Digest>Archives> March 2009

Lantern Room Replacement Long Overdue

Comments?    


You can see an enlarged version of this picture by clicking here.
>> Click to enlarge <<
Balbriggan Lighthouse as it appears without its ...
Photo by: Jarl Van Hooter

Over the last 50 years, from time to time, local officials and residents in Fingal County, Ireland bring up issue about replacing the lantern room on the Balbriggan Lighthouse.

In the 1960s the town removed the rusting lantern room, rather than restore it.

Over time various officials have given speeches that the lantern room and its dome should be replaced, especially since the lighthouse, built in 1761, is the second oldest operating lighthouse in Ireland. But the local government obviously does not have the money and apparently no one has stepped forward to start a group to raise the needed funds. One can only assume that if a group of concerned citizens had been formed in the 1960s the money would surely have been raised long ago or even by now.

Last year a private benefactor came forward and offered to pay for a new lantern room. But, somehow or another, either the benefactor changed his or her mind or the City Council has been unable to reconnect with the individual.

Several years ago, the poem below was published on the Internet that really tells the story. Maybe someday it will come true.

This story appeared in the March 2009 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

All contents copyright © 1995-2024 by Lighthouse Digest®, Inc. No story, photograph, or any other item on this website may be reprinted or reproduced without the express permission of Lighthouse Digest. For contact information, click here.


Subscribe
to Lighthouse Digest



USLHS Marker Fund


Lighthouse History
Research Institute


Shop Online












Subscribe   Contact Us   About Us   Copyright Foghorn Publishing, 1994- 2024   Lighthouse Facts     Lighthouse History