Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in history class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Frying and I'm Trac B. Wilson. Uh. If
Speaker 1: you are a Star Wars fan, and frankly even if
Speaker 1: you're not, you have probably seen scenes of Luke Skywalker
Speaker 1: in The Force Awakens and in promotional materials for The
Speaker 1: Last Jedi, where he and eventually Ray are standing on
Speaker 1: an island with ancient looking structures on it that is
Speaker 1: a real island that's not a set. And those structures
Speaker 1: are also not sets that were built for the film.
Speaker 1: They are part of a real thing that is ancient.
Speaker 1: Skellic Michael, the island where those scenes were shot is
Speaker 1: a historic site with a fascinating history all its own.
Speaker 1: It's also got kind of a nice juxtaposition because a
Speaker 1: big chunk of its history is is much older, and
Speaker 1: then there's a newer history of some of them more
Speaker 1: modern things that have been built on the island. Um. So,
Speaker 1: since I have Star Wars rabies and I can barely
Speaker 1: manage to contain myself while I wait for the Last
Speaker 1: Jedia premiere, uh, and because this really is a legitimately
Speaker 1: very very interesting historical site. I thought it might be
Speaker 1: fun to delve into this location in its rich history
Speaker 1: for the podcast. Yeah, if you were concerned, based on
Speaker 1: the number of times that we said the last Jedi,
Speaker 1: we're not going to be talking about anything in the
Speaker 1: movie at all on the island at all. That's pretty
Speaker 1: much all the Star Wars talk except a story about
Speaker 1: filming at the end, and even that has nothing to
Speaker 1: do so we're not going to spoil anyone or anything
Speaker 1: related there no Star Wars. You would have had to
Speaker 1: have not gone to see the Fourth Awakens yet for
Speaker 1: that to have been a spoiler, which I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe we didn't, but at this point, if you haven't
Speaker 1: gone to see the Force Awakens, then I think you
Speaker 1: would have to have been in media blackout because it's
Speaker 1: appeared on so many like magazine covers, television, tromos um.
Speaker 1: You know, interview us are often inter cut if you
Speaker 1: see them on television with shots of this island. So
Speaker 1: it's I don't think we're giving anything away. I feel
Speaker 1: confident that we have skirted any well. I think if
Speaker 1: you have not yet seen Force Awakens, you probably don't
Speaker 1: care about Star Wars spoilers. Right, none of which are
Speaker 1: in here anyway. We are literally just talking about the
Speaker 1: history of this. I want to be very clear, Okay.
Speaker 1: Skelling Michael is one of two islands that make up
Speaker 1: the Skellic Islands. The word skelling derives from the Irish
Speaker 1: word for steep rock. And then the other island is
Speaker 1: the smaller one of the two. It's called Little Island
Speaker 1: and it's closed to visitors. Sometimes we'll also see you
Speaker 1: skelling Michael called Great Skelling yep. Also you'll see it
Speaker 1: spelled in various different ways. We're going with kind of
Speaker 1: the most basic, uh, globally facing spelling that gets used
Speaker 1: a lot. It's probably the americanized spelling. That's just the
Speaker 1: scoop on that. If you see it spelled a different way,
Speaker 1: that's why. And Skelling Michael is uh seven miles that's
Speaker 1: eleven point six kilometers west of the edge of Ireland's
Speaker 1: Eva Peninsula in County Kerry, and the highest elevation of
Speaker 1: the island is seven hundred and fifteen feet that's about
Speaker 1: two hundred and eighteen meters. And this island is tiny.
Speaker 1: It is less than a square mile in area. So
Speaker 1: if you do hectares. That's nine hectares. The Minister for
Speaker 1: Art Heritage and the Geltacht owned Skelling Michael on behalf
Speaker 1: of the Irish people. And there's also a lighthouse and
Speaker 1: support buildings for the lighthouse on the southern end of
Speaker 1: the island, as well as a helipad. And this portion
Speaker 1: of the island falls outside of the ownership arrangement mentioned above.
Speaker 1: We'll get a little bit more into that in a bit.
Speaker 1: The geological makeup of Skelling Michael is what's called Old
Speaker 1: Red sandstone, sedimentary layers of rock deposited somewhere between three
Speaker 1: hundred sixty and three hundred seventy four million years ago
Speaker 1: during the Devonian period, when Ireland was part of a
Speaker 1: much larger continent. It's the westernmost European instance of Devonian sandstone,
Speaker 1: which can be found throughout Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and Greenland.
Speaker 1: It's also in portions of Canada. Skelling Michael also has
Speaker 1: to twin peaks with a valley in the middle which
Speaker 1: has come to me known as Christ's Saddle Uh and
Speaker 1: that hellapad that we mentioned briefly is for emergencies only.
Speaker 1: That's not a standard way to get on and off
Speaker 1: the island or special cases um So from the middle
Speaker 1: of May to September, visitors may travel to Skelling Michael,
Speaker 1: but only by boat and it is for davisits exclusively
Speaker 1: and I should also mention that sometimes if they have
Speaker 1: had damage in the winter, they will shorten that window
Speaker 1: that visitors can come. Tourists also cannot stay overnight on
Speaker 1: the island and there are no amenities. Basically, you you
Speaker 1: go for a little while and you get back on
Speaker 1: the boat and you leave. Uh. The island is also
Speaker 1: designated a statutory nature reserve, so no animal visitors are
Speaker 1: allowed and no trash can be left behind the The
Speaker 1: animals that most commonly benefit from the islands reserve status
Speaker 1: are birds. Seabirds often nest there during their respective breeding seasons.
Speaker 1: Skellic Michael is considered one of the most important breeding
Speaker 1: grounds for birds in Ireland, and for some species it's
Speaker 1: one of the most important places in the world. The
Speaker 1: storm Petrol and makes Sheerwater have some of their largest
Speaker 1: breeding groups on the island, and it's also home to
Speaker 1: puffins which I love and kitty Wake among others. Paragram
Speaker 1: falcons also nest there although not every year, and there
Speaker 1: are a few mammals on the island as well, including
Speaker 1: gray seals, house mice, and rabbits. Also of interest in
Speaker 1: terms of its natural makeup is the lichen that grows
Speaker 1: on Skelling Michael. There are actually one hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: eight different species of lichen found on this tiny rocky island,
Speaker 1: and to like in a colas fungi, that's enough to
Speaker 1: classify it as a nationally important site for lichen growth
Speaker 1: based on a conservation study that was conducted in two
Speaker 1: thousand nine. To get to more of the human made structures,
Speaker 1: Skelling Michael is also home to a monastery that was
Speaker 1: built hundreds of years ago, and we're going to get
Speaker 1: into the history of that in more detailed descriptions of
Speaker 1: the monastery and just a bit but at first. But
Speaker 1: first we're going to talk about how it exists there today.
Speaker 1: The settlement has two different segments, and the first is
Speaker 1: the monastery itself, which is built on the islands east side,
Speaker 1: high up on sloping areas of rock. The monastery has
Speaker 1: three access points, all of which involve navigating a lot
Speaker 1: of steps. A lot of steps, like they actually say
Speaker 1: in the visit any of the visitors stuff that you
Speaker 1: may read, like the visitors advisories like please don't come
Speaker 1: if you're not ready to take on like six hundred steps,
Speaker 1: because it is vigorous work and it's not there's not
Speaker 1: an easy way up. There's like I said, there are
Speaker 1: no amenities, there's no elevator, there are no chair lifts.
Speaker 1: You have to handle it yourself. And those steps are
Speaker 1: really amazing because they're cut from the rock of the island,
Speaker 1: from the landing point where you would first step foot
Speaker 1: on the island up to the highest point where water
Speaker 1: can possibly reach, and then above that height the steps continue,
Speaker 1: but from then on they're made of dry stone masonry.
Speaker 1: The structures within the monastery included church, two oratories, seven
Speaker 1: beehive cells, water cisterns, and a cemetery. And locked which
Speaker 1: I have also heard Irish people say locked Locked as
Speaker 1: a square or rectangular structure built with layers of stones
Speaker 1: but no mortar. While they have been found at a
Speaker 1: number of Irish Early Christian monastic sites, their function isn't
Speaker 1: entirely clear. There have been several theories, including that they
Speaker 1: may have marked graves of important holy people or were
Speaker 1: used to house relics or had some sort of social
Speaker 1: spiritual function, and there are also two large garden terraces
Speaker 1: and retaining walls which form the foundation of the entire site.
Speaker 1: The second area of construction is separate from the monastery itself,
Speaker 1: on ledges of the South Peak. It's composed of several
Speaker 1: structures and including an oratory, altar, locked and water cisterns.
Speaker 1: Steps cut out of the rock provide access to these structures,
Speaker 1: which are described in archaeological stratigraphic report written in two
Speaker 1: eleven as daringly constructed. I sort of feel that way
Speaker 1: about everything. I'm skelling, Michael. It's so beautiful, but I
Speaker 1: don't know that I am its target visitor, because I
Speaker 1: think I would spend the whole time screaming in fear
Speaker 1: that I would just fall. It's all very steep. That
Speaker 1: name is apt uh, And we're gonna go a little
Speaker 1: bit deeper into talking about those daring structures that Tracy
Speaker 1: just mentioned, uh and where they fit into the island's history.
Speaker 1: But first we're gonna pause for a quick sponsor break.
Speaker 1: The first known reference to skelling Michael goes all the
Speaker 1: way back to sevent b c. It's referenced is the
Speaker 1: place where the Prince Ire, fifth son of Milicius, died
Speaker 1: when his ship was separated from the rest of his
Speaker 1: fleet during a storm, crashed upon a rock and sank.
Speaker 1: This is, however, a folkloric accounts, so it remains unverified.
Speaker 1: There's another unverified story of Skellic Michael set in the
Speaker 1: fifth century. In this instance, after a conflict between the
Speaker 1: Kings of Castle and the Kings of Munster, the king
Speaker 1: of West Munster named Dwach is said to have fled
Speaker 1: to Skellic Michael. And while this event is written as
Speaker 1: having happened in the fifth century, that account was recorded
Speaker 1: in either the eighth or the ninth century, so it's
Speaker 1: it's accuracy is hard to gauge. We know for certain,
Speaker 1: based on the structures that we talked about earlier, that
Speaker 1: monks moved into the island at some point, but exactly
Speaker 1: when that happened also isn't clear. The earliest estimates place
Speaker 1: at at the place the start of the monastery somewhere
Speaker 1: in the sixth century, although it could have been built
Speaker 1: as late as the eighth century and then the earliest
Speaker 1: known reference to the monastery is in an Annal entry
Speaker 1: from the year eight hundred twenty four, which describes a
Speaker 1: Norse raid on sc Like Michael, Yeah, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of disparate accounts that that place that at different times,
Speaker 1: but it's somewhere in there. I think most people tend
Speaker 1: to favor the earlier thing because a lot of the
Speaker 1: accounts that happened later on, and we'll talk about it
Speaker 1: in a minute, suggests that it was already functioning. The
Speaker 1: position of this monastery is actually quite well chosen. It's
Speaker 1: six hundred feet above sea level, and where it sits
Speaker 1: on the island and in relation to its peaks, offers
Speaker 1: some natural shelter, and it has plenty of stones to
Speaker 1: use in building, so the monks could access stone from
Speaker 1: right there on the island to build these structures, and
Speaker 1: it enabled relatively easy water collection, so channels were cut
Speaker 1: into sloping stone to direct water right into cisterns that
Speaker 1: they had placed, and the two primary cisterns that were
Speaker 1: used were built to hold roughly a hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: gallons that's about four hundred and fifty liters of water.
Speaker 1: One of the unique aspects of the monastery is the
Speaker 1: cell structures that are sometimes described as as bee hives.
Speaker 1: These hives are shaped like inverted elliptic paraboloids, so not
Speaker 1: not bee hives like the flat ones in boxes that
Speaker 1: are manufactured, but the domed ones the bees would actually
Speaker 1: build on their own or that you know. Sometimes people
Speaker 1: keep these in baskets that are that shaped, like an
Speaker 1: inverted semi dome sort of structure. They have a doorway
Speaker 1: built into the front of each of them and steps
Speaker 1: that lead in and out of the doors. The beehive
Speaker 1: cells are all arranged along the monasteries large oratory, but
Speaker 1: there are some differences among them, and the cells are
Speaker 1: lettered for identification. Yeah, and just for clarity, um the
Speaker 1: cell letter order does not in any way pertain to
Speaker 1: their age order, which I was trying to explain this
Speaker 1: to to a friend and they got a little thrown
Speaker 1: by that. So just know that this the A through
Speaker 1: um G does not in any way suggest that A
Speaker 1: came first and Gee was at the end. There with
Speaker 1: completely separate um naming systems. So cell A is the
Speaker 1: largest one. It actually has a second interior level and
Speaker 1: it's believed to have been a communal space, and it's
Speaker 1: quite large at the base of the structure. The walls
Speaker 1: of Cell A are one point eight meters six so
Speaker 1: that's almost six ft, and the interior space is about
Speaker 1: fifteen by twelve point five feet that's about four point
Speaker 1: six by three point eight meters, and there's an interior
Speaker 1: height of sixteen feet. It's about five ms. Cells B
Speaker 1: and C are smaller, they're about two thirds the size
Speaker 1: of cell A. Cell D is actually no longer intact,
Speaker 1: but it was probably the oldest cell on the site.
Speaker 1: Probably it collapsed before cells C was completed. Cell E
Speaker 1: is bigger than B and C, but smaller than A.
Speaker 1: It's it's like a word problem in the s A T.
Speaker 1: Cell F is smaller in size to B and C,
Speaker 1: and it has these interior slabs that are arranged in
Speaker 1: a manner that suggests it might have been a leaping area.
Speaker 1: These cells were built at various points in time, and
Speaker 1: they aren't homogeneous in their size as noted or in
Speaker 1: the way the stone work is done. Yeah, it's pretty
Speaker 1: clear evidence that they were worked on at various points
Speaker 1: in time. So, uh, it's it spans some number of years.
Speaker 1: There is a central church at the monastery that is St.
Speaker 1: Michael's and it's partially collapsed, and what would have been
Speaker 1: its roof, which would have been made of wood, is
Speaker 1: long gone. The church appears also to have not been
Speaker 1: built all at the same time, but in two different stages,
Speaker 1: the second one to expand on what was a fairly
Speaker 1: small church that was built in the first phase. While
Speaker 1: a prominent and impressive aspect of the monastery's design is
Speaker 1: its retaining walls, they have experienced multiple structural failures throughout
Speaker 1: the life of the site and beginning when it was
Speaker 1: still occupied. The walls have been the focus of a
Speaker 1: lot of conservation and preservation work over the years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're amazing, and that they really are. Are, you know,
Speaker 1: holding up all of this man made structure, But they
Speaker 1: definitely are bearing the weight of that man made structure.
Speaker 1: And as a consequence, sometimes they get tired and they
Speaker 1: break up. Cells don't really get walls don't really get tired.
Speaker 1: I know, nobody needs to tell me, but they get
Speaker 1: on it. Um. So the daring structures that we referenced
Speaker 1: a little while ago make up what's come to be
Speaker 1: called the Hermitage, and so in the modern era, UM
Speaker 1: these man made structures on Skelling Michael South Peaks, they're
Speaker 1: a little bit away from the others. Were first referenced
Speaker 1: in an eighteen forty one mapping survey, and then they
Speaker 1: made another appearance on record in the eighteen fifties, when
Speaker 1: Lord Dunraven visited the island and wrote of having seen
Speaker 1: the ruins of a quadrangular building there. The South Peak
Speaker 1: ruins were noted again by visiting scholars in the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: but it actually wasn't until the nineteen eighties that a
Speaker 1: study of the site was ordered by the Office of
Speaker 1: Public Works. There are three terraces that make up the hermitage.
Speaker 1: There's a garden and dwelling terrace that's forty three ft
Speaker 1: that's about thirteen meters long. It ranges in width from
Speaker 1: six point five to thirteen feet, which is two to
Speaker 1: four meters. One end of the terrace, which includes a
Speaker 1: section of the retaining wall, it's about five feet or
Speaker 1: one and a half meters high, and that remains intact.
Speaker 1: The other end of it, though, has collapsed. The Oratory
Speaker 1: Terrorists sits at a right angle to the garden and
Speaker 1: dwelling terraces, and it's about thirteen feet that's four meters
Speaker 1: higher up on the peach on this terrace is a
Speaker 1: small oratory with an interior space of seven point five
Speaker 1: by six point five feet that's about two point three
Speaker 1: by two meters, and this terrace extends far past the
Speaker 1: oratory to the east, although it is quite a narrow
Speaker 1: sort of terrace that you're you're on at that point
Speaker 1: from the oratory terraces. The outer terrace used to be
Speaker 1: reachable via a traverse that was chiseled from the stone
Speaker 1: by the months, but in modern times it's a place
Speaker 1: that's really best visited by skilled call timer's and no
Speaker 1: one else. It's treaches to navigate the ledges that you
Speaker 1: have to move across. It's not clear if that outer
Speaker 1: Terrace was ever completed, and it's also not clear what
Speaker 1: its function was. Yeah, I watched a brief like newsreel
Speaker 1: of a team that was going up when they were
Speaker 1: doing some preservation investigation, and it's like, look, we found handhelds.
Speaker 1: Like they're literally basically just scaling up the rock face
Speaker 1: until they actually found something that a human could stand on.
Speaker 1: So it is not just something you would go, hey,
Speaker 1: I'd like to go up there. It's a again, not
Speaker 1: a place that I should maybe visit because it looks
Speaker 1: terrifying um. Sometime before the early eleventh century, the island
Speaker 1: monastery was dedicated to St. Michael. St. Piannon is also
Speaker 1: closely tied to the history of the monastery and may
Speaker 1: have been its founder. He's often referenced as the founder,
Speaker 1: but again it's all a little unclear. Records of the
Speaker 1: late twelfth century indicate that the settlement was occupied and
Speaker 1: having regular mass at that point, but soon after in
Speaker 1: the thirteenth century, shifting church structure in Ireland and increased
Speaker 1: instances of inclement weather on and around the island lad
Speaker 1: the monastery to be abandoned. The monks who had been
Speaker 1: living there moved to the mainland village of Balance Skelags,
Speaker 1: and after that point the monastery at Skelling Michael was
Speaker 1: considered part of the Balance Skellings Monastery. Yeah, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't really, it's not believed to have been occupied after
Speaker 1: that point. It just kind of was was notated as
Speaker 1: part of their their larger um kind of organizational structure.
Speaker 1: But again, like there had been a shift in climate
Speaker 1: and they it really was not easy or safe to
Speaker 1: occupy that area any longer. From the fourteenth to the
Speaker 1: sixteenth centuries. The island appears on navigational charts that were
Speaker 1: used by both Italian and Iberian seafarers. The monastery was
Speaker 1: officially closed in the sixteenth century with Henry the Eighths
Speaker 1: dissolution of monasteries, and it passed into private ownership by
Speaker 1: a family named Butler. The Butler family retained ownership of
Speaker 1: island until eight one. In November of eighteen twenty, Jay
Speaker 1: Butler was approached by the government's Board of Works about
Speaker 1: a permanent lease on the island so that two lighthouses
Speaker 1: could be built there, and after some back and forth,
Speaker 1: legal experts investigating the situation determined that Butler's legal ownership
Speaker 1: of the land was not clearly documented. After an appraisal
Speaker 1: of the property, the Butler estate was paid seven eighty
Speaker 1: pounds for Skelling Michael and the Commissioners of Irish Lights
Speaker 1: assumed ownership of it. We're gonna talk about the lighthouses
Speaker 1: in just a moment, but first we're gonna pause and
Speaker 1: have another short sponsor break. Construction of the two lighthouses
Speaker 1: at Skelling Michael began in August of eighteen one. Inspector
Speaker 1: George Halpin designed the buildings in roadway and oversaw initial construction.
Speaker 1: The lighthouse road runs from the upper lighthouse site, which
Speaker 1: is h on the western side of the island, south
Speaker 1: to the coast, and then around the islands south and
Speaker 1: east edges to the east landing. There is no road
Speaker 1: along the northern shore of the island. There aren't many
Speaker 1: records of the actual construction process, but both lighthouses were
Speaker 1: completed and in use by the end of eighteen six.
Speaker 1: The taller of the two lights was nearly four hundred
Speaker 1: feet that's a hundreds above the high water mark, with
Speaker 1: a visibility range of twenty five miles or forts. The
Speaker 1: lower light was a hundred seventy five ft or fifty
Speaker 1: three point three ms above the high water mark, with
Speaker 1: a visibility range of eighteen miles or twenty kilometers. Both
Speaker 1: were non moving lights. Uh in a sad note in
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty nine, so more than forty years into the
Speaker 1: lighthouses life, a small modern grave was added to the
Speaker 1: chapel at Skelling Michael. At that point lighthouse keeper W.
Speaker 1: Callahan buried two of his small children there after, both
Speaker 1: had died of an illness. He then requested and was
Speaker 1: granted a transfer elsewhere as he was concerned for the
Speaker 1: health of his remaining child. So there is one instance
Speaker 1: of a modern I'm using the air quotes since it
Speaker 1: was in the eighteen hundreds, but a modern grave there
Speaker 1: at the site. The upper light was in service for
Speaker 1: forty four years until it was supplanted by another lighthouse
Speaker 1: north of the Skellic Islands in eighteen seventy. The lower
Speaker 1: lighthouse has remained in use. That's still in use today,
Speaker 1: although there's been an update to it that we'll talk
Speaker 1: about in a moment. Yeah, there's actually been a couple
Speaker 1: of updates. But the Office of Public Works took possession
Speaker 1: of the monastery as a state guardianship in eighteen eighty
Speaker 1: with the intent to repair the crumbling structures and establish
Speaker 1: an ongoing plan for conservation of the site. In nineteen
Speaker 1: o nine, the lower lighthouse was renovated and updated with
Speaker 1: a rotating, more powerful light. The lower light in the
Speaker 1: original rubble masonry tower remained in use for a hundred
Speaker 1: forty six years. It was extinguished in nineteen sixty six
Speaker 1: and a temporary lantern was erected, while an entirely new
Speaker 1: tower was built the following year. The new lighthouse was
Speaker 1: online boasting another upgrade you one point eight million candles light.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty nine, Skelling Michael's helipad was constructed on
Speaker 1: the eastern coast of the island. That helipad is made
Speaker 1: of reinforced concrete and three very thick columns supported off
Speaker 1: the cliff face. It is terrifying as everything else to
Speaker 1: me to look at on the cliff side. The open
Speaker 1: side of the helipad, it is a one twenty one
Speaker 1: ft or thirty seven meter dropped directly into the ocean.
Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy eight, Skelling michael became the focus of
Speaker 1: a long term conservation project. At that point, a retaining
Speaker 1: wall near the church that's part of the monastery St.
Speaker 1: Michael's had experienced a structural failure and it was prioritized
Speaker 1: as the project's first order of business. UH And additionally,
Speaker 1: steps that were leading up to the main entrance of
Speaker 1: the monastery also needed restoration. Natural water erosion had claimed
Speaker 1: some of the lower sections that reach into the waterline,
Speaker 1: and heavy use of these stairways during periods of lighthouse
Speaker 1: construction had all so really damaged some of the mason
Speaker 1: rym Only one of the three stairways leading to the
Speaker 1: main monastery is currently accessible to visitors. In nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: excavation work began at the site of that work has
Speaker 1: continued for decades. The National Monument Service of Ireland was
Speaker 1: responsible for these efforts. That organization has been part of
Speaker 1: various government departments over the years, but it's work at
Speaker 1: Skelling Michael has continued seasonally throughout all those reorganizations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a narrow window winter you can't really go there
Speaker 1: and do any sort of excavation, uh to examine the ruins,
Speaker 1: because it's just too cold. Uh. In ninety one a
Speaker 1: project was completed that had begun in nineteen to finally
Speaker 1: automate the lighthouse. In nineteen eighty nine, the Commissioners of
Speaker 1: Irish Lights sold the island Skelling Michael to the State,
Speaker 1: which was already the guardian of the monastery, with the
Speaker 1: exception of the remaining active lighthouse and its related structures. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Commissioners of Irish Lights still retained that lighthouse area
Speaker 1: and then in ninete Skelling Michael became a UNESCO World
Speaker 1: Heritage Site. On October twenty two, two thousand one, that
Speaker 1: lighthouse was converted to solar power. A lamp change which
Speaker 1: was done at the same time, reduced the lights reached
Speaker 1: to nineteen miles. Diesel generators are still on hand for
Speaker 1: backup power. In the focus of archaeological effort shifted to
Speaker 1: the lighthouse road and in seven tons of stone were
Speaker 1: brought to the island via military airlift to be used
Speaker 1: in the roads restoration. There have been two rescue operations
Speaker 1: launched from Skelling Michael to date. On October sixteen, three
Speaker 1: of its lighthousekeepers helped rescue two boatloads of survivors from
Speaker 1: the S S. Marina, which was a British cargo ship
Speaker 1: that had been torpedoed by a German U boat. While
Speaker 1: eighteen men died in the attack, more than a hundred
Speaker 1: were saved. The three keepers were awarded one pound from
Speaker 1: the Board of Trade and an additional guinea from the S. S.
Speaker 1: Marina's owner, but Ulson Line Yep. They each got that award.
Speaker 1: On February an aircraft exploded in midair after colliding with
Speaker 1: the highest peak of the island and falling in pieces
Speaker 1: into the water, and British aircraft and the lighthouse keepers
Speaker 1: of Scaling Michael executed a search but neither the wreckage
Speaker 1: nor any survivors were ever found. Unfortunately, the use of
Speaker 1: Scaling Michael as a filming location has been the source
Speaker 1: of some friction. Archaeology specialist voiced concerns about the safety
Speaker 1: of the monastery, and bird Watched Ireland, which is an
Speaker 1: independent conservation group, criticized Ireland's Minister of Arts for approving
Speaker 1: the use of the island as a location without involving
Speaker 1: a third party specializing in conservation and bird habitat assessment
Speaker 1: and unfortunately, those concerns were brought into sharp focus in
Speaker 1: when a helicopter on a site scouting flight caused a
Speaker 1: number of kittywakeness to be disturbed. The down draft from
Speaker 1: the chopper's propeller caused some of the chi x to
Speaker 1: be swept into the sea and they were killed by seagulls.
Speaker 1: After this incident, everyone involved reassessed the situation. Additional flights
Speaker 1: were canceled, the filming schedule was was reviewed to avoid
Speaker 1: the primary kitty wading breading season, although other birds still
Speaker 1: nesting on the island caused continued concern on the part
Speaker 1: of bird Watch Ireland. Bird Watch Ireland's point of view
Speaker 1: is that there was a breach and established a protocol
Speaker 1: by doing it this way. The Office of the Minister
Speaker 1: of Arts remained insistent though, that the European Union Habitats
Speaker 1: Directive was upheld, so there's some disagreement on that point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did notice there are a few instances regarding scaling
Speaker 1: Michael outside of this, where there is disagreement about how
Speaker 1: restoration has been handled or whether, um, you know, everything
Speaker 1: has been executed in the proper way into the letter
Speaker 1: of the law. And it usually everything I found just
Speaker 1: turned out to be a very similar back and forth
Speaker 1: of you did it wrong, No, we didn't, we did
Speaker 1: everything like this, we don't agree with you, we think
Speaker 1: you're lying like that just goes on and on and on.
Speaker 1: So it's a little hard to parse out. Um, Skelling Michael,
Speaker 1: i'm a notes to me the site of much disagreement.
Speaker 1: But to end all of this on a more poetic note,
Speaker 1: it seems fitting to mention the island as it was
Speaker 1: seen through the eyes of one of Ireland's most famous
Speaker 1: creative minds. In the nineteen ten writer George Bernard Shaw
Speaker 1: visited Skelling Michael and it made a very strong impression.
Speaker 1: He later wrote the following quote. But for the magic
Speaker 1: that takes you out far out of this time. In
Speaker 1: this world, there is skelling Michael ten miles off Carry Coast,
Speaker 1: shooting straight up seven hundred feet sheer out of the Atlantic.
Speaker 1: Whoever has not stood in the graveyard and their beehive
Speaker 1: oratory does not know Ireland through and through. That's lovely,
Speaker 1: It is very lovely. Thanks George Bernard Shaw. Do you
Speaker 1: also have a lovely listener mail? I do. I have
Speaker 1: lovely mail, which involves gifts from our listener, Angie. She writes,
Speaker 1: Dear Tracy and Holly. I'm a relative me new listener,
Speaker 1: but my addiction to listening to your show daily has
Speaker 1: caught me up quite a bit. I'm currently living in
Speaker 1: South Korea with my family since my husband is in
Speaker 1: the military, and listening to your show has helped with
Speaker 1: the isolation that can come from living in a rural
Speaker 1: area of a foreign country where I'm embarrassed to admit
Speaker 1: I can barely speak any Korean. So I want to
Speaker 1: thank you for being my friends every day while I'm
Speaker 1: taking care of my two year old and my daily tasks.
Speaker 1: The friends that I have made here are very much
Speaker 1: aware of my fan girl status with your podcast, and
Speaker 1: they will ask me what new and interesting topics I
Speaker 1: have recently learned about. So it makes me happy knowing
Speaker 1: that I'm sharing knowledge in a time where entertainment has
Speaker 1: seemed more important than learning, and luckily for me, your
Speaker 1: podcast is both entertaining and educational. Um. She mentions that
Speaker 1: her physical therapist, who is Korean, asked about our podcast,
Speaker 1: and she told him about our Prince Sotto episode uh,
Speaker 1: and he said that he is a descendant of Prince Otto,
Speaker 1: being able to trace back his family history since it
Speaker 1: is very common for Korean families to have records of
Speaker 1: their lineage dating back hundreds of years. Um. And she
Speaker 1: talked about the Korean holiday that kind of is the
Speaker 1: equivalent of Thanksgiving, where everyone travels home, eats traditional food,
Speaker 1: and visits their ancestors burial sites to make food offerings,
Speaker 1: and finally ending the holiday with a midnight dance under
Speaker 1: the harvest moon. This is one of the holidays where
Speaker 1: every store stocks up with expensive spam gift sets, which
Speaker 1: you briefly mentioned during your spam podcast. I wanted to
Speaker 1: send you some traditional treats that we enjoy, and then
Speaker 1: she describes them there's the super yummy little confectioneries that
Speaker 1: she sent. She said, we're moving next month to Oahu,
Speaker 1: and I joke with my husband that the Army is
Speaker 1: taking us on a worldwide tour of spam, first Korea
Speaker 1: and now Hawaii, and lucky for us, we enjoy eating it.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait to be able to strike up a
Speaker 1: conversation with a local about the history of spam, the
Speaker 1: pineapple industry, and or leprosy, although I might get some
Speaker 1: suspicious looks from that last one. She also talks a
Speaker 1: little bit about Tokyo, Disneyland and Disney Sea. But thank
Speaker 1: you for this amazing parcel. She sent us a lot
Speaker 1: of different stuff, so when you were in the office
Speaker 1: next which is soon ish, we'll pick through it and
Speaker 1: and taste everything. So Angie, thank you so much. What
Speaker 1: a delightful treat like we get some of the best gifts.
Speaker 1: I feel very spoiled by our listeners. Uh. If you
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, still feel like you
Speaker 1: have to send us a gift, you can just write
Speaker 1: to us via email at History Podcast at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. You can also find us across the
Speaker 1: spectrum of social media. As missed in History. Uh. We
Speaker 1: are also at missed in History dot com, where you
Speaker 1: can find every show that has ever existed of the podcast,
Speaker 1: including those way before Tracy and I were ever involved
Speaker 1: in it, and show notes for any of the ones
Speaker 1: that Tracy and I have worked on. So come along
Speaker 1: and listen to History with Us at missed in History
Speaker 1: dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
Speaker 1: Does It How stuff works dot com