Blacksod Point
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Blacksod Point
Blacksod Lighthouse (Gaelic: ''Fód Dubh'') is a lighthouse at the southern end of the Mullet Peninsula, Erris, County Mayo, at the entrance to Blacksod Bay. It is made of local granite blocks, which are believed to have come from Termon Hill, a nearby isolated outcrop of high quality granite. The keeper's house is a two-storey square building, which has always been unpainted. It is occupied by a resident lighthousekeeper who is also responsible for Blackrock Lighthouse. Blacksod is of unusual design for a lighthouse, being a square block of a building with only a small conical lantern section on top of it which is painted white. History Blacksod Lighthouse was built in 1864 by one of the leading merchants in Belmullet at that time, Bryan Carey. Weather observations in June 1944 by the Blacksod lighthousekeepers caused the Normandy landings to be postponed. While remaining neutral during World War II, Ireland continued to supply weather reports to Britain under an agreement ...
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Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks, and safe entries to harbors; they also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and has become uneconomical since the advent of much cheaper, more sophisticated and effective electronic navigational systems. History Ancient lighthouses Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since elevating the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs a ...
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Weather Forecasting For Operation Overlord
The Overlord planners for the invasion of Europe in 1944 specified suitable weather (wind, cloud, tidal and moon conditions) for the assault landing; with only a few days in each month suitable. In May and June 1944 frequent pre-assault meetings were held at Southwick House in Hampshire near Portsmouth by Eisenhower with Group Captain James Stagg of the RAF, the Chief Meteorological Officer, SHAEF, his deputy Colonel Donald Yates of the USAAF, and his three two-man teams of meteorologists. Stagg was a "dour but canny Scot.. " He had been given the rank of group captain in the RAF "to lend him the necessary authority in a military milieu unused to outsiders". The senior commanders were General Bernard Montgomery, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay and Air Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, plus Eisenhower's deputy, Air Marshall Arthur Tedder, his chief of staff Walter Bedell Smith and his deputy chief of Staff Major General Harold R. Bull. Stagg reported the team consensus, although this ...
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Lighthouses Completed In 1864
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, rocks, and safe entries to harbors; they also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and has become uneconomical since the advent of much cheaper, more sophisticated and effective electronic navigational systems. History Ancient lighthouses Before the development of clearly defined ports, mariners were guided by fires built on hilltops. Since elevating the fire would improve the visibility, placing the fire on a platform became a practice that led to the development of the lighthouse. In antiquity, the lighthouse functioned more as an entrance marker to ports than as a warning signal for reefs a ...
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List Of Lighthouses In Ireland
This is a list of lighthouses in Ireland. The Commissioners of Irish Lights are responsible for the majority of marine navigation aids around the island though a small number are maintained by local harbour authorities. The main list identifies those lighthouses in a clockwise direction starting with Crookhaven, Crookhaven lighthouse, County Cork. Maintained by Commissioners of Irish Lights Maintained by other Irish marine authorities A smaller number of active lighthouses are operated by other authorities, primarily the port and harbour companies located around the Geography of Ireland, Irish coast. Inactive Improvements and changes to the aids to navigation around the Irish coast, has meant that there are a number of lighthouses that have been decommissioned. This list includes those where the tower or structure is still in existence. Some of these have been reused, such as Ferris Point which is now a vessel control tower. Clare Island was turned into a guest house ...
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2017 Irish Coast Guard Rescue 116 Crash
In the early hours of 14 March 2017, a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter operated by CHC Helicopter under contract to the Irish Coast Guard (call sign Rescue 116) crashed into the sea while supporting a rescue operation off County Mayo, on Ireland's west coast. All four crew members on board, Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, Chief Pilot Mark Duffy, winch operator Paul Ormsby, and winch man Ciarán Smith were killed. In a preliminary report published in April 2017, the Air Accident Investigation Unit found that the helicopter had clipped the small island of Blackrock at an altitude of around while on approach to Blacksod Lighthouse for a refuelling stop, and subsequently crashed out of control into the sea. Events On 14 March 2017, Rescue 118 had completed the medical evacuation of an injured fisherman west of Blacksod, for which Rescue 116 had provided support, and was returning. Shannon ATC last had communication from Rescue 116 at shortly before the crash announcing 'making our way to B ...
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Irish Coast Guard
The Irish Coast Guard (IRCG; ga, Garda Cósta na hÉireann ) is part of the Department of Transport of Ireland. The primary roles of the Coast Guard include maritime safety and search and rescue. The ''Irish Marine Search and Rescue Region'' (IMSRR) is the area over which the Coast Guard has responsibility. This area is bordered by the UK Search and Rescue Region. History The British Water Guard (formed 1809) and (Preventive) Coast Guard (formed 1822) extended to Ireland as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During this period the Coast Guard played revenue protection and coastal defence roles, as well as forming part of the Royal Naval Reserve. In the 1850s, the Admiralty took over the Coast Guard; officers stationed in Ireland complained that their naval career was retarded relative to those in England. The Irish Free State was formed in 1922, and Tom Casement (brother of Roger Casement) tried unsuccessfully to establish a new Irish coast guard. ...
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D-Day (military Term)
In the military, D-Day is the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. The best-known D-Day is during World War II, on June 6, 1944—the day of the Normandy landings—initiating the Western Allied effort to liberate western Europe from Nazi Germany. However, many other invasions and operations had a designated D-Day, both before and after that operation. The terms D-Day and H-Hour are used for the day and hour on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. They designate the day and hour of the operation when the day and hour have not yet been determined, or where secrecy is essential. For a given operation, the same D-Day and H-Hour apply for all units participating in it. When used in combination with numbers, and plus or minus signs, these terms indicate the point of time following or preceding a specific action, respectively. Thus, H−3 means 3 hours before H-Hour, and D+3 means 3 days after D-Day. (By extension, H+75 minutes is used ...
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Anglo-Irish Treaty
The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of Independence. It provided for the establishment of the Irish Free State within a year as a self-governing dominion within the "community of nations known as the British Empire", a status "the same as that of the Dominion of Canada". It also provided Northern Ireland, which had been created by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, an option to opt out of the Irish Free State (Article 12), which the Parliament of Northern Ireland exercised. The agreement was signed in London on 6 December 1921, by representatives of the British government (which included Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who was head of the British delegates) ...
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Irish Neutrality During World War II
The policy of Irish neutrality during World War II was adopted by the Oireachtas at the instigation of the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera upon the outbreak of World War II in Europe. It was maintained throughout the conflict, in spite of several German air raids by aircraft that missed their intended British targets, and attacks on Ireland's shipping fleet by Allies and Axis alike. While the possibilities of not only a German but also a British invasion were discussed in the Dáil, and either eventuality was prepared for, the most detailed preparations were done with the Allies under Plan W. De Valera's ruling party, Fianna Fáil, supported his neutral policy for the duration of the war. This period is known in the Republic of Ireland as '' The Emergency'', owing to the wording of the constitutional article employed to suspend normal government of the country. Pursuing a policy of neutrality required maintaining a balance between the strict observance of non-alignment and the ...
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Mullet Peninsula
The Mullet Peninsula ( ga, Leithinis an Mhuirthead)—also known as the Mullet (''an Mhuirthead'') and sometimes as the Erris Peninsula—is a peninsula in the barony of Erris in County Mayo, Ireland. As of 2016 it has a population of 3963. It consists of a large promontory connected to the mainland at Belmullet (''Béal an Mhuirthead''), a town of about 1,000 inhabitants, by a narrow isthmus. There are several villages on the Mullet peninsula including Aughleam, Elly, Corclough and Binghamstown. The Peninsula is about long and ranges from to wide. Its northernmost point is Erris Head. The peninsula's doglegged shape forms two bays, Blacksod Bay and Broadhaven Bay. The Mullet Peninsula is part of the Mayo Gaeltacht, meaning that Irish is a relatively common language. According to the 2016 census about 8% of the population spoke Irish on a daily basis outside the education system. The area has several Irish-language summer schools. The Mullet is a tourist destination, and ...
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Normandy Landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France (and later western Europe) and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front. Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days each month were ...
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Belmullet
Belmullet (, IPA:[ˌbʲeːlənˠˈwʊɾˠhəd̪ˠ]) is a coastal Gaeltacht town with a population of 1,019 on the Mullet Peninsula in the barony (Ireland), barony of Erris, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is the commercial and cultural heart of the barony of Erris, which has a population of almost 10,000. According to the 2016 census 50% of people in the town were able to speak Irish while only 4% spoke it on a daily basis outside the education system. Belmullet has two bays, Blacksod Bay and Broadhaven Bay, linked by Carter's Canal running through the town. History The origin of the name ''Belmullet'' is not clear. It may have come from Irish ''Béal Muileat'' or ''Béal an Mhuileat'', which has been translated as "mouth of the isthmus". Bernard O'Hara in ''Mayo: Aspects of its Heritage'' suggests that "A change from 'L' to 'R', which is quite common in Irish, may have given ''Béal an Mhuireat'' which in turn became ''Béal an Mhuirhead''". It has also been sugg ...
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