Stoirm

The Irish Word for “Storm.”

Before the famine, Ireland saw one of the worst storms ever recorded in Ireland. It was a storm that led to many deaths, mass homelessness, and devastating levels of destruction around the entire country. It became known as “The Night of the Big Wind” or, as it is known in Irish, “Óiche na Gaoithe Móire”. The storm's power and the resulting damage were so intense that people ascribed supernatural origins to it, with some believing it was divine retribution and others thinking the fairies were to blame.

The storm itself occurred on the night of the 6th of January (the 12th night/feast of the epiphany/Nollag na mBan) and the early hours of the 7th of January in 1839. The devastation of that night stayed in the memory of the people, and the story was passed down through the generations, with people recounting it to the next generation whenever a storm would break out. I, too, remember hearing about it as a child.

We make sense of our lives through the stories we tell. The act of recounting helps us bear witness to it, try to make sense of and process it, and attempt to find some meaning. This story in Ireland stayed in living memory in the psyche of the people, which speaks to its impact echoing down the centuries.

Focail Gaeilge | ‘Irish Words’

In this series, I share words in Gaeilge (Irish) and explore these words through a Depth Psychology lens, allowing us to begin exploring our inner world— our psyche, and deepen our understanding of our place in the world around us. When we embrace our native language or become curious about the languages from our ancestral roots, we can embrace our sense of place, our speech, our imagination, our psyche, and the song of the soul...