Yesteryears: Christmas Eve hurricane in south Tipperary - family loses home

For our opening Yesteryears feature of 2023 we venture back 25 years to our first edition of a generation past, ie, January 3, 1998.

We led that week with a story co-written by Eamon Lacey and the late Sean Hill, our Cashel correspondent at the time.
A hurricane across Ireland on Christmas Eve 1997 wreaked havoc nationwide, and in county Tipperary thousands of people had their festive season ruined.

Over 25,000 homes in the Clonmel, Tipperary Town and Thurles ESB areas were left without power on Christmas morning. The 100 mph gusts caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to houses, cars and business properties.

One Cashel family was left homeless when their mobile home blew over a wall and landed on its roof in a nearby field, and another family had a miraculous escape when a large tree fell on their parked car when they were shopping in Cashel.

In a separate, but not unrelated incident, a Killenaule family escaped a potential tragedy when their home caught fire in the early hours of Christmas morning. The Murphy family from Cashel Road managed to get out safely after what was believed to be a candle, used to provide light in the power blackout, started a blaze in the main bedroom.

We also reported on our front page that week that a ‘Scrooge Thief’ stole a small quantity of toys from Clogheen Community Centre and sprayed a fire extinguisher around the hall in a break-in at Christmas.