From heatwaves to tornadoes - 9,000 years of Irish weather

THE month began with reports of a tornado in Galway. Or was it extra-strong wind? Within 24 hours, a restaurant owner had admitted that the striking image of the ‘tornado’ was a Photoshop fake.

Tornadoes are rare here, as are earthquakes, although a small one was recorded 60km off the Mayo coast in 2012. We haven’t had a tsunami, but Galway’s Spanish Arch was partly demolished by the spent remains of the 60ft wave that flattened Lisbon in 1755.

When the first settlers arrived, 9,000 years ago, they found the mild, damp climate welcoming. The summers weren’t scorchers, but the winters were tolerable. The climate’s lack of viciousness was appreciated by people aware that they were one cruel winter or failed harvest away from starvation, pestilence and death. But our mild climate has hidden dangers, as Oliver Cromwell found to his cost. The brutality of Cromwell’s Irish campaign, in 1649-50, is a matter of record, but the climate took a terrible revenge.