Bray Flood Disaster August 1905

Judgement Day

As anybody who has ever lived in Bray knows, the town - seafront and Little Bray in particular - have always been prone to serious flooding. I was reminded of it when carrying out an eBay search for Bray postcards last night. The results below and the cards are still available.





There is an interesting piece on flooding on http://www.braywatch.com/ and I have extracted the 1905 flood see below:

August 1905

On Thursday, August 24th, 1905, rain began to fall over most parts of Ireland, leading to above average rainfalls for the month being recorded in various locations, and flooding in others.

In Bray, Co. Wicklow, the steady downpour began after 9pm. on the Thursday night and lasted until Saturday.
As the River Dargle began to rise, swollen with flood water, the residents of the district known as Little Bray kept an anxious eye on it as the danger time for the expected severe flooding was believed to be around 6pm. on Friday, August 25th, when high tide occurred.
6pm. came and went, no flooding occurred, and the residents gave a sigh of relief, believing that the danger was past since the receding tide would reduce the risk dramatically.

However, this relief was ill founded. At 9pm., the river bank walls collapsed some distance above Little Bray, and the river came down the road, swamping the whole of Little Bray to a depth of several feet to the Golf Links, and right to the railway.
The entire area of Little Bray was devastated, and hundreds of people had to be evacuated in a very short space of time. As the scale of the disaster was revealed, word was sent to Mr. J. W. Reigh, Chairman of the Bray Urban District Council, who immediately began to direct the rescue operations.

In the course of this work, Mr. Reigh risked his own life to try and save a labourer, James Plunkett, but was unsuccessful and in turn had to be rescued himself.
That unfortunate labourer, James Plunkett, was trying to reach his home when he was swept by the flood from Castle Street down the lane beside Kavanagh's pub to the side of the golf links. The wall of the golf course eventually gave way under intense pressure of the flood waters trying to reach the sea. James Plunkett's body was found on the golf course the following day.

Mr. Reigh, who received an Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal for his attempt, wasn't the only one honoured for his rescue attempts on that night. The R.H.S. also awarded testimonials on parchment to twenty-three year old William Mulvey from Bruce's Terrace on the Upper Dargle Road, along with John Thompson, Hugh O’Carroll, T. Harold, Sergt. W. G. McDonough, and Constables W. Vance, D. Clear, R. Fennell and M. McLoughlin, all of whom were involved in going from house to house, rescuing people.

They were part of a proud and honourable tradition that has been maintained in every flood in Bray, and without them many, many more lives would have been lost in Little Bray.
http://www.braywatch.com/Town/Floods.html#1905

Interestingly the final photograph is credited to Killicks - I wonder is this the same photographer that operated from an ancient premises near the top of Florence Road? His 'studio' adjoined the shop of the demon barber "Mr.McNulty".

Hope the above rambling is of interest to somebody.