Back from the blackout

We were seven hours away from being 72 hours without power. I had just left the Óstan Inis Oirr, which had a generator powerful enough to keep the walk-in freezer running, the till, the TV, the oven, some lights and a few charging phones, and was about to settle into another evening of a tea-light din when… the beep of the washing machine and the hum of the fridge signalled that we were back, baby.

I’ve been on Inis Oirr for the month of January, taking part in the Áras Éanna artist residency, and part of me knew that it would be an adventure, especially in a month as dark and dreary as January. The warnings for Storm Éowyn were red, but we knew it was serious when Met Éireann had to say something along the lines of, look, we know you get warnings all the time, but this one is actually serious.

Then we knew it was serious when the whole country was under a red warning, even the six counties that operate under the UK Met Office’s measurement of weather, which was the source of many a political gag when they were stuck in orange.

Courtesy of BBC Northern Ireland weatherman Barra Best, this was a great little learning opportunity about why our weather forecasts seem so drastically different at the border line. Met Éireann operates with a threshold system. When a weather condition reaches a particular point, like wind gusts reaching a certain speed, or rain fall reaching a certain level, a warning is triggered. The Met Office uses an impact system, measuring when they think the weather is going to have a severe impact on property or travel.

Éowyn was scheduled to arrive at the Aran Islands around 2am Friday morning, but when I was watching the penultimate episode of The Traitors at 9pm on Thursday, my feed was already buffering. The wind was howling throughout the night, and I had done all I can that day to prepare for the inevitable power cut; stocked up on logs, candles, bread, popcorn… the essentials. I went to bed at 11pm, but couldn’t sleep. I caught up on some podcasts, but did I think to download any? No.

The wind was whipping at my windows, and I got some unsettled sleep until I woke up at 2am with a bang. He was here. I could already tell that our power was gone - the general noise of a household running was hushed - and I failed to sleep through it. I went to the bathroom, and when I saw the water sloshing around the toilet bowl, as if I was on a ship, I knew that this would be nothing like I had experienced before.