The Commissioners of Irish Lights (Irish: 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.
It is funded by light dues paid by ships calling at ports in the Republic of Ireland, pooled with dues raised similarly in the United Kingdom. This recognises that a large volume of shipping, typically transatlantic, relies on the lights provided by Irish Lights.[citation needed]
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.[1] Monks continued to maintain the light until the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1641.
The Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin was established under an Act of the Parliament of Ireland, the Dublin Port Act 1786 (26 Geo. 3. c. 19 (I)), entitled An Act for Promoting the Trade of Dublin, by rendering its Port and Harbour more commodious.
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.
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.
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.
The Lighthouses (Ireland) Act 1810 (50 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 1867 (30 & 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 new 'Commissioners of Irish Lights' to act as the general lighthouse authority.
These acts, modified by the Irish Lights Commissioners (Adaptation) Order, 1935,[3] remain the legislative basis for the CIL.[4]
Irish Lights has moved its headquarters from Dublin to a purpose-built new building in Harbour Road, Dún Laoghaire.
Ships
Granuaile III
The ILV Granuaile in 2010
The commissioners currently have only one light tender[5] in service named ILV Granuaile. The hull was built at Galați shipyard, Romania, in 2000 and fitted out at Damen Shipyards in the Netherlands.[6] She is registered in Dublin and has a 2,625 gross tonnage (GT), has a length overall of 79.6 metres (261') and a beam of 15.99 metres (52'6"). She is the third vessel named Granuaile to have served the Commissioners. Granuaile II was in service between 1970 and 2000, and she was preceded by the first Granuaile from 1948 to 1970.
Because of the automation of lighthouses, and the extensive use of helicopters by the Commissioners, CIL now need only one tender in service. The ship has diesel-electric propulsion and is extremely manoeuvrable, and is therefore ideal for her role in maintaining the automatic navigation buoys in Irish waters. In 2003 she was involved in the recovery of the fishing boat Pisces, which sank off Fethard, County Wexford, in July 2002.
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
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.[7] The St. George's Cross was used until 1970.[8] CIL vessels in Northern Ireland fly the Blue Ensign defaced with the commissioners' badge and those in the Republic fly the Irish tricolour.[7]
^Dillon, Jim (1995). "The Evolution of Maritime Uniform". Beam. 24. Commissioners of Irish Lights. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013. Retrieved 27 April 2011. 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.
^"Aids to Navigation". Commissioners of Irish Lights. Archived from the original on 29 June 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
