Kish Bank
The Kish Bank (Banc na Cise)[1] is a shallow sand bank about seven miles off the coast of County Dublin, outside Dublin Bay. It is marked by the Kish Bank Lighthouse,[2] a seamark visible to sailors and ferry passengers passing through Dublin Bay and Dún Laoghaire harbour.
Many ships have been wrecked on these shallows. The Vesper was lost in January 1876; the Norwegian MV Bolivar ran aground on the Kish Bank during a snow storm on 4 March 1947; both wrecks are frequently dived. A mailboat operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company between Kingstown and Holyhead, RMS Leinster, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on 10 October 1918. She went down four miles east of where the Kish Light now stands with over 500 lives lost, the greatest single loss of life in the Irish Sea. Fifty-five wrecks are listed for the Kish Bank area.
The hazards of the bank led eventually to the anchoring of a light vessel and, in 1965, the building of the Kish Bank Lighthouse.
Proposed windfarm
In late 1999, the Department of Marine and Natural Resources awarded licences to allow studies to be carried out on the Kish and Bray Banks in relation to the construction of a proposed offshore wind farm. Press reports at the time suggested that 100 or more wind turbines could be erected.[3] As of March 2001, it was reported that the ESB Group had been afforded a foreshore licence to undertake related surveys.[4]
By late 2020, the proposed development (titled the "Dublin Array" project) was associated with the Irish company Saorgus Energy and German energy company RWE.[5] In December 2022, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications|Department of the Environment granted 'Maritime Area Consent' (MAC) to RWE and Saorgus Energy, to progress the Dublin Array wind farm, to be "located on the Kish Bank and Bray Bank, roughly 10km off the coast of south Co Dublin and Co Wicklow". If built as planned it would "comprise between 45 and 61 wind turbines with capacity to generate between 600 and 900 megawatts of renewable energy". Following MAC approval, "RWE is now required to submit a planning application to An Bord Pleanála".[6]
Burials at sea
At the time when the Department of the Marine permitted burial at sea (of people who had died on land), they normally required the burial to occur at the Kish Bank where the tides are strong, and where the sands are always moving.
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References
- ↑ Banc na Cise / Kish Bank: Placenames Database of Ireland
- ↑ Kish Bank Lighthouse: Commissioners of Irish Lights
- ↑ "£200m wind farm plan for Kish Bank". Irish Times. 20 December 1999. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/200m-wind-farm-plan-for-kish-bank-1.262986. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
- ↑ "ESB plans Kish bank wind farm". Independent News & Media. 25 April 2001. https://www.independent.ie/business/esb-plans-kish-bank-wind-farm-26091199.html. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
- ↑ "Up to 60 'supersize' wind turbines planned for Dublin Bay". Irish Times. 9 November 2020. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/up-to-60-supersize-wind-turbines-planned-for-dublin-bay-1.4403656. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
- ↑ "Government consents to Dublin offshore wind farm". Irish Times. 23 December 2022. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2022/12/23/government-consents-to-dublin-offshore-wind-farm/.