My ancestors all came from Ireland to the USA (in some cases by roundabout routes) in the 19th century. I’ve become particularly interested in finding out more about my great-grandmother, Bridget Sweeney McDonnell, who was born in County Mayo and left there at the height of the famine in 1847. In the course of researching life in Mayo during her time there, I came across accounts – some eyewitness, some drawn from family histories – of the Night of the Big Wind, which occurred on January 6, 1839. I was rivetted by them, and came to the idea of writing a ballad in the traditional style, drawing on those very accounts. I knew I wanted to borrow an existing tune for it – a commonplace practice in Irish music – and when I heard Frank Harte’s singing of “The Night Before Larry Got Stretched” on YouTube, the lyrics soon took shape in my head. Bridget Sweeney McDonnell was a very young child on the Night of the Big Wind, and though she was only just old enough to crawl, I like to think that she could have been the Miracle Child who took refuge in the butter churn. (About the final verse: When Ireland introduced old age pensions in 1908, there were no birth records for the north and western counties prior to 1860. One of the questions used to establish proof of age was whether the applicant remembered the Night of the Big Wind.) Here are the lyrics:
It was eighteen thirty and nine, the sixth day, the month January
The night they call Nollaig na mBan when all would have been making merry
But something happened that night, an event forever remembered
Every village, field and town to a terrible fate was surrendered.
(It was) REFRAIN: Oíche na Gaoithe Móire, the night of Big Wind
In the days leading up to that time there were many unusual sightings
The seals swam in from the sea and crawled up on dry land alighting
There were bright jagged lights in the sky, a wild and frantic display
And terrified people cried out: It must be the dawning of doomsday! REFRAIN
Then a stillness came over the land, the candles all burned without flickers
And voices heard miles away tho they spoke above barely a whisper
A warm wind swept in from the sea, the snows on the ground were all melted
The people sighed with relief, but the wind it was just getting started REFRAIN
O, it gathered in loudness and strength and soon it did howl like a banshee
To keep from blowing away they crawled o’er the ground on their own knees
They tried to make signs with their hands but the roar their voices did smother
Till all they could do was pray and cry and desperately cling to each other REFRAIN
The wind stripped the thatch from the roofs, and the turf fires set it all blazing
There were pigs flying high through the air, a sight that was truly amazing
One man tied his mam to a tree, he was making an effort to spare her
No sooner had he turned his back when the tree was torn up to bear her REFRAIN
Twas a terrible night on the seas, o the waves they relentlessly pounded
There were bodies washed up from the shipwrecks, and no one knew how many drownded
The force of the wind whipped the shoreline, obliterating the strand
And for many days thereafter the bodies of fish were found inland REFRAIN
Now it wasn’t all tragic and sad, the tales did not all end adversely
There was one called Miracle Child who was saved by the grace of God’s mercy
They feared that she’d blown away, they searched for her all the next day, but when they heard an affray from a butter churn they turned it under
Then one of them cried Look Inside! They couldn’t believe their eyes, she was there with her arms ‘round the plunger REFRAIN
Some said it was God’s wrath for sin, some said it was angry Sidhe Gaoithe
But no matter what was the cause, ‘twas a trauma for all that seen it
They rebuilt their cabins in hollows, to make an attempt