Irish Lighthouse Temporarily Closed
By Sue Clark on Feb 19, 2009 in The Light Side 
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Hook Lighthouse, near Wexford, Ireland, has been temporarily closed to visitors while a bomb squad deals with a detonator found on the site. The army disposal team is enroute to disarm this relic left from its usage during the years leading up to 1972.
According to the story at RTE News, detonators were used in running the foghorn at the station. I’m trying to get my head around this, wondering exactly what that did. Perhaps it’s a misunderstanding of terminology. A detonator is usually thought of as something that sets off an explosive charge of some sort, and usually isn’t explosive in nature. So if someone from the UK would like to chime in with an explanation of the term, it would be appreciated. I do know that the first fog horns at Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor were cannons, so am assuming this may be similar.
Anyway, the detonator was found by some workers in the area, and then after they left it was discovered by the lighthouse keeper. It’s assumed to be live, and the lighthouse and visitor’s center will be reopened after its removal.
Added: From Lighthouse Historian Dave Gamage comes this explanation found at the Commissioner of Irish Lights site:
“Another aid to navigation, a fog signal bell, was introduced in 1838. This in turn was replaced by a gun in 1872 and in 1905 by an explosive charge on the end of a jib attached to the dome of the lantern with a character of two shots every six minutes. This was changed to one shot every 5 minutes in June 1937 with a brilliant flash accompanying the fog signal when sounded by night1. This flash was discontinued during World War Two and re-introduced in 1949. With the tightening of security in the early 1970s the explosive fog signal was discontinued and in 1975 was replaced by a compressed air operated supertyfon emitter which gave one blast every 30 seconds. In 1995 this pneumatic fog signal was replaced by an electric horn with a character of 2 blasts every 45 seconds. Since 1978 the light is exhibited in poor visibility whilst the fog signal is sounding.”
(1) described as a detonator or small rocket in other text
And one other tidbit I found: The lighthouse is reputedly responsible for the phrase “By hook or by crook.” Crooke is across the water near Passage East. Unknown if it’s true, but sounds good.
The detonator has been exploded on site. Guards assisted at the scene to keep it safe overnight until the Defense Forces Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team arrived from Cork to carry out a controlled explosion.
Photo Credit: Hook Lighthouse, Wexford by Joe Malone. Some rights reserved
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