Waves of destruction on island

Waves of destruction on Clare Island


Áine Ryan

FOR over 70 years former publican and B&B owner, Bernard McCabe has lived at his home, Granuaile House, at Clare Island Quay. Over those decades he has seen many storms and swells batter his native island and the slipways and quays below his family home. But when he and his wife, retired national school teacher Mary, heard a loud explosion outside their upstairs bedroom at 8.30am –  high tide - yesterday morning (Monday), they were naturally shocked. They were more alarmed when they looked out the window to see the garden wall gone – in a split second –  chewed up by the unrelenting power of an enormous wave.
“Well I had got up at around 4am to check and I didn’t think the swell was that big. There wasn’t a lot of wind here at the house and it was coming from the south-west but there was a huge swell  at high tide. It was back-washing off the sheds across the road and flowing like a river up the road, past the old bar door,” Bernard McCabe told The Mayo News last night.
He explained that the wall, which overlooked the old slipway was part of the walls of an original cottage built sometime during the 1800s.“This is the worst weather I have ever seen. Last Friday morning there was no swell but the tide was very high, if the tide had been as high this morning with that huge swell, it would have cleaned out a lot of the buildings around the Quay,” he added.
Speaking earlier, Mary McCabe said she was very worried that, with the destruction of the wall, they were very exposed to another surging swell. She said she was considering moving to another house, The Lodge, owned by her sister-in-law. But as conditions had quietened somewhat last night the McCabe family, while still in shock, decided to stay put.
Meanwhile, ferryman, Alan O’Grady, said it was ‘one of the worst Christmases he had experienced since he started going to sea regularly 25 years ago’.
“Usually you don’t get such a big swell with such a high tide. We have managed to have sailings to Achill most days but they have to be on high tides because of the swell,” he said.
Moreover, the force of the ocean dragged two cars from Inishbofin pier and four from the mainland pier of Cleggan, which services Inishofin and Inishturk.

HIGH TIDE B&B proprietor Bernard McCabe surveys the destruction yesterday (Monday).