Image caption,The events of the Night of the Big Wind were recreated for Lagan Media’s Oíche na Gaoithe Móire in 2015
By Niall Glynn
BBC News NI
It left towns and villages in Ireland looking like battlefields and killed dozens of people, and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.
In comparison with the more recent Beast from the East, the Night of the Big Wind sounds like something that would cause minor inconvenience, judging by its name.
In reality, the 1839 storm is considered the deadliest ever recorded on the island of Ireland.
It struck without warning during the night of Sunday 6 January, bringing hurricane-force winds to a poor and vulnerable country, lasting 12 violent hours.
There had been heavy snowfall the day before but it started to melt on the Sunday due to a burst of warm weather.
Later that night, at about 21:00, the winds, which may also have featured tornadoes, came from the Atlantic and hit the west coast first.
An Enniskillen Chronicle report from the time said that the sound of the wind in County Sligo was like “the deafening roar of a thousand pieces of artillery”.
In Donegal, the Ballyshannon Herald reported that “the sea rose to such a height that the poor inhabitants thought it was the end of the world”.
The northern half of the island was worst hit – north Connacht, Ulster and north Leinster.
In north Dublin alone, 20 to 25% of homes were reported to have been either destroyed or badly damaged.
Image caption,A report of the storm appeared in a copy of the Belfast News Letter in January 1839
“Judging by the damage descriptions the winds’ strength were up to hurricane force – up to one or two hurricane category on the wind scale,” said Paul Moore of Irish weather service Met Éireann.
“Category two is sustained winds of 96mph to 110mph.
“There’s one description that Dublin resembled a sacked city, from one of the news articles of the time, so that’s consistent with that strength of wind.”
The winds struck an island ill-prepared to withstand them.
“One third of the population was living below the poverty line – you’re talking potentially up to about three million people,” Dublin City University historian Prof James Kelly explained.
“So there were a lot of people living in what we would identify today as very substandard, perhaps even spartan, conditions which would have meant that they were very vulnerable.”
Queen’s University Belfast historian Dr Ciaran McCabe added: “A lot of people in rural Ireland, particularly in the west and parts of Leinster and Munster, were living in thatched mud cabins.
“They would either have been levelled or the thatched roof would be be blown off completely.
Image caption,Dr Ciaran McCabe said Ireland was left looking like a battlefield
“Or in a lot of cases you get reports of fire in houses and buildings being burned down.
“People might have had the fire on and the wind came in the window or door, threw the cinders up into the thatch and that would have caught fire.”
But it was not just the shacks of the poor that were destroyed.
Residential, commercial and industrial buildings in urban areas were also damaged.
“Newspaper reports for Belfast, where you have a lot of factories and distilleries, say there was a huge amount of commercial and industrial chimneys being blown down and collapsing,” Dr McCabe said.
“The building would be destroyed and there is the occasional instance of them falling on people who were, needless to say, killed.
“A lot of reports in the following days and weeks say that Ireland was left – the town or the village or whatever – almost like a battlefield: damage strewn as far as the eye could see.”
It was not just on land that the storm wrought destruction – many people were caught out in boats at the mercy of the winds.
Image caption,The poverty in Ireland at the time made it particularly vulnerable (reconstruction from Lagan Media’s Oíche na Gaoithe Móire)
The captain and 14-man crew of the vessel Andrew Nugent all perished off the coast of County Donegal.
Dozens of other lives were lost at sea.
Inevitably this trail of destruction left many dead and injured.
Met Éireann, using contemporary reports, cited the “surprisingly low” figure of 90 to just over 100 lives lost.
“There wouldn’t have been anything like that [in storms] since,” Mr Moore said.
However, Dr McCabe said there were other estimates that put the death toll at 300 to 500.
As fallen masonry caused many injuries and deaths, perhaps such figures reflect people who died in the weeks and months afterwards.
As well as the loss of life and the damage to the country’s infrastructure, the natural landscape was also ravaged, with hundreds of thousands of trees uprooted.
In one estate alone – Castle Coole in County Fermanagh – the Enniskillen Herald reported that a previous estimate of 15,000 trees destroyed “should be changed to 100,000”.
Image caption,Storm Ophelia in 2017 came close to matching the wind strength of the Night of the Big Wind
It was not the first climatic disaster to hit Ireland that century.
Crops failed in 1816 due to the effects on the northern hemisphere of the Mount Tambora volcanic eruption, in what is now Indonesia.
The year was alternatively known as the “year with no summer” and the “year of the beggar”.
There had been local famines in 1822 and heavy rains and flooding in the autumn of 1839 ruined crops and compounded the disaster of the Big Wind.
Then in 1845 came the Great Famine.
“The point that you can make about this whole period is that – and this is what distinguishes it from the present that we don’t always acknowledge – there was a vulnerability to extreme weather,” Prof Kelly described.
“Exceptional weather was going to take a particularly heavy toll on a population that was already disproportionately poor.”
Mr Moore of Met Éireann said while recent storms such as Ophelia in 2017 came close to the strength of the Night of the Big Wind, none have matched it.
He added that Ireland would be much more capable of coping now.
“Now when a storm comes in it’s forecast, a lot of the boats come in from sea, but that came without warning,” he said.
“The construction of buildings nowadays would be a lot stronger than they were back then, especially for the poor.”
Although it would be overshadowed by the disaster of the Great Famine, which started just six years later, Dr McCabe said the Night of the Big Wind was Ireland’s “worst storm, certainly in modern history and going back to the 1500s and 1600s”.
Prof Kelly said such events “are a constant reminder to us of our frailty in the face of the power of the environment and basically how changeable weather is, how destructive it can be at any particular moment”.
Legacy Bill ‘runs contrary to Good Friday Agreement’ legal expert warns London
CONNLA YOUNG
A LEADING legal expert has warned that a key amendment to the British government’s controversial Legacy Bill “runs contrary to the Good Friday Agreement”.
The proposed legislation, which has been dubbed the ‘Bill of Shame’ by some opponents, goes to committee stage at the House of Lords today.
The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill has sparked cross-community opposition.
Under the plan only inquests which have reached substantive hearing stage a year after the bill will be allowed while civil cases have been stopped.
Immunity from prosecution will also be offered in some circumstances.
Last month ex-Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said his government could not support the bill, while Labour leader Keir Starmer has promised to repeal the legislation if he leads the next London government.
Under the contentious blueprint an Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) will be established.
Last week the British government tabled a series of amendments to the bill, including a proposal which would remove a key component of the Good Friday Agreement focusing on provision made around prisoner release.
Under the 1998 agreement paramilitary prisoners were released early from prison.
In addition, people subsequently charged in relation to incidents which took place prior to the Good Friday Agreement being signed will only face a maximum of two years in prison if convicted.
In a statement issued by the Northern Ireland Office last week the British government revealed it is now planning to “disapply the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998 for individuals who choose not to tell the commission (ICRIR) what they know and are then convicted of an offence so that they face a full, rather than reduced, sentence”.
Experts believe the proposal is a “way of ‘incentivising’ applications to the ‘conditional immunities’ amnesty scheme”.
Professor Kieran McEvoy of Queens University School of Law last night said “the proposed amendment to disapply the early release scheme runs contrary to the Good Friday Agreement”.
“In addition, these amendments are not actually designed to help victims get to the truth,” he said.
“If the government wished to facilitate truth recovery it would ensure that the proposed commission had the proper legal powers to conduct investigations to get to the truth.
“It would also ensure that anyone benefitting from an amnesty would have to provide ‘full disclosure’ as happened in South Africa.”
Daniel Holder, deputy director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, was also critical.
“The NIO statement is entirely misleading,” he said.
“There is no requirement on suspects to tell the proposed legacy commission ‘what they know’ to avail of the amnesty.
“The threshold remains remarkably low and does not require any new information.
“The amnesty does however put suspects beyond the scope of any legacy investigation with teeth.”
Pictured at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast for Celebrating Our Reconciling Vision Of Hope. Archbishop Eamon Martin. Picture by Hugh Russell.
Allan Preston
23 January, 2023 02:00
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris and former Irish Foreign Affairs, now Trade Minister, Simon Coveney. Picture by Hugh Russell.
CATHOLIC Archbishop Eamon Martin has suggested religious leaders could help to develop a “truth recovery process” to address the legacy of the Troubles.
The dramatic intervention from the Irish primate came at a service in St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast yesterday in front of church leaders and senior politicians including Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris and the Irish Government’s Trade and former Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney.
Amid the ongoing row over the British Government’s controversial Legacy Bill, the archbishop suggested churches could be “ambitious” in helping “develop truth recovery process to address the legacy of pain and mistrust that continues to hang over us”.
He said that peace, reconciliation and forgiveness across Ireland could only progress by shedding light on the truths of a troubled past that remain “hidden and festering”.
He was speaking ahead of the secretary of state’s five day trip to US where he can be expected to be grilled on the controversial Legacy Bill.
The bill, which introduces conditional amnesties, is on course to pass into law before summer.
It would end all future civil actions related to the conflict and there would be no further inquests beyond those already commenced.
The proposals have been opposed by the main political parties in Northern Ireland, the Irish government and victims’ groups.
A US Congressional letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week expressed concerns about the UK Government’s “dangerous” Troubles legacy plans.
The bipartisan letter from 27 members of the US Congress claims draft legislation would “deny justice to thousands of families” and “conceal the truth of the past”.
In 2009, former Catholic priest and Irish News columnist Denis Bradley, a former vice-chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, worked with former Church of Ireland Primate, Lord Eames, to produce a report into dealing with legacy issues.
It made 31 recommendations on how to address the past.
The group’s most controversial proposal was for a £12,000 payment to the relatives of all killed during the Troubles – which would have cost some £40 million in total – even if the fatalities were involved in paramilitary shootings and bombings.
However their recommendations and report were shelved.
Yesterday’s service at St Anne’s was led by the Dean of Belfast the Very Rev Stephen Forde, and saw representatives and leaders from 16 different churches participate.
The event was marking 100 years since the first meeting of the Irish Council of Churches.
It also marked the 50th anniversary of the Ballymascanlon Talks during the Troubles in 1973, which led to the creation of the Irish Inter-Church Meeting.
It’s deadline day. It’s Ground Hog day. Last May, the people in the North of Ireland voted for a new Assembly and Government. They returned Sinn Féin as the largest party and Michelle O’Neill as the First Minister Elect. It was a historic election. Sinn Féin had topped the polls and for the first time, an Irish Republican had taken the top spot.
The reaction of the largest pro-British Unionist party, the DUP was denial. They have blocked the election of a speaker and the formation of a government. Sounds familiar.
This holdout has been going on for nine months under the watch of three British Prime Minsters.
Democracy Denied
Under the rules, if a government was not formed within 6 months fresh elections would be called. The British government was insistent that the rule would be kept. We hit the deadline in November, the rules were changed and the election was put back to a new date. The new absolute date for a government to be formed or elections announced is January 19th. The British government has now said that it will review the issue. Deadline day is now groundhog day.
We are told that “an election will not change anything and may make things worse”. An argument that would be dismissed anywhere else in the world. It is now up to the British Government to demonstate a clear plan and pathway to have the May election result respected and the government re-established.
The current British Government has a caviler attitude to Good Friday and subsequent agreements.
Legacy Legislation
Next week the British Government will progress legislation in the House of Lords that will end all police investigations into the past conflict, close down inquests and ban victims from accessing the courts. Legislation that is opposed by all parties, victims, national and international human rights bodies, the Irish Government, and the US Congress. The proposals are an attack on the rights of victims and are irreconcilable with Good Friday and other agreements.
In advance of a meeting between the British and Irish Governments, the Irish Times published an opinion piece by a British Minister in which he says of the legislation,
“The UK Government is determined to deliver better outcomes for those most affected by the Troubles, and we welcome continued engagement with all stakeholders, including the Irish Government, as the legislation passes through parliament.”
The Irish Government is not a “stakeholder” to be consulted, they are co-equal partners in international agreements. The statement is clear; the British government will consult but carry on regardless. We will see if the British House of Lords will pass the next stage of this illegal legislation.
Irish Government’s Role
This legislation is not compatible with agreements and in particular the European Convention on Human Rights. If passed it will be overturned in the European Courts. That process may take up to ten years.
That timetable could be shortened to two years if the Irish Government were to take up the case.
The Irish Government should not allow itself to be relegated to a stakeholder but assert its position as a co-equal partner to the agreements and hold the British to account. It should publicly make clear its intention to prepare and take a case to safeguard the agreements and rights of Irish Citizens in the North of Ireland. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Is mise,
Ciarán
Ciarán Quinn is the Sinn Féin Representative to North America
