‘It was an absolute miracle that nobody was killed’

This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most terrifying natural disasters in Mayo history.

The Pullathomas landslide of 2003 left devastation in its wake and it was a ‘miracle’ that nobody was killed during the most frightening night Erris has ever seen.

On the night of September 19, 2003, torrential rain saw a series of landslides scythe down Dooncarton Mountain devastating the communities below.

Approximately 80mm rain fell on the 5km crest of Dooncarton in the space of less than two hours. An estimated one million tonnes of water flowed down the hillside leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Two hundred thousand tonnnes of peat, soil, and debris tumbled downwards as forty individuals landslides combined.

Residents had to be evacuated from their homes while others remained stranded as the lanBadscape around them disintegrated and avalanched into Broadhaven Bay.

Up to 40 homes were caught in the wake of the landslide. Roads became covered under several feet of mud, bridges were washed away and livestock lost as the landslide careered through the areas of Pullathomas, Glengad, Inver, and Barnacullew.

One of the most harrowing aspects of that nightmare night was the carnage visited upon Pullathomas graveyard. The community could only look on helplessly as havoc was wreaked on the resting place of their loved ones. Tombstones were smashed and the remains from four graves were swept away into the Atlantic in the deluge.

"The pain from this disaster is being felt worldwide,” said Bishop Dr John Fleming when he visited the scene.

Belmullet SupterintentTony McNamara left a wedding of a Garda colleague in Athlone and when news broke of the catastrophe. He described the scene when he arrived as "like Apocalypse Now, utter devastation".

Emergency teams including the Irish Coastguard, the Civil Defence, the Garda Síochána, as well as medical and fire and ambulance crews were tasked to the scene with the incredible Erris community spirit to the fore.

The late Margaret Lannon, then 98 years of age, had to be rescued from her hilltop home at Barnacullew. Its isolated location cut her property off from rescue teams but her brave neighbours Gerry Sheerin and Paddy Meenehan came to Margaret aid. They made their way across moving earth to stay with Margaret until it was safe for rescuers to stretcher her down the mountain the next morning.

Another elderly resident who had to be plucked from his home described the rain hitting ‘like bullets’ on the roof of his house.

Members of an extended family were lucky to escape their lives when floods of water and mud breached a graveyard wall.

Teenagers Siobhán McGrath and Anthony McGuire were driving home from a pub quiz when the wall of water and mud struck. "We thought we were going to die," Siobhán said. "We sat in the car hugging each other. We thought that was it - that we would never see each other again."

Sioban’s mother Teresa was travelling in the car behind. "Their car was like a toy in a bathtub," she told reporters.. "Their car kept turning and turning in the swirl. We thought it would go into the sea."

Local councillor Gerry Coyle was among the first at the scene. He recalls working at his Belmullet garage when he received a call from Deputy Michael Ring.

“It was 9 or 10pm when I got a call from Michael Ring telling me that late Michael Carolan had told him about a bridge being washed away. Michael would stop the cars going in at the Inver side if I could go down to the Pullathomas side.

“There was only a bit of a must in the garage when I left Belmullet but my God above when I went down. When I got to Barnatra I could barely see the road when I got to Knocknalower I was frightened. Each drop of rain was like a two-little bottle of water being thrown at the windscreen,” Gerry recalls.

He said it was a terrifying scene.

“It was frightening. The landslide was pulling telegraph poles down from the hills making flashes and sparks. You could hear them breaking as they came down. I remember seeing a tractor halfway down the hill. It was an absolute miracle that nobody was killed,” said Gerry.

Western People photographer Henry Wills was also among the swiftest on the scene.

“There were so many bridges down and you didn’t know what route to take. The following morning, I went back again and the devastation was just unbelievable,” said Henry.

Reports were commissioned to determine the cause of the landslides which were brought about by an extreme weather event. The exceptionally heavy rainfall in the area caused the peat bog to slide on the steep mountain slopes, and the situation was further exacerbated by the relatively dry state of the peat after a long dry summer. Cracks had appeared in the thin peat bog cover, and the rain saturated the peat and then found easy passage to the base.

“It was a freak thing really. There had been a long, long spell of dry weather and the bog on the top of the mountain had cracked with the dryness. When that deadly gush of water came it flowed into those cracks and lifted the soil off the mountain,” said Gerry.

The scars remained not only on the landscape but also on the community for some time. Some residents faced a wait to return to their homes and locals had to battle for compensation and Government support following the disaster. Then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern made a belated visit to Erris via helicopter over a month after the incident when he came under pressure to attend the scene. 

It was another three years before protective barriers were erected at the site of the landslides.