A restaurant in Craughwell cooked up a storm in the aftermath of Éowyn – feeding hordes of hungry people weary from power, water and internet outages.

As soon as electricity returned to Clasby’s Restaurant at Cheevers on Main Street in the village, on Monday morning after the storm, Loretta Cheevers asked her chef Ronan Reynolds to cook a pot of chicken curry.

They posted an invite on social media, which generated huge traction – they ended up feeding more than 250 people, free of charge.

“We are living in a country that isn’t the cheapest to eat out and families can’t afford to be eating out for six days or more, so we just thought we’d do a small, good deed here and pay it forward, and if someone else pays it forward, all the better,” Loretta told the Connacht Tribune.

The business was closed the weekend of the storm, and like most in hospitality they suffered loss of earnings and loss of food stock. And the original slates of the Cheevers’ building roof – dating from the 1800s – were damaged in the storm.

But Loretta was happy to serve the community in its hour of need laying on chicken curry, rice, and chips for adults and sausage and chips for children.

Wildlands in Moycullen was one of the scores of businesses who gave a dig out to neighbours in the broader Conamara area, one of the worst hit by Éowyn.

The indoor and outdoor activity centre has ample shower facilities, which they opened to the public whose homes were out of power and water.

They have a large restaurant space, too, and they invited the community to charge their devices, fill flasks of boiling water, and avail of complimentary tea and coffee, granola bars, and snacks.

Faye heaped praise on two other Moycullen businesses – the local supermarkets – which had generators and became social hubs in the initial aftermath of the storm, while the rest of the village was in darkness.

Another business Faye Bohan namechecked was the Lady Gregory in Gort, which was generous in its response to the worst storm ever to batter the West.

The family business owned by Michael and Maura O’Grady is run by Aileen their daughter, who spearheaded and co-ordinated the warm welcome that was extended to the community in South Galway impacted by the storm.

Caption: Faye Bohan, co-owner of Wildlands in Moycullen, who welcomed the community of Moycullen and beyond into the business to take refuge – and have showers – in the aftermath of Éowyn.

See full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.

And if you know a business in your locality that went the extra mile after Storm Éowyn please contact us with details on news@ctribune.ie.