Welcome to KEEPING WATCH - a fortnightly podcast for anyone and everyone interested in lighthouses, lighthouse keepers, light vessels and other aids to maritime navigation. 

KEEPING WATCH is brought to you in association with the ALK - The Association of Lighthouse Keepers - a charitable trust in the UK dedicated to keeping lighthouse heritage alive. 

We’ll hear from former lighthouse keepers, authors of books about lighthouses, people born and brought up in lighthouses, archivists, historians and many others interested in lighthouses, their construction, history and service.  

This week we meet Gerald Butler, a third generation lighthouse Keeper, who joined the Commissioners of Irish Lights in 1969. He spent most of his career as an assistant Keeper on Bull Rock, Fastnet Rock, the Old Head of Kinsale and Mizen Head lighthouses.

And he was serving on the Fastnet during the 1979 Fastnet Yacht Race, when severe storms caused havoc to more than 300 yachts and resulted in nineteen fatalities. 

Gerald and I talked about that fateful weekend, as well as about his career in the lighthouse service. 

Gerald's website: www.thelightkeeper.ie

Visit the Association of Lighthouse Keepers: www.alk.org.uk