Two weeks on from Storm Éowyn, life has returned to normal for many. But for those still waiting for essential services to be restored, the frustration is real and it is mounting. Roscommon journalist Emmett Corcoran has been reporting on the experiences of those who have been affected by extended outages over the past two weeks. He says many feel voiceless and that others feel abandoned. In this opinion piece, he argues that Storm Éowyn has simply blown away the mask and revealed the institutional neglect which has plagued the West for generations.
Thousands still without
Fourteen days after Storm Éowyn tore through Ireland, thousands of homes across the West and Northwest remain without power. On Thursday, the figures provided to MEPs by ESB Networks paint a stark picture: 12,000 households are still in the dark, with counties Galway, Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim, Cavan, Sligo, Longford, and Monaghan worst affected.
If such widespread outages persisted for this length of time in Dublin, there would be absolute uproar. Emergency response teams would be deployed en masse, and government ministers would be falling over themselves to be seen “on the ground” delivering solutions. Yet here in the West, the prolonged suffering of ordinary people is met with weary acceptance—a testament to a sad reality that has plagued this region for generations: we are left behind, and we continue to allow it to happen.
Disaster response or exposure of neglect?
Storm Éowyn’s impact was unprecedented, with the strongest recorded winds since records began battering Ireland’s western counties. Homes, businesses, farms, and community spaces were devastated. The response from local communities was swift and resilient. Volunteers worked tirelessly to clear roads, distribute supplies, and establish emergency hubs to provide basic necessities such as water, heat, and phone charging stations.
But where was the state? ESB Networks crews and county council workers have done extraordinary work, yet there remains a fundamental issue: why is our infrastructure so vulnerable in the first place? Why are communities in Roscommon, Leitrim, and Mayo still waiting two weeks for power restoration? Why do our telecommunications networks collapse at the first sign of extreme weather? The answer is painfully obvious. The west and northwest have been systematically underfunded, ignored, and abandoned.
This is not about the failure of emergency response teams in the aftermath of the storm. It is about decades of political neglect, about infrastructure that was never properly built or maintained, and about successive governments that prioritise urban Ireland while treating rural regions as afterthoughts.
A pattern of disregard
Storm Éowyn is just the latest reminder of the neglect that has been allowed to fester in the West. Whether it is broadband blackspots, the closure of rural post offices and Garda stations, a chronic lack of investment in roads and public transport, or the closure of vital services like A&E departments, the trend is unmistakable.
The closure of power stations, without ensuring the necessary infrastructure was in place to support an all-electric energy network, has left thousands dependent on an unreliable grid. Government policy continues to push towards an energy model that assumes every home has the resilience of those in the greater Dublin area. The reality is starkly different. People in rural areas have been left to fend for themselves.
For years, we have been told about regional investment, about initiatives to “revitalise” rural Ireland. And yet, when crisis strikes, the cracks in these empty promises become painfully evident. The West is always last in line.
Electoral amnesia: why do we accept this?
Despite this consistent neglect, election after election, the people of the West and Northwest return the same parties and politicians to the Government. The same voices that have overseen this era of decline are rewarded with another term in power, another mandate to continue as before. Why?
There is an entrenched political culture in Ireland of voting for the familiar, of opting for the “devil you know.” Local representation often trumps national impact. Yet, as storms like Éowyn remind us, local issues are national issues. The Government’s failure to properly invest in and prioritise rural Ireland should not be forgotten when polling day comes around.
This is not to say that a simple change in voting patterns will solve everything overnight. But political complacency thrives on predictability. As long as rural Ireland continues to vote for those who ignore it, nothing will change.
The cost of inaction
There will be another storm. There will be another crisis. And if nothing changes, we will be here again, talking about prolonged outages, fragile infrastructure, and government inaction. Communities will once again rally together, supporting one another in the absence of real state intervention. But goodwill and resilience are not substitutes for proper investment and governance.
The people of the West deserve better. They deserve infrastructure that is built to withstand modern realities. They deserve services that are not constantly under threat of closure. They deserve a government that treats them with the same urgency and priority as it does the urban centres.
