Gales and lightning in the west over the weekend cut power to a number of homes and damaged a marquee at the Claddagh basin in Galway city.
A violent south-westerly gust on Sunday swept the marquee, housing Galway's first temporary ice rink, into the River Corrib near the city docks area.
The management of Galway City on Ice were in the tent at the time, shortly before 11 a.m., but escaped unharmed, according to a spokeswoman, who described the incident as "like being hit by a hurricane".
The incident occurred just over an hour before the rink was due to open, but no skaters were present.
Between 600 and 800 people were expected at the rink on Saturday and again yesterday and all ticket-holders would be given refunds, the spokeswoman said.
Galway Fire Brigade and gardaí were called out to assist, but most of the marquee could not be removed from the Claddagh basin at Nimmo's pier until low tide. Public light-stands on the pier were also damaged.
The spokeswoman said that the management would make a decision shortly on the future of the temporary ice rink. However, it was hoped that it would reopen for business as soon as repairs had been carried out. The ice rink opened on December 4th and was due to remain open until January 9th.
Meanwhile, a mother and her two children had a lucky escape when lightning struck their home in Galway. The incident happened at Knock, Moycullen, and caused extensive damage to electrical appliances in the house. The woman and children were not injured but were said to be suffering from shock.
"It can be a very frightening experience. Thankfully, nobody was injured, but several electrical appliances were burnt when the lightning struck," said a spokesperson for Galway Fire Brigade.
Over 700 homes were without electricity in Galway yesterday following the series of storms which hit the west over the past few days.
Last night, ESB crews were working to restore power to several hundred homes along the western seaboard, with south Connemara being particularly affected. "The work has been made more difficult in that region because it is very difficult to get trucks into some areas," said an ESB spokesperson.
Power was restored to most of the homes by late last night, but the ESB was keeping emergency crews on standby as more bad weather was forecast.
Several homes in the Loughrea area of mid-Galway were also affected after a storm caused damage to the electricity network in the region.
Galway Fire Brigade was called out to a series of house fires in the city and county over the weekend. Gardaí were keeping an "open mind" on the cause of a fire at an apartment block at Glenview House, Salthill, which forced two dozen people on to balconies before they were rescued.