This article is from page 10 of the 2014-01-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
LAHINCH businessman Antoin O’Looney, who was pinned by raging waves against the wall of his bar for almost half an hour on Friday morning, braved the elements again last night to protect his business through the last of the storm.
Mr O’Looney, who owns O’Looney’s Bar on the Lahinch Promenade, risked his life in the early hours of Friday morning to enter his premises, which had been breached by the storm.
Just after 6am on Friday, he tried to enter his premises but became trapped as heavy waves and storm surges pinned him against the outside wall of O’Looney’s Bar and Restaurant.
“I ran over but I was pinned to the door, I couldn’t get in. The waves were so powerful, I was pinned there for about 20 or 25 minutes. If I had stepped out to try and get in any of the door I would have been swept away; it was that big. There is a wal kway between our two buildings on the prom; the water in that walkway was up to chest level at this time,” he said.
“The storm had popped the two front door of the bar. So in came the water, which covered the bar area and then it filled up the basement. The crew from the fire brigade helped me to close back the doors and secure them.
“They [the fire brigade] were incredible. Within an hour or two hours they had the basement fully pumped out. There was a lot of damage done, especially to the electronics. The basement contains the public toilets, the prep kitchen and the offices and there were a lot of computers, cameras, alarms, things li ke that which were severely damaged.
The storms is the worst to hit Lahinch in recent years and has been described by many as a Perfect Storm.
“It was a combination of three different things: you had a very high spring tide, which is a 5.2 metre tide; you had a very strong gale behind it; and you had a massive surf running as well. Those three things rarely happen altogether, and when they do they can cause savage distraction,” he said.
“I don’t remember a storm li ke this ever. It’s funny though, this building has been built to withstand a lot of punishment and only for the doors opening I would have come out of this scot-free.”
Mr O’Looney said last night that he plays to ride out the remainder of the storm in his premises.
“I will be here tonight [Monday night] for sure. I need to. If anything breeches and you can get to it quickly and stop 80 per cent of the water from getting in, you can save yourself a lot of trouble in the long r un.”