As previously mentioned, LOPs also served as navigation aids for pilots with giant ÉIRE signs constructed on the ground beside the structure along with the number of the post. As part of this defensive daisy chain, it was built within sight of Nos. 66 and 68. Sligo LOPs had been built by the winter of 1939/40.
This LOP was manned by 7 men from the Local Defence Force with knowledge of the local area;
NCOs: T. Gillen.
Coastwatchers: J. Boyd, P. Brennan, A. Carney, J. Farry, P.J. Gormley, M. McDonald, J. McKenna.
The log books of Aughris show that it witnessed the war at first hand, from the body of a German soldier being washed ashore through to the sighting of Allied aircraft. The Military Archives hold the logbooks and you can read the one for LOP No.67 here.
Look Out Post No. 67, by design
The LOPs were specially-built concrete pillar box type structures built in-situ to an identical design of 137 pre-cast concrete blocks distributed by the Irish Army and built between 1939 and 1942. Their construction was one of the most widely spread engineering exercises undertaken by the Irish Defence Forces during WW2.
LOP No.67 is a small, single-storey, north-facing square concrete hut built on an elevated site with unpainted, smooth-rendered concrete walls. The canted front elevation provided an excellent view of Sligo Bay in three directions.
It has a flat, pre-cast concrete slab roof with a squat, rendered concrete chimney to the south. As a temporary building, was prone to let in wind and rain, and during stormy weather the walls and windows could leak badly and the tiny fireplace inside was said to have been of little use for burning turf.
The hut is entered via square-headed timber door painted green which was replaced in recent years; it is a single room with a rudimentary concrete fireplace on the south wall. The original one-over-one timber casement windows have been replaced by single panes of glass.
The LOPs were no longer in use once the Second World War ended. There are 50 of these posts still standing today, with many in disrepair or destroyed.
This restoration was initiated by the local community group Templeboy Aughris Rural Action (TARA), with contractor John Kennedy handling construction and windows and doors handmade by carpenter Anthony Gormley, all by kind permission of the landowner, Declan Scott.
Thanks to their efforts, the restored Aughris Head Look Out Post still keeps watch over Sligo Bay.
Images courtesy of the Office of Public Works. Thanks to Peter Homer and Elizabeth King for information.
