October this year has been a stormy month, yet November has a history of even more delinquency in this respect. Its aggressive tendencies have been much in evidence throughout the centuries.
To take an example from as long ago as 1316, we know that the belfry of Christ Church Cathedral was blown down, and many other Dublin buildings destroyed, in a severe gale on November 19th. In another November gale, that of 1637, "in one night 10 or 12 barks" were blown from their anchorage in Dublin Bay, "of the most part whereof never no news hath ever been heard since". And just over 200 years ago, in November 1797, severe flooding was the problem: houses in Patrick Street, Dublin, were under several feet of water, and rowing-boats were used to negotiate the Castle Yard.
The Irish Sea has proved to be a favourite venue for November's rampage of destruction. On November 10th, 1696, the packet-boat William was wrecked near Sutton with the loss of more than 80 lives. Then in 1807, November 19th brought severe blizzards to the whole country, and great loss of life occurred when the Prince of Wales and Rochdale, bound for Holyhead and carrying a large number of newly recruited soldiers, went aground near the village of Blackrock. Because of the very heavy snow, the unfortunate passengers were unaware they were so close to land, and a contemporary memorial stone to those who perished can be seen even to this day in the old graveyard adjacent to the Tara Towers Hotel on Merrion Road.
Even in the present century, November storms have left their mark. One of the worst in living memory was the so-called Inveresk storm of November 15th, 1915, which takes its name from another ill-fated vessel that came to grief near Sandycove.
Inveresk was a three-masted barque that had arrived in Dublin from Portland, Oregon, with a cargo of grain in October. As the ship left port again in ballast, a severe gale developed and Inveresk was driven aground on the Ring Rock at Sandycove. Eleven of the crew succeeded in making it to shore in one of the lifeboats; the remaining 12 were rescued by a lifeline thrown aboard the ship. As a contemporary newspaper account has it: "In consequence of the Sailors' Home in Kingstown being fully occupied by shipwrecked mariners, many of the residents of Sandycove treated the crew in a very hospitable manner and provided them with accommodation." But the barque became a victim of the storm that bears its name.