All of Moville was blacked out at some point during Friday night. Part of the town was blacked out for over an hour. The part of the town that I was in had the lights go out at 7:05pm and go back on at 10:10pm.

It wasn’t just Moville that was hit as Malin, Quigley’s Point, Shrove, Greencastle and Muff were hit too. It happened during a heavy burst of rain during thunder and lightning. The cables here don’t seem very resilient.

It hit particularly the restaurants. I’m told that the Town Clock’s (Big Ben’s) doors were shut when someone went past at ten o’clock.

The cost to businesses would have been substantial during this shorter and shorter holiday season of ours. Pubs weren’t hit as badly as they could still serve beer by candlelight. Perhaps people even decided they would rather go out than sit in a dark house.

During these difficult times when they are fighting on front to bring the Irish Diaspora here in the year of the Gathering, it’s a bit of an own goal when the lights go out for hours. Visitors would have had to be told that their meals couldn’t be served.

How would that have looked to them?