In order to prevent disorderly persons from crossing the River Shannon from Limerick County into the County of Clare there are boats stationed on the river with peace officers on boat, who are directed to search all boats crossing the river, and to apprehend suspected persons in order that they may be examined by the Magistrates, and such persons as wish to come across the river on lawful purposes are directed to have a pass from some Magistrate to save them trouble or interruption.
On Thursday last about one in the morning, there was the most violent storm, and floods occasioned by it, that ever was known by any living, or ever heard of here.
It lasted till 9. The water rose so violently of a sudden, and to that height, that most of the cellars in the town were full of water, by which the Merchants, Vintners, Ale-sellers and other People suffered very much. The inhabitants of the suburbs of the town were forced to crawl naked from the inside to the tops of their cabins, whence some fell down being benumm’d and not able to hold longer. God knows what the losses in the country are.
It’s certain all the cattle and corn in the low lands near the Shannon are lost, as well as the corn and rape in stack as that in ground. Many houses in town and country were untiled, and some blown down; two ships that lay at the Key, taking in their lading, and one empty were got on the top of the Key; two are got off, but the third, a Dutch Ship of 80 Tons, lyes now just at Key Gate.
They are taking out her goods and breaking down the Key, in hopes to get her off. I hear the Queen Ann of London of 400 Tuns, from Jamaica, with Sugar, Indigo, etc. is put ashore at a place called Glinn, about 11 Leagues down the River. The Anna of Rotterdam, with Beef, Butter, Hides and Tallow, is driven ashore upon Fines Island, 8 Leagues down, and is 2 or 300 yards higher in the Fields than ever the Tide came before. It’s said the Queen Ann is not bulged but very far up, and buryed in the sand very deep. Our barge was bulged and sunk. The Watch-house and three other houses were blown down on the Key. Two of the garrison gates were blown to pieces. The magazines and guardhouses were almost quite unflated and unglazed, and the sentry boxes broken to pieces.
It is a long dreary drive of nineteen miles to Ennis, through an open limestone country, with low craggy hills. In all this part of Ireland the eye wearies for the pretty villages and comfortable farm-houses which give life and variety to the flat counties of England. The station at Ennis is a wretched one, the platform being of earth, and it was not improved by recent rain and trampling of a crowd of emigrants. Although this is the terminus of the Ennis and Limerick line, the train was in no hurry to start. Everybody took their time, and just half an hour after the one named in the time bills the train set out.
It progressed very slowly on its way, and I was not sorry, for it gave us the opportunity of an excellent view of Clare Abbey — close by which the line passes — one of the loveliest ruins I had ever seen, a graceful church in the form of a cross, with east window almost perfect, and a lofty tower, and the ivy twining round about the broken arches, and covering the walls with a rich green mantle.
On reaching Limerick, I implored a porter to get my luggage quickly, as I wanted to catch the next train for Charleville. “But sure she’s been gone this ten minutes. She was an hour after her time. Your train was so late she could wait no longer.” As I expressed my vexation he said in a tone of deep sympathy, “There’ll be a train tomorrow.” On making further inquiries at the station it turned out that the trains do not profess to fit in with each other. As one of the officials expressed it, “The great lines try to eat up the little ones.”
The effects of the thunderstorm on Thursday week were severely felt in Ireland. At Limerick, a woman was killed by lightning while sitting at the fire with her husband. Three persons lost their lives in Galway. Houses and cattle were injured at Marlborough; five cows and a horse belonging to one man were killed.
A person living at Tallaght gives the following account of the tremendous phenomena witnessed there :
“A convulsion took place about three o’clock this morning at Old Bawn, Tallaght; the earth trembled as if it was only held by suspension; the houses rocked most frightfully, as if inclined to bury the inmates; when on a sudden the heavens opened to the eye as one mass of living fire. Immediately after the elements grumbled and sent forth their awful noise, which was loud and terrific. The lightning, or some other uncontrollable power, tore up a part of the road, small at top and opened as it sunk to the form of a balloon, well worth seeing.”
Photo: André Karwath Wikimedia CommonsThe Times
London, Middlesex, England
October 25, 1788
Cyder is so cheap this year, that on the condition of giving two hogsheads, in either the counties of Limerick or Waterford, one of them is filled (or tilled) land given in return for the other. Cyder is certainly an healthy beverage, but should not be drank too fresh, or in great quantities. It is known by experience that those who drink nothing but this liquor, are stronger, more healthy, and look better than those who drink wine; of which Lord Bacon gives a remarkable instance of eight old people, who were near, and others above one hundred, who during their whole lives drink nothing but cyder, and were so vigorous, that they danced and jumped about like young men.
Waterspout off the Florida Keys Image ID; wea00308 Historic NWS Collection Dr. Joseph Golden, NOAA Wikimedia CommonsWestern Waterspout
The Times London, May 20, 1788
On the 6th inst. between two and three in the afternoon, a water-spout of considerable diameter made its appearance between Adare and Barnakill-bridge in the county of Limerick in Ireland. This phenomenon, which is rather uncommon in Ireland, is described to have been of a spiral storm, exhibiting a very dazzling brightness, and attended with a ???? somewhat resembling the clash of arms. It is added that the beasts of the field appeared terrified, and that several crows, as if suddenly killed, dropped to the earth. At the same hour a very heavy rain (accompanied with loud thunder and unusually vivid flashes of lightning) fell in the city and liberties of Limerick, but did not extend beyond them. We have not heard whether the bursting of the water-spout occasioned any particular injury to the part where it fell.
The Burren and Beyond 