Big Wind, Lisburn Line
The Big Wind arrived after unsettled winter weather, strengthening during the evening of 6 January. It swept across Ireland with exceptional violence. Reports came from every province: roofs stripped from houses, chimneys and walls brought down, trees uprooted, vessels wrecked or driven ashore, and roads obstructed by fallen timber and debris. In Dublin, many buildings were damaged and the Liffey rose over the quays. Along exposed coasts, mariners and coastguard crews faced the gravest danger. The loss of twelve Roundstone coastguards in Connemara was among the documented tragedies; wrecks and drownings elsewhere around the coast added substantially to the death toll.