Well, it's a welcome...
So here I am, back in Ireland for the first time in thirteen years... and there's a hurricane.
Well, strictly speaking a tropical storm by the time she made landfall in the West of Ireland, but this is Ireland: why should the literal truth get in the way of an event such as a hurricane? So Hurricane Ophelia she is, and it's been a bloody windy day. Sadly, three people died during the storm, mainly due to fallen trees. We spent much of the afternoon in the hotel lounge looking out at the wind bending trees horizontal, though did go for a walk along by Sandymount Strand later in the afternoon - breezy but not dangerous.
They take their storms seriously over here. All public transport had shut down by early afternoon in Dublin (earlier further west); shops and businesses either didn't open at all or closed by around 11; all schools were closed and people were advised to stay indoors. But this being Ireland, the pubs stayed open. The #ophelia hashtag on Twitter was full of publicans inviting people to come and take shelter, and weren't even requring the purchase of a drink with which to drink Ophelia's health. As for other ways of marking Ophelia's presence, I saw a parish priest warn that if parishioners happened to have a baby to baptise nine months from now, they better not want her christened Ophelia or they could find another church.
All the same, Ophelia, we've had enough of you; you can feck off across to England now. Bye!
Well, strictly speaking a tropical storm by the time she made landfall in the West of Ireland, but this is Ireland: why should the literal truth get in the way of an event such as a hurricane? So Hurricane Ophelia she is, and it's been a bloody windy day. Sadly, three people died during the storm, mainly due to fallen trees. We spent much of the afternoon in the hotel lounge looking out at the wind bending trees horizontal, though did go for a walk along by Sandymount Strand later in the afternoon - breezy but not dangerous.
They take their storms seriously over here. All public transport had shut down by early afternoon in Dublin (earlier further west); shops and businesses either didn't open at all or closed by around 11; all schools were closed and people were advised to stay indoors. But this being Ireland, the pubs stayed open. The #ophelia hashtag on Twitter was full of publicans inviting people to come and take shelter, and weren't even requring the purchase of a drink with which to drink Ophelia's health. As for other ways of marking Ophelia's presence, I saw a parish priest warn that if parishioners happened to have a baby to baptise nine months from now, they better not want her christened Ophelia or they could find another church.
All the same, Ophelia, we've had enough of you; you can feck off across to England now. Bye!