Robin McDonagh is only four weeks old and he has already spent a quarter of his life in a hotel sheltering from Storm Éowyn and its aftermath.
His mother, teacher and wedding singer Kayla McDonagh, took no chances when the red warning was issued on Thursday morning and booked into the Connemara Coast Hotel in Furbo, Co Galway. It is a place she knows well as a wedding singer and as a guest ‐ in December she moved into the hotel after power was cut off for two days following the heavy snows of Storm Darragh.
“I was heavily pregnant and I knew the power was going to go. When I saw red, I packed up and came here,” Ms McDonagh said.
Kayla and Robin McDonagh live in Inverin, Co Galway, 18km west of the Connemara Coast Hotel on the coast road. By Friday morning the hotel was full of families. “We have been well looked after. On Friday morning there were toddlers here in their pyjamas,” she said.
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“He’s been brilliant. I’m lucky he is a steady baby. As long as he is being fed he is happy. I hope he sleeps when he gets home because he has slept very well here.
“He’s easy to look after... Imagine trying to do a nappy change at 4am with no heat and no light.”
The power has returned to her home, but Ms McDonagh is planning to spend another night in the hotel. “My house will be freezing. I don’t want to take my son back to an ice box,” she said.
[ Storm Éowyn: More than 140,000 customers still without electricity, ESB saysOpens in new window ]
Ms McDonagh moved back to her native Inverin in October having lived in Dublin for 15 years. She was an original member of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra Chorus from 2015-2017 and she was a guest soloist for the RTÉ Concert Orchestra’s live performance of The Gladiator score at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre.
“You want your kids to have the same upbringing you have. He’ll be out on the bog as soon as he can walk,” Ms McDonagh said.
“We are blessed to live here, but at times like this, we are not so blessed.”
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