January 5th 1839, Ireland

[gingercat]

I wonder what it would have been like to have been there! It was so memorable that the government used it as a milestick to decide whether someone was old enough to claim a pension!

http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/ACalend/BigWind.html

[ForeverPomeroysnow]

A fasinating read gingercat - it must have been awful for the poor with no relief in those days of course with the famine alot worse was to follow

[Downburst]

"....Others believed that on that night, all but a few of the fairies of Ireland left the country never to return and that the wind was caused by their departure. "

Lovely folklore that.

(Although Michael D Higgins resembles and sounds like the King of the Fairies, so without putting a curse on myself good luck to him)