Mayo storm of January 1901 was ‘an act of God’

by Auld Stock

IN January 1901 a huge storm swept over County Mayo.

Castlebar was the area most badly affected by the storm.

Katie Cosgrove, McHale Road, who lived in Spencer Street at the time, told me local people were terrified and hid in their houses until the storm abated.

Doors were blown in, windows were smashed, tiles were ripped from roofs and blown on to the Green.

Families recited the Rosary, sprinkled holy water and lit blessed candles.

Katie Cosgrove said the storm was described by local people as an ‘act of God’.

They may have been right. There was no talk of climate change in those times. Lucky people!

A member of the Royal Irish Constabulary, Sergeant Stack, who lived in a house later occupied by Pato Kelly and family, was of great help to people in the neighbourhood.

Sergeant Stack’s grandson visited Castlebar some years ago and told me he often heard his grandfather speak of the Ainsworth, Cosgrove, Dargan and Igoe families.

Katie Cosgrove and her sister, Annie Miller, lived in a house on McHale Road.