10 lost lives of those who built Tuskar Light

TEN Irishmen were sucked to their deaths out the windows of a barrack building by giant waves during the building of Tuskar Rock Lighthouse, according to a new documentary.

There are currently 65 lighthouses which safely guide ships around the treacherous Irish coastline, with most painstakingly built by men who risked their lives working in highly hazardous conditions in the 19th Century.

Ireland became world leaders for their ingenuity in building lighthouses over the last 200 years as construction workers had to battle some of the most powerful seas on the planet along the Atlantic coast.

The RTE documentary also revealed 19th Century Kerry builders — not monks — carried out the precarious task of building a wall on the sheer cliff face of Skellig Michael. “The building of the lighthouses in the Skelligs is an engineering feat”, said former lighthouse keeper Richard Foran.

“A lot of people going out there think all this was done by the monks. The monks built the monastery and the steps up to it. The rest was done by the people who built the two lighthouses on the Skelligs. If you look over the wall and see the way they faced the wall up the side of the cliff, you would have to say to yourself this is unique.

“They next generation will say this is as good as the Great Wall of China.”

While most builders during the lighthouse building boom of the 19th century — when 53 of the Irish lighthouses were built — survived the lethal hazards of being marooned on inhospitable rocks or islands for months at a time, 10 men on Tuskar Rock suffered a terrifying death. The documentary details how 24 builders, carpenters and stone masons were on Tuskar Rock when a violent storm hit in October 1812.

Huge waves which swamped the barracks where the men were taking shelter created a lethal vacuum which sucked the men out and into the sea.

Ten drowned and the remaining 14 clung to the rocks for two days before being rescued on the notorious rock off the Wexford coast, which has the most shipwrecks over any other location off the Irish coast.

After the tragedy, work resumed and the lighthouse designed by the founding father of the Irish lighthouse service, George Halpin, went into service on June 4, 1815 and is still operating today.

Great Lighthouses of Ireland will be shown on RTE One tonight at 6.30pm.