Much of my travel is concerned with the past and those who inhabit it. So it was when I boarded O'Malley's Ferry for the short trip from Roonagh Pier to Clare Island for the first Storm Watching Weekend of the season hosted by Clare Island Lighthouse.
I had in mind some of the many vessels lost in the waters around the island and lighthouse keepers such as Jackie O'Grady, William Landers, Alex Wilson and Reilly, the man who burned down the first lighthouse on Clare Island in 1813.
Two lighthouses in succession have stood watch over the northern entrance to Clew Bay from an elevated and dramatic position atop high Atlantic facing cliffs. These lighthouses were silent witnesses to countless dramas played out in the waters beneath and beyond – storms, wreckings, the passage of innumerable trading vessels, privateers, pirates, slavers, warships, and fishing vessels. The lights undoubtedly saved the lives of countless mariners.
The lights, however, were not a guarantee of safe passage. Many vessels and mariners were claimed by the seas around Clare Island at all times of the day and night. This coast is as treacherous as it is beautiful. On 10 October 1822, The Gemini, from Miramichi, bound for Maryport, was struck by a massive wave in a gale and driven ashore at Clare Island. The surge took the mast, rigging, rudder and five crew members.
In 1823, three men, Burke, Lavelle, and Moran, were tried at Galway Assizes for pirating the David of London in November 1822 – a capital crime. The men explained that they found her abandoned in the sea off Clare Island. They were acquitted. In August 1829, a vessel belonging to merchant Robert Patten departed Westport with a cargo of oats. She struck a rock off Clare Island after thick fog descended. The crew succeeded in coming ashore in a yawl.
The captain and crew of the Flash of Malahide were not so fortunate. They were lost when the timber-built brig slammed into rocks off Inishark on 1 March 1870. The seeds for their undoing were sown months earlier at Westport Petty Sessions. McCormack, the postmaster on Inishbofin, gave evidence as a witness at a trial. In retaliation, his rick of hay on Inishbofin was burned. It was surmised that on seeing the burning rick, the captain of the Flash thought it was the lighthouse on Clare Island and tragically altered course.
The spectacle was not always out at sea. The first lighthouse on Clare Island was built in 1806 by the then Marquis of Sligo, John Denis Brown. The newspapers reported that it was erected at the 'northern entrance into Clew Bay in the County of Mayo in that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland.' The lantern cost £1,100; the reflectors were all inlaid with silver, and each pane of specially thickened glass cost four guineas. On 13 October 1813, flames consumed the building, the lantern and associated equipment. The heat was so intense that the thick glass shattered, and the metal melted. News of the fire reached Westport House the following afternoon.
A Mr I Farrell, architect to Howe Peter Browne – 2nd Marquess of Sligo, was dispatched to the island to assess the damage. The destruction was beyond immediate repair, so Farrell directed his energies towards the erection of a temporary lantern to protect shipping. It was the usual practice to dispose of smouldering snuffings or oil lamp wicks by tossing them into a cask within the lantern, and this, according to lighthouse keeper Reilly, caused the inferno.
The current Lighthouse was built in 1818 by the Corporation for Improving the Port of Dublin following a design attributed to George Halpin Snr, Inspector of Works and Lighthouses for the Ballast Board. The old tower was retained proximate to the new one but not as a lighthouse.
The Lighthouse was decommissioned on 28 September 1965. Today the building functions as unique heritage accommodation on Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way. Guest suites include Tower House, Cliff Corner, Achill View, William Landers, and Jackie O'Grady. Jackie O'Grady, the last lighthouse keeper, passed away in 2019, 201 years after his lighthouse first exhibited light.
