Qualla: Blacksod Lighthouse https://qualla.com/blacksod-lighthouse en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/blacksod-lighthouse-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Blacksod Lighthouse https://qualla.com/blacksod-lighthouse Blacksod Lighthouse: Introduction https://qualla.com/blacksod-lighthouse/ Photo credit James Emmans, CC BY-SA 2.0. At 1:00 a.m. on 3 June 1944, a 21-year-old postmistress named Maureen Flavin stepped outside the Blacksod Lighthouse on the southwestern tip of Ireland's Mullet Peninsula and took the routine hourly weather reading she had taken hundreds of times before. The barometer was falling rapidly. The wind was rising from the southwest, gusting to force 6. She telegraphed the report to Dublin's Met Eireann, as she had been instructed to do since the start of the war. From Dublin it travelled to London. From London it landed on the desk of an American meteorologist named Captain James Stagg at Allied Supreme Headquarters in Portsmouth. And Captain Stagg carried it directly to the general who was, at that moment, trying to decide whether to launch the largest seaborne invasion in human history at dawn on 5 June. That general was Dwight D. Eisenhower. The report from Maureen Flavin at Blacksod was the first warning that the Atlantic was about to send a storm into the English Channel. D-Day was postponed by 24 hours.

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Image: James Emmans | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/blacksod-lighthouse-wp/gc8g-blacksod-lighthouse-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Blacksod Lighthouse: The Strangest Lighthouse in Ireland https://qualla.com/blacksod-lighthouse/ Photo credit James Emmans, CC BY-SA 2.0. Blacksod is not what most people picture when they imagine an Irish lighthouse. It is not a tall white tower on a cliff. It is a low, square, two-storey building of grey granite, with a small white conical lantern perched on top - one of only two true square lighthouses in Irelan...

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Image: James Emmans | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/blacksod-lighthouse-wp/gc8g-blacksod-lighthouse-the-strangest-lighthouse-in-ireland.mp3 0:06 2 full Blacksod Lighthouse: The Sweeney Family Watch https://qualla.com/blacksod-lighthouse/ Photo credit James Emmans, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 1 November 1933, a man named Edward Sweeney - Ted to everyone - was appointed live-in attendant. He and his wife Maureen Flavin Sweeney would run the station, the local post office, and the daily weather observations for decades. They raised their children in the keeper's hous...

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Image: James Emmans | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/blacksod-lighthouse-wp/gc8g-blacksod-lighthouse-the-sweeney-family-watch.mp3 0:06 3 full Blacksod Lighthouse: The Postponement https://qualla.com/blacksod-lighthouse/ Photo credit James Emmans, CC BY-SA 2.0. Ireland was neutral during the Second World War, but neutrality had nuances. Since independence in 1922, the country had supplied weather reports to Britain under a quiet bilateral agreement; the meteorological data was deemed too important to interrupt, and Ireland had no milita...

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Image: James Emmans | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/blacksod-lighthouse-wp/gc8g-blacksod-lighthouse-the-postponement.mp3 0:06 4 full Blacksod Lighthouse: Recognition, Late but Genuine https://qualla.com/blacksod-lighthouse/ Photo credit James Emmans, CC BY-SA 2.0. For most of her life, Maureen Sweeney's role in D-Day was a footnote known only to historians and her neighbours. She kept taking weather readings. She raised her family. She lived quietly. Then, in her late 90s, recognition finally came. In 2021 the United States Congress sent h...

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Image: James Emmans | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/blacksod-lighthouse-wp/gc8g-blacksod-lighthouse-recognition-late-but-genuine.mp3 0:06 5 full Blacksod Lighthouse: Standing at Blacksod Today https://qualla.com/blacksod-lighthouse/ Photo credit James Emmans, CC BY-SA 2.0. Walk to the lighthouse from the small car park above Blacksod Pier. The granite is grey under most skies and silver under cloud. The square keeper's house with its castellated tower looks more like a small fortified manor than a lighthouse. To the south, the Atlantic stretches aw...

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Image: James Emmans | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/8/g/blacksod-lighthouse-wp/gc8g-blacksod-lighthouse-standing-at-blacksod-today.mp3 0:06 6 full