Remembering ‘The Night of the Big Wind’ of January 1839 through newspapers from the time

Further particulars of the storm were contained in the Belfast Commercial Chronicle which was published on Wednesday, January 9, 1839.

At Portaferry on the Ards Peninsula there was “equal if not greater” loss. The shipping had suffered tremendously – almost all the small craft had been shattered to pieces. The Helen of Belfast, which had been laden with timber, was washed ashore at Ballyhenry Bay just above Portaferry.

Further up the Ards Peninsula the village of Kircubbin had “borne its share in the general loss”. All the houses in the village had almost all been unroofed. The parson-house had been left “little better than a wreck” with it roof blown off and windows smashed. Echlinville House was been “greatly injured, and the family obliged to remove”.

From Dromore in Co Down the news was of yet more houses being unroofed by the storm. The side of the new Secession meeting-house had been blown down. Stacks of hay and grain had been scattered “to the four winds of heaven”.

From Newry a correspondent to the Belfast Commercial Chronicle, of Wednesday, January 9, 1839, wrote: “In the country, and along the shore, the effects of the storm are more disastrous. Several ships, it is said, have been driven on land, more or less damaged; reports add, that some dead bodies have floated in with the tide. Lofty and venerable trees, which probably for a century, have defied the storm, have been torn up by the roots; the grain, flax, and hay crops, stacked in haggards, have been overthrown and scattered; and the dwelling and office houses, particularly those with thatched roofs, have been generally much injured. As one instance of the severity of the storm, it has been mentioned to us, that in the parish of Donaghmore an immense stack of turf was, in an instant, lifted up about a foot from the ground, and then dashed to pieces. The loss will be seriously felt by the agricultural population. The high wind, which still continues will render abortive any attempt to secure the grain, etc.

“Since the above was written, we hear, with deep concern, that several lives have been lost in the immediate neighbourhood. In one case, a mother and her child were buried in the ruins of their little cabin; the latter was killed, but the other was rescued before life was altogether extinct. In the same district a boy was killed, and rumours abound with respect to other deplorable casualties.”

An interesting eyewitness of the storm in Co Monaghan has supplied to The Northern Standard by a correspondent writing from Mount Louise Demesne belonging to the Evatt family in the parish of Tydavnet.

They wrote: “On Sunday the 6th, the Barometer at Mount Louise commenced falling at four o'clock pm, and at ten pm, had fallen more than an inch. The buried glare of the sun was scarcely perceptible, by reason of the dismal obscurity which seemed to envelope the surrounding country in premature darkness, rendered more frightful by the tempestuous raving of the wind from about SE increasing in sudden gusts until near midnight, when it shifted round to the NW and seemed to have attained the maximum of its fury in a perfect hurricane, having torn up large trees by the roots, shivered off huge branches and driven them thro' the air with incredible velocity; it suddenly changed round, and prostrated a vast quantity of sound timber in the opposite direction. Those yielding shrubs which withstood the shock, were stripped of their foliage. Terror seemed to distract all nature, the frightened animals of the field assembled together, broke thro' those fences which usually restrained them, and sought shelter in the woods, which but served for their destruction. The aged oak whose sapless trunk, scarcely supported the ivy-bound branches, was in many instances spared to continue still, monarch of the forest, while others; in the pride of their strength and growth, either snapped across in their strongest parts, or twisted about like a stranded rope.”

The correspondent added: “But as a further enumeration of particulars would be but a recapitulation of catastrophes so universally experienced, allow me to conclude, by wishing that this awful precursor of the coming forth of your Northern Standard, having now subsided into calm. It may be emblematic of that political tranquillity and good feeling to take place, when the precursors which now agitate the political world, disorganise society, and distract and pervert the minds and feelings of God's own creatures, having vented their short lived power, will have sunk into oblivion, and leave no other memento of their existence, than their hearty intention of doing mischief, most people in the end finding themselves more frightened than hurt, while the Northern Standard may long float in undisturbed tranquillity, from the good old oak on the constitution.”

The Enniskillen Chronicle and Erne Packet of Thursday, January 17 published extracts from the Ballyshannon Herald which told how at Co Donegal town, in the early hours of the storm in a small house occupied by a woman named Betty Dunbar, was found on fire. It was feared at one period the entire range of houses would be consumed by fire, but fortunately only one house was destroyed, thanks to the effort of the inhabitants. One old pensioner had been reluctant to leave his home as the fire and wind raged, had said he had seen “too many battles to be frightened by a blust of wind”. But as he was finally evacuated he was heard to say: “Well, I have heard of the burning of Moscow, was at the Battle of Badajog [Battle of Badajoz, 1812, reputed as one of the bloodiest sieges in the Napoleonic Wars], but dang me if this does not beat them hollow.” He had then tried to rush back into his house for his jacket which contained his Waterloo medal. Sadly, the roof of his home at that time collapsed preventing him from recovering his medal.

In the aftermath of the storm a Belfast poet named G Druitt sat down on Wednesday, January 16, 1839 to write a piece of verse that he called The Storm.

The storm – it is the voice of God

To a rebellious race;

The lofty trees before it nod,

And cease to know their place.

The ocean lifts her voice on high,

And send o'er all her waves

A wild dark tumult, and a cry

That echoes thro' her caves!

The storm – before it temples fall,

And shrines are in the the dust;

It sweeps, in darkest wrath, o'er all,

And smites each earthly trust!

Its tones of terror reach the heart -

The stoutest quail and fear;

The Atheist hears it with a start,

And feels that God is near!

The storm – we may not fear its blast,

If in a sure Retreat,

The Lord was with us as it past -

We worship at his feet.

We own him “Lord of all”, who quells

The heavings of the sea,

And breathes thro' all her coral cells

Profound tranquillity!

Meanwhile a notice to mariners was published in the Newry Telegraph on January 19, 1839, it read: “The Commissioners of Northern Light-houses hereby give Notice, that the recent Gales caused such Damage to the Pier and Light-house of Portpatrick erected by the Commissioners for that Harbour, and which Light was lately placed under the charge of the Commissioners of Northern Light-houses, that it has been found necessary to Remove and the Light from the Light-house on the New Pier Head to the situation from which it was formerly exhibited upon the Old Pier, and that the effect of this change will be, that the Light will not be so prominently seen by Vessels navigating the Channel between Portpatrick and Donaghadee. By order of the Commissioners, C Cunningham, Secretary, Edinburgh, 12th January, 1839.”

There was intense regret at the news from a correspondent of the “utter destruction” of the “famed mausoleum” at Downhill House on the north coast of Co Londonderry during the night of the Night of the Big Wind in January 1839.

A correspondent wrote: “This beautifully sublime piece of architecture stood in front of the house about 200 yards, and was erected 59 years ago, by the late Earl of Bristol, then Bishop of Derry, in memory of his brother Lord George (Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol). The pedestal on which it stood was fifteen feet square, and fifteen feet in height; over it rose the Ionic story, the columns and entablature of which only remain, and are about twenty feet high, and elegantly enriched. Over the Ionic order, on a pedestal of its own, rose the Corinthian story, the plan of which was circular and surrounded with eight columns; the entablature was appropriately and richly ornamented, and crowned with a stone dome and an urn nearly five feet in height. Between the columns, on another pedestal of five feet, stood a statue, in white marble, of Lord George, seven feet high, and said to be more than one and a half tons weight; in one hand was a table of Magna Carta, and the other pointing thereto. Such was the impetuosity of the tempest, that the statue was hurled of its seat, and, coming in contact with the columns, swept the whole of the much-admired superstructure to the ground. The whole height of the mausoleum was about seventy four feet. A poor hare, having taken shelter close by the pile, was struck by part of the work and literally cut in two.”

A correspondent to the Londonderry Sentinel using the pen name of Phone took up their quill to write to the newspaper on the storm.

They wrote: “That ‘the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm’ is a fact that the Bible sets forth. All God’s dispensations to use are merciful; and whether he calls us in the ‘still voices’ or urges in the louder tones of the tempest, it is with the intention of inclining us to Himself.

“But the Nature of man is such that neither the one nor the other of these means makes much impression upon him; the ‘still voices’ is almost unheeded, the louder tones of the tempest are almost dared, and the invitations of affection or the calls of anger are equally disregarded.

“We find that this has been the case in every age of the world. The mercies of the God were pressed upon his chosen people; they were tried with his threatenings and his just judgments; but the heart of man then, as now, ‘deceitful above all things and desperately wicked’, caused them to treat them as they are still treated, till ‘the Lord cast them out of the land into a land they knew not, neither did their fathers know’, ‘and he gave to every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings’.

“Are we fully aware of these things? Or do our unawakened hearts require them to be brought practically before us? Behold! The Lord has spoken to us in a voice loud and terrible, and the gentle invitations of his peace-giving Spirit have been changed into the severer call; the storm and tempest have swept through our land, leaving a devastated track behind them; and, by their angry course, giving full cause for seriousness and reflection. Have we answered to this call? Do we view the tempest as in intimation from the dread Sovereign of the universe ‘that his eyes are upon all our ways; they are not hid from his face; neither is our iniquity hid from his eyes?’

“Considering it in this light, let us put the following practical question to ourselves: Have I loved God as the Bible requires me to love Him, and have I devoted myself to his service? Has it been my first and great object, and have I made all worldly considerations to it? Have I looked to my Saviour solely and purely for redemption? And have I counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord? Is my duty to my neighbour dictated by the rules of evangelical charity? And am I ready to spend and spent for Him? Are the lusts of the flesh hateful to me, and do I flee from them as destructive to my soul? Do I keep my body in temperance, soberness, and chastity; not exerting or desiring other people’s goods? But do I learn and labour truly to serve God in that state of life to which it hath pleased him to call me?

“Questions such as these will bring the state of our souls before us, and lead us by the influence of the Holy Spirit to cleave more ardently to him who, though he send forth his voice, ‘yea, and that a mighty voice’, ‘will guide us with his counsel, and after that receive us into glory’.”

The Belfast Commercial Chronicle also received a letter from a reader in Antrim, which read: “In your lengthened catalogue of the injury committed universally by the late tempest, you have omitted including the damage sustained here, which has little in comparison to some of those places you have already recorded, but such as it is you shall have it. Three of the beautiful pinnacles of the church were blown off, one being cast through the roof onto the gallery, two old elm trees being torn up, and part of the wall surrounding the grave-yard blown down. The church looks rather maimed, being deprived of the three handsome pinnacles, the cutting of which cost £75.”

They continued: “The neighbouring plantation have suffered a little generally. The fir field belonging to that excellent nobleman and generous landlord, Lord Ferrard [also known as Viscount Massereene, John Skeffington, 10th Viscount Massereene], is a perfect wreck, the tops of the fine old fir trees having been blown off, and nothing but part of the trunks remaining to record the mighty effects of the storm.

“The beautiful demesne of Shane’s Castle is also a sorrowful spectacle of its ravaging power, almost all the fine old elm trees (the boast of its proprietor) being hurled to the ground.”