 |
| Lightning possibly striking trees in New Abbey woods on the night of the event. © Eugene Brennan |
Who remembers this, the severe thunderstorm of 1985?
On the night of July 25th, 1985 and into the next morning, we had probably one of the worst thunderstorms in Ireland. It resulted in damage to houses and crops, flooding and crows were killed by large hailstones. Phone lines were also damaged. There's even a long, multi-page thread about it on Boards.ie. Lightning and thunder was frequent while the storm was overhead, occurring every couple of seconds. I managed to capture this stroke from my bedroom window by leaving the camera shutter open, probably hitting the trees in woodland near New Abbey graveyard in Kilcullen, rather than the communal "piped TV" aerial, several gardens away. Unfortunately the photo wasn't great and it was overexposed and fuzzy, so I've been waiting for better photo opportunities ever since (including last night from 1 am onwards). I was a student at the time and working during the summer in Naas. Loads of phone lines were knocked out, the place was flooded and I remember having to explain to a P&T technician how to use a meter to check fuses. Training mustn't have been great in those days.
This is the Boards dot ie thread:
Severe Thunderstorm July 25th/26th 1985
The Met Éireann report on the phenomenon:
and Des Cahill's report on the event, courtesy the RTÉ Archives site: