Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated at 8.20pm
STORM DESMOND HAS hit the north and west coast of Ireland bringing torrential rain and strong winds.
Met Éireann issued a status red weather warning earlier for Connacht, Donegal, Clare and Kerry, along with other warnings for several parts of the country. Authorities are advising the public to avoid nonessential travel to the affected areas.
Incessant falls of torrential rain are expected overnight and for all of Saturday as Storm Desmond hits the country. As much as 70mm of rain is expected to fall over this period, and even more on higher ground, the forecaster said.
The ‘red alert’ warning kicked in at 6pm tonight and lasts until 3am on Sunday morning.
Desmond is already causing trouble:
Roads and rail
Drivers are asked to exercise caution as there will be increased surface water on the roads and also a risk of trees and cables falling down.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) is advising motorists to check forecasts and traffic updates before setting out on a journey.
“In extreme weather conditions it is best to avoid making a journey by road unless absolutely necessary,” the authority said.
If driving in such conditions is unavoidable be prepared. The golden rule is drive with care and caution – expect the unexpected.
The RSA also has this advice for driving in flooded conditions:
Irish Rail says services are running on all routes and the company will be providing updates all weekend:
Flights
There have been reports of planes being forced to abort landings and circle around due to the adverse conditions, with airports advising travellers to check with their airline about the status of their flights. Some flights have also been cancelled.
Electricity
Already, hundreds of homes are without power.
ESB Networks has said it is worried about gale force winds and urged customers to get in touch about any faults:
Storm Desmond nationwide
Though the status red warning is only in place for Connacht, Donegal, Clare and Kerry, status orange and yellow warnings are in place across the country.
The National Co-ordination Group for Severe Weather Emergencies met yesterday and this afternoon to discuss a response to the storm.
The group believes the level of rainfall will give rise to potentially severe local floods which may block roads in some areas.
“The combination of high winds and very heavy rainfall may give rise to very dangerous conditions and the public are advised to monitor the weather forecasts and heed public information advice for their specific area,” a statement from the group read.
Non-essential travel in the affected areas should be avoided. Where roads become flooded, conditions may be extremely hazardous and motorists are advised to approach flooded roads with extreme caution, as flood waters may be stronger and deeper than anticipated.
Local authorities are monitoring the situation and response arrangements are in place to deal with flood emergencies and to coordinate with An Garda Síochána and the HSE to deal with the anticipated impact of forecast rainfall and high winds this evening and tomorrow.
The National Co-ordination Group, with OPW and ESB, will continue to monitor the river levels as some rivers are expected to flood, with this very heavy rainfall coming on top of a wet month of November.
Be careful on the coast
The Irish Coast Guard is calling for people to use common sense and stay away from headlands, piers and cliffs that produce heavy spray.
The spray can be replaced by a life-ending wave in a blink of an eye.
“Before the storm gathers the Coast Guard is preparing to undertake a long range mission out to the southwest to medevac a critically ill crewman off a merchant vessel before the big seas hit. Best of luck,” the Facebook post concluded.
Incessant falls of heavy rain overnight and for all of Saturday. Accumulations in excess of 70mm expected, with greater totals on higher ground. Valid from 6pm tonight to 3am Sunday morning.
Southwest winds with mean speed of 55 to 75 km/h will gust 100 to 120 km/h. Winds will be strongest for coastal areas. Valid from 9am today to 6pm Saturday.
Incessant falls of heavy rain overnight and for all of Saturday. Accumulations of 50 to 70mm expected. Valid from 9pm tonight to 3am Sunday morning.
A Limerick City and County Council spokesperson said: “Spot flooding is considered likely due to the volume of rain that is forecast to fall on already saturated ground. We are advising property owners in flood prone locations and motorists to exercise vigilance during the period.”
Southwest winds with mean speeds of 50 to 65km/h will gust 90 to 100km/h. Valid from 3pm today to 9pm on Saturday.
Heavy rain tonight and all day Saturday. Rainfall totals of 30 to 50 mm. Valid from midnight tonight until midnight Saturday.
Originally published 10.19am
- With reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Leftist entitlement.
@Gerard Casserly: no, entitled idiots.
I consider myself left-leaning, and I for one would never consider doing anything like this. For one thing.. by digging up and destroying the lawn, they are actually destroying am ecosystem that supports worms, ants, beetles, and countless other creatures.
These idiots do NOT speak for all people who are left leaning, and are, imo, idiots who don actually know much about the environment, ecology. If they did, they would refrain from the stunts they pull, as from what I’ve seen, they cause a lot o harm.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: Digging it up is destroying the eco-system for worms and the like? Ehm. No. Not that I agree, but no, just no.
@Gerard Casserly: I would appreciate a group hand digging up the veg garden right now, they can post pictures of a organic garden, crop rotation and bio culture. If scroat vandals damage earthy ground it’s wrong
@Gerard Casserly: And what did it achieve? Nothing but publicity to feed their hungry egos.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: is that you Mrs Robinson
@Ian Phillip Creaner: you realise any bot of grass is home to a myriad of lifeforms, right? Worms, ants, beetles, weeds, and many others. They do things like aerate the soil, promote grass growth, provide food for other animals such as birds and so on. That’s what makes it an ecosystem. Dig that up in a destructive manner, and yes, it does destroy the current ecosystem. Creatures are killed. Food sources are disrupted. Sure, the ecosystem will recover, but that still takes time.
People who are serious about gardening, something I grew up with thanks to my parents, take steps to mitigate the damage they do, out of understanding. They dont destroy the entire ecosystem. They plant things that encourage diversity within. They help the population by recovering, through, for example, purchasing a few worms, and encouraging them to live. Gardening is all about balance and promoting biodiversity. Even if a person doesn’t put thought into it, the damage they do is never malicious, as they are shaping it into something different, which also promotes life. This is just mindless destruction, on the other hand.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: “any bot of grass” then I stopped reading. Go watch Attenborough. It might help you. You poor craytur.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: Low cut manicured lawns are barren desert landscapes for insects. The manicured lawns of today are about as good an ‘ecosystem’ as the spruce monocultures. Completely useless. Digging does not affect worms and it actually helps the soil. Cutting a tight lawn is not gardening, it’s decimating. I’m sure that’s what Ian was trying to say.
@TheHeathen: Thank you. It was.
@TheHeathen: you’ve clearly never been down on grass. Even tightly maintained lawns are home to insects. I’ve been bitten by,or crawled on, by plenty in the past 30+ years. They also provide food for creatures like rabbits, hedgehogs etc. I know this from stepping in their droppings more times than I can count.
I never said digging as a whole was bad,btw. Just that the disordered way they’re doing it is destructive and irresponsible.
Still, that’s them all over. They claim to be doing this in an effort to save the environment, yet everything I see of them is just disgustingly destructive and damaging.
@Paul Somers: Hi Paul it may be worth you watching Charles Dowding, no dig gardening on You Tube.
It will save you a lot of effort.Hope this will help.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: So everyone digging their gardens and planting flowers/trees/vegetables is destroying ecosystems?
These are a group of really sad people, they’re looking for meaning in their lives and seem to believe that ‘disruption’ is a worthwhile goal. Pity they don’t understand the difference between trying making a change for the better and doing more harm than good.
@EvieXVI: warning to any rational thinking people… theres little more than rightwing virtue signaling from here on…
@EvieXVI: Another misguided, often well-meaning but often obnoxious generation trying to find meaning in the realm of activism in the absence of having any personal competence. Religion replaced by worship at the alters of diversity and environmentalism is more amusing to me than informative. Walk into the future hesitantly rather than blind certainty is my conservative credo. It has served me well. But to each his own.
@Dermot Killian: We’ll said.
Vandals hope they get jail
Shower of bolloxes
@Patrick Agnew: at least. That’s the correct technical term for them.
They really don’t do themselves any favors
@Jane: modern version of the 80s CND movement comprised of greasy haired ,nose ringed ,Rollie smoking ,rag clothed individuals who are misguided and naive .
Get a job you bums.
And yet they don’t want to cut turf… im guessing they prob just invented the single use shovel .. ha ha ha..
@CAMILA REMONA:
Someone or a team work hard to maintain that. Hope they get arrested.
Any form of tilling or digging releases CO2.
Now they have become just a bunch of irrelevant Environmental vandals
Extinction Rebellion need to reevaluate the real threat that is in space or in a lab .
Police did nothing to stop them…British police are not what they used to be…
@iComment: British police are s c umbags …
@iComment: didn’t the UK recently declare the extinction rebellion a terrorist organization? A week in Guantanamo would put manners on them.
@iComment: I really doubt the UK police had a 24 hour guard over the lawn of college in Cambridge. Unless maybe they should have expected such an action from this group based on internet chatter or drone surveillance?
Should change their name to ” rebellion extinction ” if they keep doing this daft stuff.
Deluded hippy titbaskets, go and get a skilled trade for yourselves.
Good chance to plant a camomile lawn.
B@stards. That’s somebody’s work.
It’s thought provoking.
@Adrian Cronin: Wondering what their looking for.!!
@Adrian Cronin: Yes, it’s provoking thoughts into a negative. There are more meaningful forms of protest than than these primitive but primary actions and oh so old and dreary.
Extinction Rebellion seem to think that there is a magic switch that can be flipped so energy from fossil fuel can be immediately replaced with renewable energy sources.
Firstly to replace every Watt of Electricity one for one currently produced by fossil fuels with it’s renewable alternative will take decades of manufacturing and building. Hydro Electric power stations don’t build themselves, nor does the materials required in the construction appear by magic. Wind Turbines and Solar Panels don’t just grow out of the ground like some tree or flower. They need to be manufactured and built.
And what energy source will these environmental activists use to manufacture and build these structures if not the fossil fuels they have abandoned?
So what this University is doing along with others is researching ways to make fossil fuels more efficient so we use less and cleaner so we pollute less, during the interviening years that they can be replaced.
But it seems these idiots would like us to return to a pre-industrial world. But doing so would mean less food production, less medicine production, shorter life spans, a rise in infant mortality etc.
They may have a just cause but damage to property like this doesn’t help them.
The small amount of coverage they get from this stunt will make most people roll their eyes or shrug their shoulders. It certainly won’t make any difference to the status quo.
WOW! I know this is the journal comment section so ill keep it simple. Big picture people! You are concerned about a patch of grass but have no problem with covering a farm with tarmac?! Someone even complained about disrupting worms. Have you read the article, mate? A whole farm is at stake! The environmental change that needs to happen, won’t, if its left up to institutions, like Trinity college. Then what, people? Yer arguments about lawns or disrespecting somebody’s work are just pathetic. More of this, or less of everything. Theres your options.
@Chaos Ape: Agree but what’s wrong with non destructive protest? Lots of ways to have impactful protest without destroying their environment
@Siofra Cronin: They, are unable to think of alternatives. Their actions show lost childhood syndrome, raised in a Crèche.!!
@Siofra Cronin: if they didnt dig up the lawn, we wouldn’t be talking about it.
Brilliant
It’s just a lawn without any benefit for flying insects. Just ugly green no flowers, cutter as short as mind
Brilliant
Idiots
Mostly public school spoilt brats , they should be ” tarred and feathered ” in public , these idiot’s..
have your say