Come Rain Or … More Rain
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Ireland has had a rotten week.
It hosed down out of the heavens pretty much 24/7 every day this week. Monsoon-like. Or in the Cork vernacular: monsoon, like.
And there was that incident in Paris.
While the latter hurts, there is no doubt that it is the former that is going to hurt the country more. Businesses will suffer badly. And round our way, we most likely won’t have any fresh tap water for a while because the floods contaminated the water supply.
[As an aside. I do sympathize with the Irish regarding the football. Being half-English, I still feel the pain from the Hand of God. Come to think of it, the other half of me is Dutch. Football fans will know that Holland had its own Argentine nightmare in the World Cup. Similarly, both England and Holland have a thing about Germany. Both also have a rich naval tradition. And produce fine matured cheese ... Hang on ... Isn't it odd how you never see England and Holland in the same room together ...? ... Sorry, got sidetracked there]
By way of a miracle, today was a gorgeous autumnal day. Which was lucky for the couple whose wedding I was photographing. The rain is set to return tomorrow, they say.
Not everything went according to plan, though. I was supposed to start the day photographing the groom in Mallow. For those of you who don’t know, Mallow was built in a river, rather than beside it. A plump swan landing on the river is all it takes for it to burst its banks. Let alone a full-on, multi-day downpour.
So I abandoned that plan and headed straight to Fermoy, where the bride was getting ready. For those of you who don’t know Fermoy, let’s just say that it was built in the river Blackwater rather than beside it …
I arrived early and decided to take some scene-setting shots for my bride and groom.
The river Blackwater in Fermoy, Co. Cork after torrential rainfall over several days. (c) Roger Overall 2009
World's most pointless sign spotted in Fermoy, Co. Cork. (c) Roger Overall 2009
The darker side of all of this is that businesses are going to suffer badly from the flooding, especially as many local SMEs wouldn't have been able to get insurance cover following flooding in previous years. (c) Roger Overall 2009
It’s the third photo I find disturbing. Your point about the longer term impact on business is well made.
Surely this was all preventable?
Paul O'Mahony (Cork)
21 Nov 09 at 1:14 am