Severe Thunderstorm of 1985

Lightning, probably striking the River Liffey or trees in New Abbey woods. Photo © Eugene Brennan

July 25th, 1985. Probably one of the worst thunderstorms in Ireland that night. There's even a multi-page thread about it on Boards.ie. I managed to capture this stroke from my bedroom window by leaving the camera shutter open, probably hitting the trees in woodland at New Abbey. Unfortunately the photo wasn't great and it was overexposed (I've reduced the brightness, increased contrast and fiddled with the histogram), so I've been waiting for opportunities for better photos ever since. 

Here's the Met Éireann "Exceptional Weather Event" report. I didn't realise hundreds of farm animals were killed:

This is Des Cahill's RTE News report from the day after.