When a Category 3 hurricane struck Ireland in 1839

"The arrival of the hurricane force winds would never be forgotten by those who remembered it...." Wow, that bad!?! Imagine if it HAD been forgotten by those who remembered it - it would be like it never happened.

My dad, (89) says the old people used to talk about the "storm that blew the horns off the cattle". Sounds like the one.

My family are from Mayo and they said that after the 1839 hurricane they found fish several miles in land! Also if anyone was born at that time or could remember the hurricane in 1909 they were entitiled to receive the old age pension!

Sounds impossible but there are stories from the Big Wind that the sod on whole fields was ripped up and deposited a mile away. Sounds more like a massive tornado than a hurricane in January. Or perhaps one of those fierce freak windstorms they get in the Sahara desert. Nonetheless, it was devastating and survives in folk memory.

The day Obama rolled into town trees 10 miles from the sea were browned by brine in Donegal. Hot wind blows no good.

Due to the damage and other oral and written information.They are taking a good guess that it might have been a hurricane.Category 3 sounds reasonable.We get the odd 90 mile an hour winds every 20 years or so.I think 115 miles per hour winds or over is quite possible every couple of hundred years.

Hey Cabbagehead, it happens to the homeless every day!!

not sure if Mr O'Shea is a meteorologist, but it's questionable that the Great Wind was a hurricane. Hurricane winds, yes, but such winds are not restricted to hurricanes. Really deep depression indeed, and while hurricanes are depressions, not all depressions are hurricanes. (cars are vehicles with wheels, but not all vehicles with wheels are cars). Wrong time of the year, and hurricanes are defined by how and where they form as well as wind strength. And the wind is described as blowing from the sw, then the w, and then the nw. Cyclonic storms (which includes hurricanes, rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere. Still, a remarkable "Great Wind".

I never realized that Ireland had this type of storm - a real eye-opener. It must have been the most frightening experience in the middle of winter. What misery people must have suffered with no heat source, food or shelter. I probably would have thought that it was the end of the world!

UNIV 101 - If you get you story from wiki, someone will know. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Big_Wind Winds equal to a category 3 hurricane does NOT equal a category 3 hurricane. It just means the damage was what you would expect from 125 to 150 mph winds. Sloppy. At least it is better than the stupid "Comet Crashes into Ireland" headline you ran.