The chimneys in Poolbeg are 680 metres in height, and clearly dwarf the Spire in O’Connell Street at a mere 120 metres.

In early August we witnessed in the night sky of Dublin an illumination show that outshone the mere 12,000 light bulbs on the spire. This spectacular show was brought to us courtesy of the barber poles in Poolbeg.

The spectacular night lights were caused by the light beam being set at the day time intensity as the engineers endeavoured to adjust the project. During the daytime the light must glow at the highest setting so that it can shine out against blue or grey skies.

The chimneys at the ESB power station, Ringsend are on the flight path for one of the runways at Dublin Airport. So the new chimney light has to comply with the latest lighting standards by the Irish Aviation Authority to ensure the safety of airline passengers and the public. These standards dictate how the lights are set up and their intensity. The new energy-efficient lights will be lit day and night and there are three intensity settings, day, twilight and night, which is the lowest.

During the installation of the new lighting system which commenced during the summer, the lights on the west tower were switched on. Over the next number of days, adjustments were made to the beam direction to reduce their visual impact and the night-time lighting intensity was reduced and that was the end of the light show. The new chimney lights have been in service with high daytime and low night lighting levels on the west stack since then.

Similar lights are currently being installed on the east stack and it is expected that this work will be completed during September, at which stage the new lights will be switched on.

The lights will be synchronised to flash at the same time as the lights on the other chimney.
Mick Downey, the spokesman for ESB Poolbeg, said this is the first change of the lights in over 35years on the Poolbeg chimneys. “We are no longer able to source spare parts for lights of this age and we have to update them to comply with the Irish Aviation Authority standards,” he said.

The ESB are endeavouring to make the lights as unobtrusive as possible to the local communities.