By Sir Robert S Ball
An important photographic collection by Robert Stawell Ball - Irish astronomer, mathematician, photographer, Commissioner of Irish Lights and Scientific Advisor to the Board - is available to access on The National Library of Ireland’s National Photographic Archive (NPA).
Robert S. Ball (1840-1913) was also a member of the Inspecting Committee in Irish Lights during whose activity he went around the coast of Ireland each year visiting 100 lighthouses and inspecting beacons, buoys, perches, and lightships to ensure that all signaling apparatus was operating properly. As Scientific Advisor, he was consulted on several aspects of lighthouse equipment, putting his wide academic knowledge to the Safe Navigation at Sea as core mission of Irish Lights over 200 years.
By Dr Eoin Kinsella
That importance was highlighted during the First World War as lightkeepers and lightshipmen acted as a quasi-coast watching service, reporting on the war at sea as observed from their stations. Events in Ireland after the war’s end, however, soon forced them to keep an eye both on land and sea.
The talk will give an overview of the History of Irish Lights and provide an introduction to the Archive and its contents. The Archive of Irish Lights is a source not just of maritime history, but also for the wider social, political, military, engineering, architectural, scientific and administrative history of Ireland in the 19th & 20th centuries.
In late 1913, the Commissioners of Irish Lights received word from the Admiralty that, in the event of war, it would be necessary to dim or even extinguish certain navigational lights around the coast. Even with that warning, there was little to indicate the scale of the challenges presented to Irish Lights over the next ten years.
