Lightning strike over Galway Harbour in May 2006
A boy died today after being struck by lightning yesterday in Dublin. The death of a child is heartbreaking in itself, but the very rare nature of his death seems to add to the tragedy. I went to the Central Statistics Office online to see how many deaths occur through lightning every year in Ireland but couldn’t find any details. I don’t think I’ve seen lightning around Galway this year, and the only time I got to photograph lightning was in May 2006 (the picture above appeared in a cropped version on the site back then). And it called to mind the story of the four young lives taken by a single bolt of lightning on the Clare/Galway border nearly 64 years ago.