As the dark clouds rolled in last week, in tandem with the red weather warnings, the country went into preparation mode. In homes, candles and battery powered lights were pulled out, phones were charged and of course, the sliced pans were stocked up. Sure we couldn’t go into any weather situation without a few loaves of Brennans bread.

On farms, sheds were secured, livestock were given enough feed to last the storm and yards got a good clean-up to ensure no random buckets would take flight.

“Batten down the hatches”, we were told, and the focus was getting through the night. What many didn’t envisage however, was how long the impact of this storm would last. Over 768,000 households lost power last Friday.

For some, it was an hour or two, for others it was a day or two. But here we are nearly a week later, and at the time of Irish Country Living going to print, it’s expected that over 100,000 homes will still be without power this weekend.

Keeping the farms going

The reality behind these numbers is grim. Families are cold, many haven’t had a hot meal in days, those without water supply haven’t had a shower, even a warming cup of tea feels like a luxury.

Farmers have been calling out for generators to keep their farms going, to milk their animals, to clean equipment. And those most impacted were right in the eye of the storm, along the west coast and midlands, in Galway, Mayo, Clare, Cavan and Donegal.

The rural roads in these counties can feel a long way from Kildare Street. And while we can’t take away from the heroic acts of the response teams on the ground trying to restore electricity and water supply to homes, it must be questioned, has enough been done over the last week for rural Ireland?

Despite this being the worst storm to hit Ireland in over ten years, the Dáil was not recalled this week to discuss the country’s response. If there was a blackout of 100,000 homes in the surrounding suburbs of Dublin for over a week, would the response be different?

Generators have been moved around the country this week like pawns on a chess board but was the reaction fast enough?

Last Wednesday, as families and farms started to prepare for the storm, the European Commission for Crisis Management reached out to the Irish Government offering assistance. Yet the first request for generators only came on Saturday afternoon.

If the storm was coming from the east rather than the west, would those generators been ordered earlier?

And while no one could anticipate how impactful Éowyn would be when she arrived on land, the fact is that no matter when a storm hits, the likelihood is that it will arrive from across the Atlantic. Yet many power lines in the west are overhead and exposed to the elements.

In the weeks ahead, farmers will work hard to restore the damage and recover from the tough aftermath of the storm. But there needs to be a bit of forward thinking to modernise our electricity supply, so that rural homes are no longer subjected to the dark ages.