The Irish Lightkeeper's Legacy : Life at the Edge

Addresses the history of the Irish Lightkeeping Service, its importance and development, as told through the life story of a lightkeeper, his family and his postingsAn inspiring story, researched and written by the lightkeeper's great-great-granddaughterIn June of 1837, as a teenaged Queen Victoria assumed the throne, anIrish Catholic peasant laboured from dawn to dusk farming land owned by theMarquess of Ely, a powerful peer of the Queen's realm. Alexander, Alec, Power,a lowly estate worker, would live and die working these fields for his master,while trapped in a feudal system from which there was no exitBut Alec did escape. Through strength of character, tenacity, and an unlikely connection to aprominent Irish Protestant official, Alec gained admittance into theincreasingly selective Irish Lightkeeping Service, becoming part of Britain'snational security posture, protecting maritime access for the nation over whichthe young Queen Victoria ruled. Alec and his wife,Maggie, were hardworking people who spent their lives in dangerous places onthe coasts of Ireland, contending with nature at its wildest, raising theirfamily while protecting mariners. Enduring incredibly rugged, dangerousconditions, surviving the Great Famine, this was truly life on the edge. Their lives were difficult, but their children grew to adulthood free ofthe discrimination that oppressed much of the Irish population in the era. After Alec died,his son, Thomas, assumed the role of head of family. Trained to be alightkeeper, he was inexorably drawn to the most advanced technology and themost dynamic business of his times, the railway. Under tremendous pressure tofind a means of support for his dependents, he spent years achieving success. He became part of the new Irish middle class, emerging just as the Irish peopleintensified their struggle to seek freedom and nationhood. The turmoil of thisstruggle threatened the stability that Thomas had achieved. This is the storyof courageous people with strong family values who persisted, against all odds,in the years prior to the birth of the Irish nation. It is based on extensivegenealogical and historical research.