The "Irish lights board" was, and still is, a board of
commissioners with regulatory authority over all the
lighthouses built around the coasts of Ireland, as well as lightships like the one
on Kish bank and navigation buoys.
The board's present-day insignia, shown in the accompanying
photograph, depicts all three warning systems: a buoy on the
left, a lighthouse in the middle (with another on the cape in
the distance), and a lightship on the right.
The organization officially called the Commissioners of Irish
Lights was established in 1786 by an act of the Parliament of
Ireland, before the dissolution
of that parliament in 1800. The law was titled "An Act for
Promoting the Trade of Dublin, by rendering its Port and
Harbour more commodious." Precursor bodies had been
authorized by various English monarchs, however, and in the
19th century various laws passed by the combined Parliament of
Great Britain and Ireland in Westminster continued to modify
the composition and duties of the board. Today, the CIL
continues to operate under both Irish and British law. The UK
funds the body with dues raised from ships that use the seas
around Ireland, because many ocean-going ships use the lights
but do not put in to Irish ports.
