Severe Weather

transcribed at

Severe Weather  [duchas:4747046]

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Severe weather
I often heard the old people talking about the night of the "Big Win"It occurred on the 6th January 1839. And in this locality it is often called the "Ballinagare Wind" because there was a fair in Ballinagare that day. I heard people say that the evening of the storm there was not a leaf stirring, it was so calm. When some people living in this district went out to see their stock, their mouths were filled with salt water (Although they were some thirty miles from the nearest sea) Fowl (turkeys, hens, geese) were swept four and five miles before the wind. My great grandfather brought in a young horse and tied him in the end of the kitchen for safety, and one blast came which spun him round and round just like a top.
I heard of a very severe thunder-storm in this district, about twenty years ago.

Severe Weather  [duchas:4747047]

67
It killed two cows, stone dad, on a man about 1/4 of a mile from my grandfather's house their skin and hair were singed with the lightning.
In the year 1914 there were very heavy falls of snow in the latter end of January, and the  beginning of February. The people had to cut a passage through the snow, and pile it up in high banks each side. No cart, car, lorry or motor could travel for long and long, and there was great inconvenience caused owing to the stoppage of traffic. Animals and birds suffered very much, and people also suffered many losses.
Mrs J Holmes (79)
Caldra,
Elphin
A. Rushe,
Shankil,
Elphin