The Night of the Big Wind

[murf]

In my Murphy's of the Ballynacally Area http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... y/main.htm I make reference to a certain woman named Margaret McNamara who when asked by the local Guardians about her age replied that she was “launched into this miserable world the night of the wind”.
Well I have just stumbled upon the following article in The Catholic Press which provides additional info on "The Night of the Wind". The scanned image was a little hard on the eyes, so I took the trouble to correct the computer transcription. I think it was worth it. Perhaps all family historians with Clare connexions should keep the date 6 Jan 1839 in a safe place, just in case his/her ggg grandaddy was married on the "night of the wind".

'THE NIGHT OF THE BIG WIND.'
Old Memories.
Those who have made a study of the claims of applicants for ald age pensions in Ireland under the recent Act, and who have interested themselves even cursorily in the methods by which many of them sought to fix their ages, must have noticed that the well-known landmark, 'the night of the big wind,' frequently occurred, says an Irish paper. Previous to the enactment of Mr. Lloyd George's philanthropic and highly-beneficial statute, people in our rural districts were wont to hear events spoken of as having occurred so many years after or so many years before the 'night of the rising.' But the requirements of the Pensions Act altered this practice, and now 'the night of the big wind' is a standard chronological event in the minds of our State beneficiaries.

Not alone in this country is that terrible night spoken of with a feeling which approaches to awe and reverence, but away in the land of the Stars and Stripes and in Australia, the old men and women who still speak of Ireland as their motherland will talk as glibly of 'the night of the big wind' as if their homes were perched on one of the Connaught headlands or situated in one of the smiling reaches of a Munster valley. When Finlay Peter Dunne — the creator ' of Mr. Dooley— wished to convey to his readers an idea of the havoc which the Yankee Admiral Schley was to create among the soldiers of Spain during the recent war, he said: 'Schley will crush the Spaniards at one blow, and never will there be such a blow since the night of the big wind in Ireland.' Mr. John Kelly, a member of the editorial staff of the Chicago 'Tribune, has sent to a friend a cutting from that paper, which gives particulars respecting Little Christmas Night, January 6, 1839 — for that was the night of the 'big wind' — and the remembrances of it which are still entertained by veteran Irish-Americans. This historic event, which occurred 70 years ago, the Chicago 'Tribune' of January 7 says was celebrated by Irishmen the world over with story and song. In Chicago, as in every other American city, many an Irish family gathered around the hearth-stone and listened to the thrilling tales related by the father or the mother of 'the night of the big wind.' Some of the narrators, of course, were too young on that fearful night to be able now to treasure an exact or even a dim remembrance of the event, but the story has been handed down from father to son, and from mother to daughter.

The 'Tribune' gives a narrative of the memorable windy night as told by an old Irishman named Michael White, who says: 'I was two years old at the time, and, of course, was too young to have a personal recollection of the event, but I often heard my father and mother tell the story. It was 'little Christmas' night, January 6, 1839, that the big wind swept over the greater part of the province of Munster, doing incalculable damage. The Counties of Kerry, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, and Clare, through which the big wind traversed, were devastated. Hundreds of thatched roofs on the houses of the Irish peasantry were ripped off by the wind and carried miles distant. My father's house was unroofed, and the next day they found part of the roof in a bog seven miles away. Children and grown persons were lifted with their beds and carried on the wind across moor and creek. It was the greatest wind ever known in Ireland. Old Mr. White tells, too, the remarkable story of the flight of the Kerry cows, which has been told and re-told in many an Irish cabin, and which has been coloured and re-coloured until it merges forth now, a finished tale, as well calculated to excite awe as any epic of the days, of the Red-branch Knights — of the men who could jump from their feet and with that sudden bound clear nine ridges of potato ground. Here is what he says: 'My father — 'God be good to him — used to tell about a herd of cows that were grazing on McGillicuddy's Rocks when the big wind that came in from the heads of Kerry picked them up and landed them 60 miles away in the Golden Vein. Ever since then the Golden Vein has been world-famous for its butter, and it was the Kerry cows that made it so.

Although the central and eastern parts of Ireland were visited by the wind, the damage was confined mostly to Munster and Connaught. The gale came in from the Atlantic, first striking the heads of Kerry, and then dipping down into Cork. Everything before it was laid to waste. Blessed candles were burning in the homes of everybody,- the candles left over from Christmas. That no lives were lost was believed to be due to the fact that the candles were lighted in honour of the closing night of the Christmas festival.'

The Catholic Press (NSW : 1895 – 1942) Thursday 29 April 1909

[pwaldron]

Here's a contemporary article on the introduction of Old Age Pensions written in Nov 1908 that doesn't actually mention the Night of the Big Wind!

[murf]

I returned to Trove and entered "night of the big wind" in the searchbox and came up with a plethora of articles on the subject, some of which are still in the transcription process. A good descriptive article was in the Catholic Press of 4 July 1912.
The thought occurred to me that if there was, as it appears, widespread damage to housing across the countryside, perhaps some more unscrupulous landlords may have seized the opportunity to evict unwanted tenants. If anyone has at their fingertips annual statistics of eviction numbers, it would be interesting to see if there was a spike in the figures for 1839.