The Lighthouse and the Imagination, with sound recordings and sound design by Chris Watson. 

Writer Melissa Murray re-reads ‘To The Lighthouse’ by Virginia Woolf,  illuminating the great novelist’s view of the lighthouse. 

Dermot Bolger remembers bringing Salman Rushdie to the Baily lighthouse at the height of the fatwa. As a gesture, the principal keeper asked Rushdie if he would like to switch on the light, an eloquent protest against censorship that lit up Dublin bay. Chris Watson describes using the lighthouse beam to record Grey Seals at night on the Farne Islands - and remembers the unusual sight of seeing the slow motion battles of the ‘fighting tortoises of Dassen island’, intermittently caught exchanging blows in the lighthouse beam.

Melissa Murray's dramatisation of Hilary Mantel's 'A Place of Greater Safety' was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 earlier this year.

Dermot Bolger’s new book, ‘That Which is Suddenly Precious’- New and Selected Poems’, is published by New Island books.

‘The Lightkeeper’ by Gerald Butler is available via www.thelightkeeper.ie

Presenter: Luke Clancy

Lead Contributor: Gerald Butler

Sound Design and Sound Recordings: Chris Watson

Research: Sharon Whooley of Harvest Films

Producer: Kevin Brew

This programme was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.