Irish Times journalist Mary Cummins spent her third day without electricity in Doon, Ballybunion, Co Kerry yesterday evening. She and her daughter, Daisy, took a late decision to spend Christmas with her 86-year-old mother in Kerry, and travelled down on Tuesday.
"We have had no electricity since lunchtime on Christmas Eve," she said. "The weather was so bad we could not go out.
"We had booked Christmas dinner in the Golf Hotel in Ballybunion, but it had its roof ripped off. They rang us late on Christmas Eve and said they were very sorry, they could not do it.
"Luckily I had bought a chicken and ham for the week. We have an oil range in the kitchen and were able to cook the chicken. We also have an open fire.
"It feels like a week. I'm so used to the TV."
Mary is also concerned that there seemed to be no system in place to check on particularly vulnerable people at such a time. No one could be sure her mother, who lives alone, would have had company for Christmas.
"We didn't get a call from anybody. It's just a freak thing that I happened to be here. There should be a system for knowing who was elderly and alone, and who had electricity, someone to ring."
She managed to get through to the ESB in Tralee once, and they said they hoped to restore power by last night. But when she rang back there was an answering machine on, with another number, which was constantly engaged.
"It seems to be very random. Some people have got power back and others don't. We're not very far from areas which do have electricity."
The Golf Hotel confirmed that it had to close its dining room on the top floor of the hotel, overlooking the sea. Part of the roof was ripped off and the windows blown in. "We had to cancel everything."
Staff were able to cater for residents, with difficulty, by bringing them downstairs. Food could be cooked, as the hotel has its own generator.