21 February - 3 March 2003
National Photographic Archive
Panoramic views of Irish quays, coastlines and islands; informal portraits of lighthouse keepers and their families; unique insights into early 20th century social life in coastal areas; construction work on the Fastnet Lighthouse – these are among dozens of images which featured in an exhibition entitled For the Safety of All, which ran in the National Photographic Archive in February 2003. For the Safety of All was mounted to coincide with the launch of a book of the same title which was published by the National Library in association with the Commissioners of Irish Lights.
The photographs displayed were taken by Sir Robert Ball, the distinguished astronomer, mathematician, author, lecturer and scientific advisor to the Commissioners of Irish Lights. For a period of 29 years during the late 1800s and early 1900s (up until he reached the age of 71), he was a member of the Commissioners of Irish Lights Committee that circumnavigated the coast of Ireland each year visiting up to one hundred lighthouses and inspecting beacons, buoys, perches and lightships to ensure that all signalling apparatus was operating properly.
The tours were often arduous, and access to some lighthouses was very difficult. The inspectors frequently had to disembark from their steamer the Alexandra onto small boats, in which they were then rowed to a landing jetty. In places where no such jetty existed, they were hoisted ashore by lighthouse crew using manually operated derricks.
Sir Robert Ball always brought at least one camera with him on these inspection trips. Some experts argue that his intention was to create the photographic equivalent of the view of coastal elevations that are to be found on most Admiralty charts. An extremely determined personality, he had no sight in his right eye, yet he somehow managed to overcome the difficulties of working on the deck of a moving vessel while grappling with cumbersome late-19th century camera equipment.
The photographs in the exhibition and book form part of a 1,000 strong collection of photographs by Ball, much of which was donated to the National Photographic Archive by the Commissioners of Irish Lights in the year 2000.
The book, For the Safety of All is available from the NLI Shop.