ONE hundred and seventy-five years ago, Ireland was struck by the worst storm in recorded history.
The event is remembered in Irish folk history as OÃche na Gaoithe Móire, or the Night of the Big Wind.
As day broke on January 6 1839, Ireland was covered in a blanket of snow which was considered a fitting beginning to the celebration of Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas.
However, the idyllic conditions did not last long. At roughly 3pm a light breeze began to sweep across the country and the temperature began to rise considerably, melting the snow.
Accounts record that from this point onwards the day took on an eerie stillness, the proverbial calm before the storm, with several reports that voices could be heard at a distance of up to a mile. As communities across Ireland prepared for the evening’s celebrations, they had no way of knowing that an angry weather front of such strength and power was approaching from the Atlantic.
A storm that would ensure for many, that Ireland would never be the same again.
As darkness fell and the celebrations began, the wind began to pick up. The storm crashed onto the western coast and left a trail of destruction in its wake.
Some of the first incidents reported happened in Castlebar in County Mayo, where the spire of the local church was blown down and homes were destroyed.
In Clare, locals reported that the sea was so high that the waves were breaking over the top of the Cliffs of Moher.
Having devastated the western seaboard the storm continued to gather strength as it moved eastward across the country.
The winds were now at hurricane force and a low rumbling noise, similar to thunder, could be heard growing louder with every gust of wind.
Trees were ripped up, houses were blown down and fires began to break out in the streets of towns and villages. Due to the sheer force of the destruction, people across the country, began to believe that the storm was a supernatural event.
For Christians, the date of the storm was significant. The fact that it was the Feast of the Epiphany, combined with the destruction to churches and homes lead many to believe that
Judgement day had come. More believed the fairies were responsible, pointing to the supernatural howling and roaring of the wind as evidence, while others claimed that the
Freemasons had let the devil out of hell and couldn’t get him to go back.
In Dublin the storm continued to destroy everything in its path. The River Liffey burst over the quay wall and flooded the surrounding area. Chimneys and walls collapsed across the city and several people were killed.
The steeples of Irishtown church and St Patrick’s Cathedral were blown down and reports state that 42 ships were wrecked and sunk as the seas around Ireland became a graveyard.
As day broke, the country was a wasteland. Farmers’ crops and urban businesses were completely destroyed and in today’s terms hundreds of millions worth of damage had been caused.
The official death toll was placed at close to 400 with thousands more injured and homeless.
The night of January 6 1839 would become the event that all events afterwards were measured against.
Many years later survivors of the night gained an unlikely benefit. Following the introduction of the Old Age Pension Act in 1909, many people in Ireland proved that they qualified by stating that they could remember, or had been born on the Night of the Big Wind!