All forms of travel disrupted by severe weekend storms

Thousands of travellers had their holiday weekend plans disrupted by the storm which crossed the country early yesterday.

One group of Aer Lingus passengers thought they had beaten the weather when they arrived safely in Amsterdam, only to find that their luggage was being flown back to Dublin. The airport authorities in Amsterdam had decided it was too dangerous to open the cargo doors in the 50-knot winds which buffeted the Dutch capital.

Air, sea, rail and road users were seriously inconvenienced by the storm. Aer Lingus said its flights were running 2-2½ hours behind schedule throughout the day. Severe cross-winds at Shannon caused the diversion of three transatlantic flights to Dublin. A number of flights from Cork were delayed.

In Dublin, the first flights did not leave until 8.15 a.m., 90 minutes behind schedule, because of the severity of the winds earlier in the day. This caused a backlog which continued as the day progressed. As the winds eased in Dublin, the storm moved to Britain and northern Europe, compounding the problem for passengers heading for those areas.

Two Aer Lingus flights to Birmingham were diverted to Manchester. The airline did not have to cancel any flights, however. A Ryanair flight to Bristol was cancelled after an aircraft suffered overnight storm damage at Dublin Airport.

Ferry services were badly hit with the cancellation of most scheduled sailings on Saturday night and yesterday morning.

Irish Ferries and Stena Line cancelled up to a dozen sailings early yesterday on routes from Dublin Port, Dún Laoghaire and Rosslare as the wind reached speeds of almost 80 m.p.h. Met Éireann said the highest speed it recorded over the weekend was 77 m.p.h. at Dublin Airport.

While the east coast saw the strongest winds, the west saw the worst of the rain with more than an inch falling in Belmullet over the 24 hours to 6 a.m. yesterday.

Rail passengers, particularly users of the DART in Dublin, were also hit. Services between Howth Junction and Malahide were cancelled until about 1 p.m. after a tree came down on overhead wires. Delays were experienced on the south side up to midday because of a fallen tree which blocked a line at Sydney Parade.

The 8.20 a.m. mainline service from Cork to Dublin was delayed for two hours because of fallen trees in Mallow, an Iarnród Éireann spokesman said. There was also a one-hour delay to the 8.35 a.m. service from Galway to Dublin, after trees fell between Portarlington and Kildare.

Roads were blocked in many counties including Dublin, Carlow, Cavan, Wicklow, Cork and Clare. In Dublin, fallen trees blocked the Clonee to Clonsilla road, the Tibradden road and Avoca Avenue, AA Roadwatch reported.

In Clare, fallen trees were removed from several locations including the N18 roundabout at the Clare Inn near Newmarket-on-Fergus, as well as in Corofin and Kilmaley. Cavan County Council removed a tree blocking the Redhill to Ballyhaise road.

In Cork city, high winds knocked slates on to the Western Road. The road has been closed by the Garda until today as a precaution. Most roads in Wicklow had been cleared by yesterday evening, but AA Roadwatch warned that a number of branches were down and care was needed.