It was November 1986 and Met Éireann was telling the public that the tail end of a hurricane from across the Atlantic was about to make land in Ireland. Gerry Sweeney had a bit more to worry about than most. He was a lighthouse keeper on Eagle Island, just off the Belmullet coast. The edge of the world.
Gerry Sweeney sat down with Ryan Tubridy to tell him about the highs and lows of lighthouse keeping ahead of the documentary, Great Lighthouses of Ireland, along with Gerry Butler, a fellow lighthouse keeper.
There's certainly a lot of positives to the life. As Gerry Butler puts it, he was "born into the Irish lights".
"I think if you're born anywhere or reared anywhere near the coast at all, you always have a yen to go back…it's in your blood."
Gerry Sweeney told Ryan that he also sees the "beauty" in a rough day. But they don't come much rougher than that day in 1986.
"We knew from Met Éireann the forecast was bad. So, we battened everything down…The seas started coming over Eagle Island…it was heavy green sea. It'd come up over a 200ft wall, the wave and it would come over the accommodation block. And actually, inside in the block, you could feel the pressure in your ears of the air being compressed down. And then after a second…splash, everywhere. Water running everywhere...The only night I ever thought of my mortality."
Listen back to the full interview on The Ryan Tubridy Show here.