SUNDSECTION 6AY25.09.2016

LIFE FOOD TRAVEL INGEAR

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE Have you got what it takes to be a keeper? | p17

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e milked the goats ‘Wonce a day, usually in the evening. Milk would only last a couple of days, so it was great to have the goats. They were well looked after.” Former lighthouse keeper Eddie Fitzgerald is telling me about life on Island in east Cork. I have visited the village on the mainland before, but the little green island and its black lighthouse tower always had an air of mystery, as the island had been out of bounds for visitors — until now. Fitzgerald teaches me about the life of a lightkeeper. He tells us about the paraffin oil-powered freezer where they used to store extra meat or milk before the days of electric fridges, and about the 10 goats. “I could be here all day telling you stories about the goats,” he laughs. Ballycotton lighthouse was first lit in 1851 and for the following 141 years, until Step in the lighthouse was automated, lightkeepers lived on the island. For the first 50 years, two families at a time lived on the island — the children were rowed across to school and back — but later it was just the keepers there for a month at a time, with no shore excursions, even though the lighthouse was less than a mile from shore. One used to “chat” with the light his wife on the mainland every Sunday evening using semaphore signals. Fitzgerald joined the Commissioners of Irish Lights, which manages and their keepers, as a supernumerary assistant keeper in 1966 at the age of 20, and was posted everywhere from the Fastnet rock to Head in Co Donegal. Life, he says, direction wasw never lonely, even at remote stations. “When“ you’d go to a new station, you’d dod so much exploring around the station anda the area,” he says. “I’d always be As lighthouses open to the checkingc out the rocks and the public, visitors can see if they would take a shine to life as a lightkeeper, writes Yvonne Gordon

Beam with pride Fitzgerald was stationed at Ballycotton, above, where 10 goats provided a useful supply of milk surr ha the ro as peninsula ffi of lig three li aft 1817 in lit the and si three lig Set time. opene muc arri wh so he ha solitu the and island an lig a st Pe I ov for tone at fascin turns gui goi ma bu ce of to it ye lig Th th to it authoritie ar h ultim the lig lo oth the Lig Irish of Commissi operat so coast, lig wo ne put ha I’d course of could Pa ha be wa summ the Ball lig wa the and ve edfor head hcigout checking ex station, Wh ’s op cal wa ound h 2mtehg lig 22-metre-high The ysneof sense My h urylig quirky The a During Ir sa As ck me em nt r.I’ the It’s ars. mb er lac ve ve rd rn abo aring ar l h Cliff the ll, hthou hthou hthou hthou hthou hthou Wi l,pp p Marshal up. pops ilt, ke of 12 visit er mu ladth and ll invi s rk ng re Str rried de o ”sy Eddie. says ,” a .My s. ve no yc eland to ev ke ve ound hthou talking,” s lrn.Idalw I’d ploring. yo h-p r and ury nig ly s ’ 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