The red warning about Storm Éowyn covered all of Ireland as the worst of the weather moved from its landfall in the southwest across the country towards Scotland.
No county was left without damage to inspect by Friday afternoon. Here is a snapshot of the picture in different areas.
Mayo
Forecasting gales and storms has been the business of the Sweeney family of Blacksod Lighthouse, Co Mayo, for generations.
The link to the weather station at the lighthouse was severed during high winds on Friday morning – the station where his late grandmother gave the forecast that deferred the D-Day landing.
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So when Fergus Sweeney says that Storm Éowyn “has definitely been the worst storm in years” he knows what he is talking about.
“Thankfully, on this occasion, while the seas were big, it was the high winds that caused the main impact. They reached 85mph [136km/h] around 5am. There is widespread damage with roofs gone and electricity cables down all over the Mullet peninsula and Erris,” Mr Sweeney said.
Meanwhile, Clare islanders are counting the cost of the storm, with structural damage to houses. With all ferry services suspended, and boats sheltering at a safe harbour in Achill, any telephone communication to the island was negligible on Friday.
Clare Island ferry operator Charles O’Malley said: “This storm was one of the most severe we have ever experienced. We had to move our boats to Achill and Westport and our crews were checking and monitoring them since 5am this morning.
“As well as the damage to islanders’ cars, our cargo storage building lost its roof and is now a shell.” – Áine Ryan
Kerry
At least two houses in Kerry had to be abandoned during Storm Éowyn due to roof damage, with storm damage across the county from Dingle to Killorglin to Killarney and along the north coast.
Debris in the form of mounds of leaf litter and broken branches was strewn on the roads from the national park which surrounds much of Killarney. Most businesses in the tourist hub closed until noon.
Slates came off the town centre Garda station in Killorglin.
West of Dingle, a photographer and his wife had a lucky escape after they awoke to find part of the gable wall over the bedroom of their house collapsing in the early hours.
Jaro Fagan said he and his wife Ingrid were woken at about 3am by loud noise. The wall plate at the top of the gable went as well as part of the roof.
“It all happened in a second,” he said. He is from Slovakia originally and has been living in Ireland for 20 years.
Further inland in Dingle, on Green Street an ancient elm tree, thought to be 200 years old, came down and blocked the street. – Anne Lucey
Galway
Connemara was particularly badly hit by the storm, with coastal flooding adding to the problem in an area where most houses were without power with little hope of it being restored during the day.
Local authorities believed it would take most of the weekend just to assess the damage caused by Storm Éowyn and that it would be at least a week before the bulk of the work would be carried out to restore services.
The repair work, especially to thousands of houses without electricity, has been hampered by dozens of roads in Galway and Mayo being impassable because of fallen trees.
In many cases the trees knocked down electricity wires making the recovery work and travel in the area hazardous.
Traffic lights throughout Galway city, in particular, were impacted, making already difficult conditions even more dangerous for those who had to go out.
Communications were also impacted with mobile phone coverage out, while local radio station Galway Bay FM could operate only on its website and app after the main mast at its headquarters at Sandy Row in Galway city was blown down in the early hours of Friday morning. – John Fallon
Midlands
Significant damage was done to the perimeter wall of Longford Town Football Club’s Bishopsgate stadium on the Strokestown Road as Storm Éowyn made its way across the county.
Thousands of euro worth of damage was done to the wall which collapsed during the storm. Lanesboro native and MEP Ciaran Mullooly referred in a post on social-media platform X to the need to support the GAA and other clubs.
“The damage done by the storm has been immense and sports facilities in particular have been hit badly,” he said, referring to the “shocking destruction” of the Connacht GAA Air Dome, which is a €3.5 million facility.
“This [Bishopsgate stadium] is a smaller scale but equally devastating for Longford town.” – Jessica Thompson
Dublin
The streets of Dublin city centre were largely deserted early on Friday as commuters heeded warnings not to travel during Storm Éowyn. Public transport was not operating.
Some 40,000 properties in the capital were without electricity on Friday as a result of the damage caused by the storm.
Some structures were damaged in Dublin, including a lamp-post that fell on to a house in Ringsend.
A tree also fell in the Phoenix Park, damaging a wall and blocking traffic on Blackhorse Avenue, while another blocked the entrance to St Vincent’s hospital.
The Blanchardstown ice-skating dome in Millennium Park collapsed as a result of the storm. It had been open since November 15th and was due to close this Sunday. Cool Running Events director Bill Cremin, who operates the business, said the structure blew down between 7am and 8am when Storm Éowyn was at its height in Dublin.
“On the face of it these marquees are quite resilient and they can cope with adverse weather, but not adverse weather with these winds and this severity,” Mr Cremin said. – Ronan McGreevy
Cork
Cork “escaped the worst” of the severe weather with other counties “far more impacted’ by the storm, according to the local authority in the county.
Padraig Barrett, director of services with Cork County Council, told Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1 that while the storm was a “significant event” they were not worried about flooding at this time.
However, a 19-year-old man was taken to hospital in Cork city after a caravan in the Spring Lane halting site in Ballyvolane turned over. The man sustained non life-threatening injuries. – Olivia Kelleher
Ulster
A man died after a tree fell on the car he was driving at Feddyglass, Raphoe, Co Donegal. The incident happened at about 5.30am as Storm Éowyn swept across the country.
Meanwhile, more than 280,000 homes and businesses were without power in Northern Ireland last night after the storm battered the region.
The Aurora Leisure centre in Bangor, Co Down, sustained significant damage to its roof, and several large trees crashed down in Cyprus Avenue, a tree-lined street in east Belfast made famous by a Van Morrison song. – PA
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