Clean-up Underway After Flash Flooding Submerges Killarney
A clean-up is underway in Killarney, Co Kerry, after flash flooding described as "unprecedented" overwhelmed much of the town and its surroundings on Thursday evening. Heavy rain began around 5pm, with the worst downpour occurring between 7pm and 8pm. About 30mm was recorded at Muckross House weather station outside the town, which logged a total of 57mm in under four hours — an intensity described as akin to a red level alert.
The deluge led to the closure of all main roads in and around Killarney, with a number of vehicles becoming stuck and requiring removal by the fire service. The N71 Muckross Road, the main tourist road to Killarney National Park, was flooded, as was the N22 Cork-to-Killarney Road at Pike Hill. Homes in New Street and domestic garages and houses in the village of Fossa outside Killarney were also affected, with water chutes and downpipes overwhelmed. The fire service and gardaí worked to clear roads of traffic while the Civil Defence was called in to deliver sandbags. Water was pumped from a number of areas, including the railway bridge on Park Road and Woodlawn Cross.
Mayor of Killarney, Cllr John O’Donoghue, described the flooding as the worst in a lifetime. "Killarney got lashed with rain," he said, noting that other parts of the county remained dry. "The whole town was submerged under water to a great extent," O’Donoghue of the Kerry Independent Alliance added. Speaking on RTÉ’s David McCullagh show, he said some people had to abandon their cars after driving into water not realising how deep it was, and that he had received calls from "quite upset elderly people saying that 'there's water flowing in my door, I've never seen it before and I've lived here all my life'."
Officials Point to Hard Ground and Overwhelmed Drainage
The county was not under a weather warning during the flooding, and the area is not typically prone to such events. O’Donoghue attributed the severity partly to the recent dry spell, saying the ground was "so hard" that there was no soakage, so water flowed out into streets and roads. Paul Neary, director of services with Kerry County Council, said: "We had no indication. There was nothing to indicate this was coming. Effectively the skies opened."
Neary said the town’s drainage system was overwhelmed in places, with leaves and twigs that had built up over the dry summer washed down and causing blockages. However, council crews managed to clear the system, and as soon as the rainfall stopped, the drainage system worked, he said. A full assessment was being carried out on Friday morning, Neary said, and lessons would be taken on board. The council later confirmed that the town’s swimming pool and sports centre near Park Road, one of the worst affected areas, would remain closed until further notice pending assessment.
High Street business owner Johnny McGuire, of Bricín restaurant and craft shop, described the experience as an "apocalyptic storm" and said he was assessing roof damage. He paid tribute to the "fantastic emergency services" for their response, and echoed O’Donoghue’s observation about the hard ground, adding that Killarney was situated in a hollow and that neither "God nor man could have stopped it".
Business Owners Count the Cost
The flooding was so severe that whole sections of the town were submerged for a brief period, with the worst hit properties on Park Road, College Street, Countess Road and Bypass Road. A number of homes and businesses were damaged over the four-hour deluge.
Pat O’Connor, who owns Variety Sounds on College Street, said: "Met Eireann has a lot to answer for. I don't have too much mass in them anymore. I would much prefer a false alarm than no alarm." His instrument shop suffered carpet damage, but because a member of staff was still in the shop at the time of the floods, they were able to stem the flow of water.
Shahzad Rashid and his colleagues across the road were not so lucky at the Bombay Palace restaurant. "I am still shocked at what happened," he said. "Some customers were standing at the door waiting for the rain to stop when all of a sudden a river of about one-foot-high water shot into the restaurant. Customers and staff were soaked." Rashid said that after saying goodbye to customers, who were all given drinks on the house, they had to rip up the carpets and get expert cleaners in to sort out the damage. He said they worked overnight and industrial dehumidifiers were still in operation 30 minutes before the restaurant opened its doors at 5pm on Friday.
Lisa Wiltsey, co-owner of Lily Designs jewellery shop, said her premises sustained very little damage, but the force of the rain pouring onto the roof managed to smash through ceiling tiles in a back storage room. "It was chaos," she said.
Questions Over Lack of Weather Warning
The absence of a weather warning for Kerry has drawn criticism from local representatives and business owners. "Met Eireann needs to explain why they didn't have any idea what was going to happen in Killarney," said Killarney Municipal District councillor Maura Healy-Rae. "We also need to know how to make sure this doesn't happen again."
A spokesperson for Kerry County Council told the Irish Examiner: "Kerry County Council was not in receipt of any warnings from Met Éireann on Thursday, nor was County Kerry the subject of any weather warning from Met Éireann." Mayor O’Donoghue said the town somehow "dodged a bullet" because everyone "rallied around" to deal with the aftermath, and praised Kerry County Council staff for taking quick measures to ease the impact on businesses and property owners. "What happened was biblical and unprecedented," he said. "I would hope, as a result of this, Met Eireann will look at their forecasting and prediction models and see how they can be improved."
Met Éireann, when asked why it hadn’t issued warnings for Kerry, said: "Rain affected many parts of the country on Thursday. Met Éireann issued yellow level rainfall warnings for counties in the south and southeast on Wednesday. As additional model guidance arrived, it indicated the risk of heavy rain was likely to shift northwards. Met Éireann then issued yellow level rainfall warnings for Dublin and Kildare at 20:47 on Thursday evening. As the rainfall was being monitored, the risk of heavier rainfall in the Dublin area became even more likely, and the yellow warning was elevated to orange for Dublin overnight. The rain had pockets of highly localised intense downpours which resulted in some surface flooding in parts of Munster and Leinster."
Dublin Also Hit by Surface Flooding
While Killarney was the worst affected, parts of Dublin were also flooded on Thursday night, including areas of Cabra in Dublin 7. Footage posted on X showed flooding on Offaly Road, next to Christ the King Boys National School and church. Local Green Party councillor Feljin Jose said the water in Cabra had receded by Friday morning. Many of the drains in the area date from the 1930s, he said, and "cannot cope with the amount of water" during periods of heavy rainfall. He also said much of the greenery in Cabra has been tarmacked over, adding: "With more and more extreme weather events on the horizon, we need places for the water to soak and drain naturally into the ground."
Dublin City Council said rainfall monitoring stations in the city recorded up to 28mm of rain in a single hour, while more than 54mm fell within three hours at Arbour Hill in Dublin 7 — "representing an event of a scale rarely experienced in Dublin in recent years". A number of locations were impacted by surface water flooding, including parts of Cabra, the North Circular Road, Glasnevin, Parkgate Street and Chapelizod. The council said the majority of reported incidents were addressed overnight, with follow-up inspections and assessments continuing.