Looks Like Rain: 9000 Years of Irish Weather

The name the Romans used for Ireland was Hibernia, meaning `Land Of Winter' and cold feet may have influenced their leaving the Irish to their own devices. This lively overview picks out incidents when the weather - generally bad - changed the course of Ireland's history. We learn how the Irish weather probably saw off the dictator Oliver Cromwell, how the Irish climate created the heavy soil that made the potato flourish, how the Irish legend of the crock of gold at the rainbow's end came about, and how David Lean used the County Kerry weather as a starring character in his movie, Ryan's Daughter. Remarkably, Ireland's weather has remained the same moderate mixed blessing since the Romans left.