ShepHistory tweetz:
“A few pictures of people who were alive at the time of Oíche na Gaoithe Móire, which happened on this day 1839.”
UPDATE:
.@broadsheet_ie Heads up – there’s a BBC2 NI documentary on Oíche na Gaoithe Móire at 23.20 tonight. http://t.co/9J3Oi8Z0Nm
— James Kelleher (@etienneshrdlu) January 6, 2015
FURTHER UPDATE: Also showing at 22.15 tonight on RTE1
@etienneshrdlu @broadsheet_ie Don’t forget to watch Oíche Na Gaoithe Móire @RTEOne after @RTE_PrimeTime #TheBigWind pic.twitter.com/YdJ7V1fEds
— RTÉ_Scannal (@RTE_Scannal) January 6, 2015
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Fart jokes aside, i’d say the big wind was gas…
Some of these ages may be wrong. The reason being is that when they introduced the old age pension in 1909 they had no reliable way of asking for proof that they were of the right age to receive it, due to inadequate birth records, illiteracy etc. So the civil servants asked the applicant ‘what was the night of the big wind’, supposing that if they were born the same year they know about it.
Of course once the answer went around people started pretending they were 70 when they were much younger, and lied to get the pension.
Ha! Brilliant.
My great-great-grandparents aged by 20 years between the 1901 and 1911 censuses.
Received ‘The Night of the Big Wind’ one Xmas when it was first published and read it while an actual gale was howling outside. Very evocative. It’s a fascinating though obviously tragic story.
…curiously, this wasn’t mentioned in the record of Armagh Observatory which was one of seven Met Stations in Britain and Ireland at the time. http://climate.arm.ac.uk/scans/1836/01/INDEXA.html
Your link is for 1836 – this one mentions the storm:
http://climate.arm.ac.uk/scans/1839/01/INDEXA.html
…thanks Grace…glad the records were so meticulously kept compared to my reading.
What the füpp were those dopes doing standing next to a lake? At night? & how does one get swept away in a lake?
If the lighting is right and the company is pleasant? Quite easily.
By a big wind that suddenly happens at winds up to 115 miles an hour. While trying to bring in livestock or crops that, if blown away, means you’ll starve to death.
the lack of potatoes made people significantly lighter in those days
Oh, they had potatoes then. The famine wasn’t for another few years yet.
it was a hurricane. There was flooding, etc. There was also the largest number of people blinded in Irish history; people were sitting huddled around their fires and something like a tornado blew burning ashes into their eyes. It was the norm to keep a barrel of water beside the door, but most people couldn’t get to it because they couldn’t see. Many, many children orphaned too. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-30685252
Adorable bunch of old bullsh1tters.