Show night of the big wind dated lives of ir irish asli many americans whose grandparents were born bom in ireland have heard beard these elders speak of the night of thebie the big wind As some of the ancestors referred to it as the date of their birth the youngsters may have regarded it as a bit of frivolous avoidance of fact but there was such a night recalls the new york sun it began about 11 on the night of january 0 1839 and continued until after daylight the next morning limerick and the dublin neighborhood suffered heavily two hundred houses were blown down and as many more were burned twenty persons were killed in these catastrophes and were drowned the coasts of ireland and western england were lined with wricks As ireland did not keep vital statistics until 1800 the night of the wind was used as the base ol of many claims made under the old age pension act 30 years ago the irish digest reprints some paragraphs from things past redress i book by augustine birrell Bl rrell who we went t to ireland as chief secretary in 1907 it was a wonderful dickens alone could have done it justice it ought to have blown itself out in 1839 but there it still was sweeping pension and local gov froment officials off their feet in 1908 question any old man as to his claim and you teamed that his age had bad gone astray on him but he was a fine hardy lad on the night ot of the big lindill As news distribution like the collection of vital statistics was in its infancy in 1839 the readers of the sun did not learn of the calamitous happenings in ireland until the ar rival of the packet ship cambridge on february 13 and that news was limited to wha thad happened near liverpool whence the cambridge salted sailed three days later the great western reached now york with further details but these were not as lively as the announcement of victorias engagement to albert which also arrived on the great lV western estern |