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Displaying items by tag: Kish LighthouseBefore the Build

#KishLight@50 – In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Kish Lighthouse off Dublin Bay, the National Maritime Museum of Ireland in Dun Laoghaire is host to a lecture about what is one of Ireland’s most famous and unique lighthouses.

The impressive 12-storey structure of the lighthouse (towering 31 metres high when in situ) was constructed five decades ago in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

Tugs brought out the 'floating' 7,000 tonnes lighthouse in the summer of 1965 to the the Kish Bank from where it was sunk into position on the sandbank. It was not until November 9th that year that the light was first exhibited having replaced a lightship.

To hear more on the details of how the lighthouse was built, a two-hour lecture takes place in the NMMI this Thursday, 12 November. The lecture “Kish Lighthouse –Before the Build” begins at 8pm and will be co-presented by Brian Kelly and Eoghan Lehane.

Tickets cost €10.00 and for more details including an exhibition held in the NMMI click here.

In addition the RTE Archives has a link, click here for the ‘Newsbeat’ programme from 1965 on the construction of the lighthouse.

Published in Lighthouses

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.