The Times We Lived In: Bad hair day – smitten by a squall in the city

‘And behold,” it says in the Book of Job, “there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house.”

There is a bit of smiting going on in today’s photograph.

We don’t know who the lady underneath the umbrella is – but then again, maybe we don’t need to. We’ve all been there. You’re walking along, minding your own business, when suddenly – bam! A great wind comes from the wilderness, and your umbrella is no longer an umbrella but a pitiful collection of spindly, spidery, smashed-up bits of metal and fabric. You have been well and truly smitten.

“Taking umbrage from the weather on O’Connell Bridge, Dublin,” reads the cruelly jaunty caption. The accompanying story adds that rain and winds gusting to gale force hit most parts of the country, causing serious damage in some areas. In Santry, a tree fell on a car; miraculously, nobody was hurt.

In Wexford, a Post Office was evacuated when the roof – weighing an estimated 10 tons – was torn off and hurled 100 feet into a nearby car park. Again there were no serious injuries, though a passerby was hit by debris.

This lady, however, is not about to be beaten by a squall in the city. She’s fighting back, holding her umbrella so tight it has actually begun to resemble a balaclava. Maybe she’s just had her hair done.

Anyhow, she’s determined not to get wet – and you can see from the direction of the falling raindrops that she has the right idea. She’s also, clearly, determined that however banjaxed it gets, that umbrella will be staying outside-out until it gets her home.

“Gird thy loins like a man,” the Lord repeatedly says to Job in the aforementioned biblical book. “Man up,” is how we might put it nowadays. Well, this lady already has.