BALLINA CHRONICLE Ballina, Mayo, Ireland Wednesday, April 24, 1850 FRIGHTFUL STORM AND INJURY TO PROPERTY IN IRELAND On Thursday between the hours of three and four o'clock in the afternoon, our city was visited by a terrific thunder storm, accompanied by a perfect hurricane and fall tempest, the most fearful in its violence, and the most disastrous in its effects on property (considering the short life of its countenance), that has ever occurred in the memory of the oldest who witnessed it. In fact this terrible convulsion of the elements partook in a very slight degree of the characteristics ascribed to storms in these temperate latitudes. Its phenomena were rather those peculiar to the sudden snow gales of the Baltic, the fatal Mediterranean white squall, or the disastrous and the often unforeseen and unprovided for West Indian hurricane. The conflict of the elements burst upon the city with a suddenness and violence that smote the inhabitants with terror and dismay. We have taken some trouble to ascertain the principal facts attainable concerning this sudden visitation, both as to the very singular atmospheric peculiarities observed at its commencement, as also the extent of injury done in our city and its immediate vicinity, and it gives us no small pleasure to be able to state, that so far as we have yet learned loss of human life is not to be reckoned with in this latter category. The enormous size of the globules of hail was a subject of intense wonder, and even curiosity, scarcely repressed by this terror of the awe-stricken people. We ourselves saw hailstones fall near us considerably larger each of them than the largest grape-shot. But we have authority for stating that congealed balls of frozen fluid were dashed in through windows in some more exposed places, the size of each mass being nearly that of an egg. This enormous size of the hail-stones was not, of course, in general, and we have heard the greater size of some of them accounted for by the very natural supposition of several separate hail-stones being congealed together at a great altitude whilst falling. It is clear, at all events, that the hail was of sufficient size and driven with sufficient force to destroy the glass of an estimated fifth of the windows in the city. SACKVILLE-STREET lying north and south, and its houses being so very high and close together, did not suffer so much as other parts more exposed. Several houses, however, suffered greatly, particularly those of the western side, on which the force of the storm struck obliquely. The upper windows of the Sackville-street Club, and of nearly all the splendid houses on the same side of the street were dashed to pieces. The traders and shopkeepers hastened to close their shops; all business was suspended; the streets were deserted, save under the Post-office piazza, where crowds, surprised by the fearful suddenness of the storm, shrank cowering in terror from the repeated flashes of forked and vivid lightning that heralded the deafening peals of thunder that seemed to split the very sky overhead. The windows of the Prince of Wales's and Abbott's hotels in Prince's-street, near the Post-office corner, were almost totally shattered and the glass in all of the houses, from the corner of Prince's-street to Mr. Chancellor's, near Carlisle-bridge, presented a scene of demolition and ruin. The hail as it fell congregated in enormous heaps on the pave, and at each point where it was driven by the fury of the wind; and as the congregated masses dissolved, the entire street became flooded with water. The crossings then became impassable in many places. The thunder was at one period absolutely deafening, and the drivers of the equipages assembled at the Rotunda flower show could scarcely restrain their horses from bursting away with affright. The animal attached to one vehicle, a one-horse phaeton, sprung away, and galloped with alarming speed down Britain-street, and turning up Dominick-street, ran against the area railings of Mr. Lentaigne's house, which were driven in by the concussion. The horse was severely hurt and the carriage broken. Such parts as faced the north and east presented in their entire extent a scene of desolation and injury to property - windows broken, and everything at all tangible injured or destroyed. In Mountjoy-square trees and shrubs were blown down, and at Summer-hill the houses on the side facing the storm all suffered. In some, the glass of the windows was literally blown out of the frame; in short the streets presented the aspect of what we read of a city after a siege. The Round Room of the Rotunda suffered fearful damages and the hail and rain found its way into the body of the room, the serious personal inconvenience of the large crowd which thronged it. The room had several inches of water on the floor, inundated from the garden. The Show Yard of the Royal Dublin Society was devastated. The temporary sheds were prostrated - the poultry coops scattered about and their gathered inhabitants sent flying abut terror-stricken. Leinster lawn looked to be a field after battle. A servant of Lord Plunkett's was so injured by the fall of the sheds as to be obliged to go to Hospital. Several trees were blown down. A great number of persons sought shelter at Johnston's the silk mercer's, in Sackville-street. The whole of these extensive premises are covered in with glass, the smashing of which caused the greatest consternation, and many ladies fainted with terror from the lightning. At one time a strong smell of fire increased the alarm which speedily subsided. The destruction amounted to about a thousand panes of glass. The Mansion House, the ancient seat of civic authority, experienced in an unusual degree the severity of the hurricane. The two fine old elm trees, in the lawn, near the statue which stood since the reign of Charles I, and contributed so much to beautify and ornament the building, were blown down by the violence of the storm, and in the space of a few minutes torn up by the roots and completely given asunder. The Mansion House itself received considerable injury, the roof being stripped, and almost all the windows broken. A most extraordinary scene was presented in the Law Library of the Courts, at four o'clock, when the hailstones burst over it. There were sixty or seventy barristers writing in the inside room which is almost entirely lighted from the roof, when a sudden flash of lightning was succeeded by a shower of hailstones some as large as grapes. Instantly every pane of glass was shivered and the fragments dashed down on the learned heads. The wig proved itself a helmet, but notwithstanding this protection, briefs, books, and bills were instantly deserted - the narrow gallery afforded but little shelter. Some were protected under the old folios, spreading these capricious volumes over them, whilst others wrapped their gowns turbanwise round their heads, whilst the hail pelted in and the glass flew about in every direction; but when the storm passed over the destruction was visible, and many a forsaken wig had received the contents of folios of drafts which were wholly washed out and obliterated. In the course of the evening two patients were admitted into Mercer's Hospital, who had received injuries in consequence of the storm, one and old woman, whose temple was severely cut by a fall on the street, and the other a woman, who was crushed by the fall of a ceiling in one of the houses in the Liberty. Seven elm trees in the College park were prostrated, and a part of one was broken off. The destruction of glass will amount to several thousand pounds. GLASNEVIN - The storm appears to have raged with much greater violence here than it did on the south side of the city. The devastation it has made on the roofs of the conservatories is indiscribable; scarcely a whole pane in some of the houses remain. The roofs of the new range have not suffered nearly as much, but altogether the spectacle is a very melancholy one at present, and the damage done very extensive. Trinity College suffered a great deal of damage, a great deal of glass was broken, and several trees were blown down. In the squares also, or wherever else the houses were exposed to the fury of the storm, the amount of injury was considerable. In Aungier-street, the upper part of a house was blown down, and several in other streets, besides a large number of chimneys, &c. In one district, in the neighbourhood of the Meath Hospital, twelve or fourteen houses were completely unroofed. In portions of Merrion-square, Stephen's-Green, Nassau-street, and other streets in this district, a vast amount of damage was sustained by the smashing of glass, particularly in greenhouses in situations exposed to the fury of the gale. - We regret to stay that almost every pane of glass in St. Vincent's Hospital (Stephen's Green) was shattered to pieces. Some roofs of houses were more or less stripped of their slates, and the chimney of a house in North Frederick-st., corner of Molesworth-st, blown down on the flagway, but fortunately without personal injury to anyone. Houses in Bolton-street, Britain-street, Summer-hill, and places in that direction have also more or les suffered by the severity of the storm. However, it is needless to advert to the appearances presented by the several streets - the description of one is that of all. The effects of the storm were unparalleled, considering its short countenance.---Dublin Commercial Journal Cathy Joynt Labath Ireland Old News http://www.IrelandOldNews.com/