I’m not sure that I’m keen on the new system of naming storms – the names don’t really suit a phenomenon capable of laying waste to a city or two. The problem was that the Met Office asked the public to suggest names and of course, only people with too much time on their hands actually made any suggestions. Wisdom of the crowd indeed. And so this weekend, the torrential rain and high winds lashing Connacht goes by the name of Clodagh, and the next time it happens, it will be called Desmond (the next name on the list).
In any case, the storm meant that there weren’t any swimmers to be seen down by the diving board in Salthill this morning when I went down there around 8.30 for my usual morning coffee. Apparently there had been two lads in for a dip earlier, which doesn’t surprise me at all – the regular swimmers are not easily deterred (it helps that most of them are mad).