Tens of thousands remain without power after Storm Ashley hits island of Ireland

Tens of thousands of homes remained without power on Sunday night after Storm Ashley swept across the island of Ireland.

The hazardous conditions saw dozens of flights cancelled, including at airports in Dublin and Belfast.

The first named storm of the season also forced the postponement of several sporting fixtures, including a number of gaelic football county finals.

In the Republic of Ireland, ESB Networks said 29,000 customers were without power as of 8.30pm on Sunday.

The west coast was worst affected although north Dublin also experienced significant outages.

The number without power had been 53,000 earlier in the day.

In a statement on Sunday night, ESB Networks said: “Our crews remain mobilised and will continue working on power restoration to homes, farms and businesses for another number of hours tonight.

“They will mobilise before first light tomorrow in impacted areas.”

In Northern Ireland, NIE Networks said that at 9.45pm fewer than 1,500 customers remained without power, with the majority of those set to be connected later on Sunday night.

It said power had already been restored to more than 10,000 customers who lost supply earlier in the day.

A spokesman for NIE Networks said: “We are grateful for the patience of all of the customers who experienced power cuts due to Storm Ashley. Strong gusts, combined with trees still in leaf, caused damage to the electricity network resulting in faults which are time consuming to repair.”

Orange and amber wind warnings that had been in effect in 11 counties on the island during the day lifted on Sunday evening after the worst of the stormy conditions passed.

A Met Eireann orange alert for Kerry, Leitrim, Sligo, Clare, Donegal, Mayo and Galway was in place from 10am on Sunday to 8pm.

In Northern Ireland, a Met Office amber wind alert for counties Antrim, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Londonderry was in operation from 1pm to 8pm.

The whole of the island is covered by a yellow wind warning until midnight.

As of 7.45pm, 60 flights due to depart and land at Dublin Airport on Sunday had been cancelled.

A total of 27 incoming aircraft took more than one attempt to land having aborted their initial landings while 28 diverted to other airports.

It is understood at least one operator at the airport has scheduled extra capacity on Monday to fly passengers stranded in Dublin out early in the morning.

At Belfast City airport, 28 departures were cancelled on Sunday.

The National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management, Met Eireann and various other stakeholders in Ireland were involved in planning for the storm.

Local authority severe weather assessment teams also stood up local emergency response teams.

Multi-agency partners in Northern Ireland also met over the weekend in preparation for the storm.

As part of the response, temporary tidal flood defences were deployed as a preventative measure along sections of the River Lagan in Belfast.