Commissioners of Irish Lights

{{Short description|General Lighthouse Authority for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland}}

{{Infobox organization

| name = Commissioners of Irish Lights

| native_name = {{lang|ga|Coimisinéirí Soilse na hÉireann}}

| native_name_lang = ga

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| image = Flag of the Commissioners of Irish Lights.svg

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| logo = Commissioners of Irish Lights logo.png

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| predecessor = {{ubli|Irish Lights Department, Port of Dublin Corporation}}

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| formation = 1867

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| type = Statutory corporation

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| purpose = General lighthouse authority

| headquarters = Dún Laoghaire, Ireland

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| services = Navigational aids

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| key_people = Mark Barr, Chairperson
Yvonne Shields O'Connor, Chief executive

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The Commissioners of Irish Lights ({{langx|ga|Coimisinéirí Soilse na hÉireann}}), often shortened to Irish Lights or CIL, is the body that serves as the general lighthouse authority for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and their adjacent seas and islands. As the lighthouse authority for the island of Ireland it oversees the coastal lights and navigation marks provided by the local lighthouse authorities, the county councils and port authorities.

Irish Lights is funded through light dues paid into the General Lighthouse Fund (GLF) by ships calling both in Ireland and in Great Britain. The General Lighthouse Fund is managed by the Secretary of State for Transport in the United Kingdom and is split between the three General Lighthouse Authorities.{{Cite web |date=2017-06-29 |title=General Lighthouse Authorities' relationship with the Secretary of State for Transport |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/general-lighthouse-authorities-framework-setting-out-the-relationship-with-secretary-of-state-for-transport |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Gov.uk |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Light Dues |url=https://www.irishlights.ie/who-we-are/light-dues.aspx |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Commissioners of Irish Lights |language=en}}

History

File:Hook Head Lighthouse.jpg is one of the oldest lighthouses in Ireland]]

Signal fires to guide shipping have long existed. Hook Head has the oldest nearly continuous light in Ireland, originally a signal fire or beacon tended by the monk Dubhán in the fifth century.{{cite web|title=History|url=http://www.cil.ie/who-we-are/our-history.aspx|work=Hook Head|publisher=Commissioners of Irish Lights|accessdate=16 May 2015|archive-date=15 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715050024/http://www.cil.ie/who-we-are/our-history.aspx|url-status=live}} Monks continued to maintain the light until the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1641.

Charles II re-established the lighthouse in 1667. He granted a patent for the erection of six lighthouses to Robert Reading, some replacing older lighthouses,{{cite book|last=Leach|first=Nicholas|title=The Lifeboat Service in Ireland|year=2005|publisher=Tempus Publishing|isbn=0-7524-3509-4|page=13}} at Hook Head, Baily Lighthouse at Howth Head, Howth sand-bar, Old Head of Kinsale, Barry Oge's castle (now Charlesfort, near Kinsale), and the Isle of Magee.

In 1704 Queen Anne transferred the lighthouses around the Irish coast to the Revenue Commissioners.

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Dublin Port Act 1786

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of Ireland

| long_title = An Act for Promoting the Trade of Dublin, by rendering its Port and Harbour more commodious

| year = 1786

| citation = 26 Geo. 3. c. 19 (I)

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| territorial_extent = Kingdom of Ireland

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The Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin was established under the Dublin Port Act 1786, an act of the Parliament of Ireland.26 Geo. 3. c. 19 (I), entitled An Act for Promoting the Trade of Dublin, by rendering its Port and Harbour more commodious.

{{anchor|Lighthouses (Ireland) Act 1810|Irish Lighthouses Act 1811|Dublin Port Act 1867}}

{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Lighthouses (Ireland) Act 1810

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom

| long_title = An act to enable the Corporation for preserving and improving the Port of Dublin, to erect, repair and maintain Light Houses round the Coasts of Ireland, and to raise a Fund for defraying the Charge thereof.

| year = 1810

| citation = 50 Geo. 3. c. 95

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| territorial_extent = Ireland

| royal_assent = 15 June 1810

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| repeal_date = 1 May 1855

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| repealing_legislation = Merchant Shipping Repeal Act 1854

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| status = Repealed

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{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Irish Lighthouses Act 1811

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom

| long_title = An Act to amend and render more effectual several Acts for promoting the Trade of Dublin, by rendering its Port and Harbour more commodious: and for erecting, repairing and maintaining Light Houses round the Coast of Ireland, and to raise a Fund for defraying the Charge thereof.

| year = 1810

| citation = 51 Geo. 3. c. 66

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| territorial_extent = Ireland

| royal_assent = 10 June 1811

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| amendments = Merchant Shipping Repeal Act 1854

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| original_text = https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1811/act/66/enacted/en/print.html

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{{Infobox UK legislation

| short_title = Dublin Port Act 1867

| type = Act

| parliament = Parliament of the United Kingdom

| long_title = An Act to alter the Constitution of the Corporation for preserving and improving the Port of Dublin, and for other Purposes connected with that Body and with the Port of Dublin Corporation.

| year = 1867

| citation = 30 & 31 Vict. c. lxxxi

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| royal_assent = 17 June 1867

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| status = amended

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| original_text = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/30-31/81/pdfs/ukla_18670081_en.pdf

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The Lighthouses (Ireland) Act 181050 Geo. 3. c. 95 transferred responsibility for all lighthouses around Ireland's coast to the Port of Dublin Corporation, with the lighthouse operation becoming known as the Irish Lights Board. The Dublin Port Act 186730 & 31 Vict. c. lxxxi reconstituted the Port of Dublin Corporation into the Dublin Port and Docks Board with responsibility purely for the port, and created the Commissioners of Irish Lights to act as the general lighthouse authority.

These acts, modified by the Irish Lights Commissioners (Adaptation) Order 1935,{{Cite ISB|year=1935|type=sro|num=661|title=Irish Lights Commissioners (Adaptation) Order 1935|parl=ifs|access-date=2 August 2020|date=13 December 1935|archive-date=24 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024145954/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1935/sro/661/made/en/print|url-status=live}} remain the legislative basis for the CIL.{{cite web|title=Our History|url=http://www.cil.ie/who-we-are/our-history.aspx|publisher=Commissioners of Irish Lights|accessdate=16 May 2015|archive-date=15 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715050024/http://www.cil.ie/who-we-are/our-history.aspx}}

Irish Lights has moved its headquarters from Dublin to a purpose-built new building in Harbour Road, Dún Laoghaire.

Ships

=''Granuaile III''=

File:The ILV 'Granuaile' off Bangor - geograph.org.uk - 1763086.jpg

Because of the automation of lighthouses, and the use of helicopters, CIL now only operate one vessel, the ILV Granuaile, named after the famous pirate queen Grace O'Malley.{{cite web|url=https://www.irishlights.ie/safety-navigation/ilv-granuaile.aspx|title=ILV Granuaile|publisher=Commissioners of Irish Lights|accessdate=16 June 2025}} Delivered in 2000, she was built at Galați shipyard, Romania, fitted out at Damen Shipyards in the Netherlands.{{cite web|url=https://www.balticshipping.com/vessel/imo/9192947|title=GRANUAILE, IMO 9192947|website=Baltic Shipping|accessdate=16 June 2025}} She has a {{GT|2625|disp=long}}, length of {{convert|79.69|m|ft}} and is fitted with Class I dynamic positioning system. In 2003 she was involved in the recovery of the fishing boat Pisces, which sank off Fethard, County Wexford, in July 2002.{{cite web|url=https://www.southeastradio.ie/recovery-operation-to-get-under-way-off-wexford-coast-this-afternoon/|title=Recovery operation to get under way off the Wexford coast this afternoon|publisher=South East Radio|date=28 September 2003|accessdate=16 June 2025}} She is the third Granuaile to have served with the CIL. The first Granuaile served from 1948 to 1970, followed by Granuaile II from 1970 and 2000.

=Former vessels=

Image:Commissioners of Irish Lights fleet, South Wall, Dublin 01.jpg

Princess Alexandra (1863–1904)
Tearaght (1892–1928) – see Kingstown Lifeboat Disaster
Moya (1893–1905)
Ierne (1898–1954)
Alexandra (1904–1955)
Deirdre (1919–1927)
Nabro (1926–1949)
Isolda (1928–1940) (Sunk off the Saltee Islands, County Wexford by German aircraft)
Discovery II (1947–1948)
Valonia (1947–1962)
Granuaile (1948–1970)
Blaskbeg (1953–1955)
Isolda (1953–1976)
Ierne II (1955–1971)
Atlanta (1959–1988)
Granuaile II (1970–2000)
Gray Seal (1988–1994)

Flags

File:Flag of the Commissioners of Irish Lights (pre–1970).svg

File:Ensign of the Commissioners of Irish Lights.svg

The Commissioners of Irish Lights is a cross-border body, with its headquarters in Dublin. The current flag of the Irish Lights features lightships and lighthouses between the arms of the St. Patrick's Cross.{{cite web|url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ie~comil.html|title=Commissioner of Irish Lights|last=Grieve|first=Martin|author2=Miles Li|author3=Jarig Bakker|author4=Rob Raeside|date=19 July 2008|publisher=Flags of the World|accessdate=27 April 2011|archive-date=17 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917044458/http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/Flags/ie~comil.html|url-status=live}} The St. George's Cross was used until 1970.{{cite journal|last=Dillon|first=Jim|year=1995|title=The Evolution of Maritime Uniform|journal=Beam|publisher=Commissioners of Irish Lights|volume=24|quote=In the Lighthouse Service the cap badge originally was a St George's Cross surrounded by a wreath of laurel leaves but from 1970 the St Patrick's Cross has been used.|url=http://www.commissionersofirishlights.com/cil/publications/beam-magazines/volume-24/the-evolution-of-maritime-uniform.aspx|accessdate=27 April 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013111549/http://www.commissionersofirishlights.com/cil/publications/beam-magazines/volume-24/the-evolution-of-maritime-uniform.aspx|archivedate=13 October 2013|df=dmy-all}} CIL vessels in Northern Ireland fly the Blue Ensign defaced with the commissioners' badge and those in the Republic fly the Irish tricolour.

Infrastructure

The CIL operate and maintain the majority of the aids to navigation around the Irish coastline. This includes 64 lighthouses, 20 beacons and over 100 buoys. It also operates more than 100 automatic identification system transmitters, and 23 radar beacons.{{cite web | title = Aids to Navigation | url = https://www.irishlights.ie/safety-navigation/cil-aids-to-navigation.aspx | publisher = Commissioners of Irish Lights | accessdate = 4 August 2020 | archive-date = 29 June 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200629085322/https://irishlights.ie/safety-navigation/cil-aids-to-navigation.aspx | url-status = live }}