Sky-gazers as far south as Waterford and Tipperary share their amazing shots of the Aurora Borealis on Twitter.Getty images

Even the skies above Ireland went green on St. Patrick’s Day 2015 as the Aurora Borealis, known as the Northern Lights, put on a rare display thanks to a massive solar storm.

Sky-gazers in the North of Ireland, especially Derry and the Inishowen Peninsula in Donegal had a spectacular view of the colorful lights. However, due to the largest solar storm in 11 years, the natural phenomenon was visible as far south as Waterford and Wicklow.

The Aurora Borealis is predominantly seen in the Arctic and Antarctic, but this spectacular display was created by a large explosion on the sun on Sunday throwing huge amounts of magnetically charged particles into space called a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME).

Here’s a selection of the beautiful shots taken around Ireland:

 

* Originally published in March 2015.