Ireland

Storm Éowyn: Anger among ‘the forgotten people’ of Co Cavan after two weeks without power

People in area frustrated at ‘atrocious’ response from Government as 7,000 properties remaine without power

Chris Heaton and his mother Betty at his home in Co Cavan. Betty was recently discharged from hospital and had to spend 14 days without power
Chris Heaton and his mother Betty at his home in Co Cavan. Betty was recently discharged from hospital and had to spend 14 days without power
Liam Coates
Fri Feb 07 2025 - 15:57

“You never expect to see your own breath lying in bed,” says Chris Heaton, who lives near Killashandra, Co Cavan.

But it was the case for two-weeks while his home was left without electricity following damage caused by Storm Éowyn.

Despite his cheery disposition, there was a seriousness to the situation. Heaton’s mother, Betty, is a diabetic and had a series of infections and a stint in hospital before deciding it would be best to move in with her son just before the storm.

Her electricity supply was restored while Heaton’s home remained in the dark until Friday.

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As bad as having no electricity for a fortnight was, he found the communications around when the outage might end equally annoying.

He recalls “17 different restoration times and dates” and saw the fault responsible for the outage “deleted from the system three times”.

ESB crews working on power lines across the road from Chris Heaton's home in Co Cavan
ESB crews working on power lines across the road from Chris Heaton's home in Co Cavan

His home only had heating in the sittingroom and one bedroom, and the fridge and oven were out of action. He was also concerned about his beloved pet fish and attempted to heat their tank using candles.

Looking after his mother and a house with no power became a full-time job.

“There’s no way you can keep fresh food, and with my mum’s appetite being all over the place, you wouldn’t even try,” he says.

“You’re getting food constantly, getting gas bottles constantly, on the road constantly. And it’s just non-stop costs, really ... We probably spent about €800 [on food] over the last two weeks.”

[ ‘Does the Government want people living in rural Ireland?’ Anger in Leitrim at Storm Éowyn response ]

Maggie O’Rourke, who lives in Corlough, Co Cavan, also says she feels abandoned after spending two weeks without electricity.

“We feel completely forgotten about, we are the forgotten people,” she says. “And the whole parish would agree on that. And any of the people without power today, I guarantee every one of us is feeling forgotten about”.

Her electricity returned for a period on Thursday evening but was gone again as of Friday afternoon.

O’Rourke’s two youngest children have asthma, while her eldest has croup, and all are suffering from their home not having proper heating.

“My little lad is only four and he came into my bed yesterday morning at half six and said ‘Mammy I’m cold’,” she says. “It nearly broke my heart ... Everyone’s fed up. Everyone’s getting sick.”

O’Rourke and her husband have spent €1,500 on a diesel generator to get by, but that only provides enough power for a few lights or a kettle, and comes with significant bills.

“We’re spending an outrageous amount of money on fuel. In the last week or so we’re spending an extra €30 or €40 a day just on the generator ... but at the same time you’re still perished and not getting your needs met.”

The family also saw their power supply knocked out by Storm Darragh before Christmas and say they are at their wits' end.

“We’re kind of losing the will to live at this stage,” O’Rourke says. “Everything has just gone out the window.”

[ Underground cabling could answer challenge of keeping lights on after storms ]

Heaton says the Government’s response to the storm has been “atrocious”, but what really rankled the community was what he viewed as a tone-deaf social media post from the Taoiseach last weekend.

“There was serious fury when [Micheál Martin] was taking pictures of himself at the (Six Nations) rugby, and nobody here could watch it.”

An ESB spokesman said that as of Friday morning about 7,000 homes, farms and businesses remained without power following Storm Éowyn.

The Taoiseach later told reporters in Cork that the Government aims to double the investment in electricity networks over the next five years to some €11 billion with a view to making it more capable of withstanding the sort of the high winds that caused the outages last month.

Mr Martin said that Storm Eowyn was the most severe storm to hit Ireland in living memory and the Government has been liaising with various agencies to make the supply network more robust to prevent any repeat.

“ESB Networks have never seen anything like this in terms of the impact on the powerlines and the grid (but) the cost involved in repairing and restoring the grid will be nowhere near the cost of actually enhancing the grid and developing the grid,” he said.