Séamas O'Reilly: Casting an eye back on the stormy Christmas of 1998

"...first leaves and sticks, then branches and plastic bottles, and finally objects — fence posts, patio umbrellas, infants of Prague — that had no business speeding past in a massive, broiling soup of airborne debris..."

Séamas O'Reilly. Picture: Orfhlaith Whelan

When I think of bad festive seasons, I can’t look past the long stretch over Christmas 1998, when our family of 12 shivered in the frigid darkness of a week-long power cut. 

The appropriately named Hurricane Stephen (not to be confused with 1987’s Westmeath Angler of the Year, Stephen Houricane) made landfall on the rugged coast of western Donegal in the wee hours of Stephen’s Day.