A few days ago, we celebrated the 185th anniversary of John Richardson Wigham’s birth, born in Edinburgh on the 15th of January1829. The purpose of this article is to honour his memory and his fundamental contribution to the technology of lighthouses in Ireland and overseas.
The original Lusitania medal was privately designed and struck by Karl Xaver Goetz, a German medalist born in Augsburg in 1875. He was a member of Munich's Artist Society and Numismatic Society, and created a number of satirical and propaganda-themed medals throughout the First World War.
The earliest record on meteorology held in the Heritage Archive of Irish Lights dates to 1830s when a request was made to provide the Lighthouses with barometer, thermometer and rain gauge; and applications were submitted to the Board to place telegraph signals at Tuskar Lighthouse.
Pensions were granted at a rate £6 per annum for the widow and £3 per annum per child until the age of 16. Pre-famine Ireland was a place of extreme poverty.
On the night of Sunday the 18thOctober 1812, an unusually high tide occurred and a violent tempest swept the sea over the rock, carrying away the temporary wooden houses which were erected here for the shelter of the workmen, and of 24 men upon the rock, 14 were washed away.
180 years later it is impossible to tell what really happened on that night. The Magistrates and Board believed the painters had no case to answer but the question remains, who attacked Thomas Young and why?
On the 17th of December 1910, during a strong gale, the lighthouse keeper at the Arranmore North station reported an alarming and mysterious occurrence.
