High winds brought down power lines and kept emergency services busy, as the weekend came to a stormy end in almost all areas of the country.
The west and south-west had the worst of yesterday's conditions, but the northern regions were expected to bear the brunt of the storms overnight, before a return to calmer weather today.
Predicting gusts of up to 80 miles an hour in places, Met Éireann issued a severe wind warning on Saturday.
As storm-force winds lashed the west coast three canoeists were rescued by the Air Corps, having been stranded throughout Saturday night on a small island in Lough Corrib, Co Galway.
The group set off in two kayaks from Lisloughrey pier on Saturday, in spite of the weather warnings. The alarm was raised yesterday morning when they had not returned to their van, and an Air Corps helicopter based at Finner camp in Co Donegal responded.
The three people were located at lunchtime and winched off in stormy conditions.
Their rescue came several months after a call for canoeing to be banned on the lake. Mr Tony Youlten, a retired boat-builder living on the Corrib, was decorated by the German government for his quick action in rescuing 14 German students from the lake waters when their canoes capsized.
Mr Youlten said they would have drowned if they had not been wearing life-jackets. "Canoeing is really not suitable on Lough Corrib because it can blow up so quickly. A two-foot wave would be enough to sink such a fragile craft," he added.
In Wicklow, a rescue helicopter searching for a group of climbers yesterday was forced to turn back by the bad weather.
One of a group of 24 hill-walkers had become ill during a climb of Corrig Mountain, but all later made it down safely, according to the gardaí.
High tides left parts of Limerick city flooded, with the Clancy Strand and Longpavement areas worst affected. The roads were closed, but no houses were flooded. Parts of south-east Clare were left without electricity for several hours.
In Kerry, electricity was restored to some 3,000 homes in the Dingle and Iveragh peninsulas after a general electrical fault caused by storm damage cut power for over three hours.
Some 1,000 technicians remained on stand-by between Galway and Kerry, and ESB crews were working on isolated incidents throughout the south and the west.
Ships sheltered in harbours in the region as gusts of 80 miles an hour struck the region.
Spanish fishing vessels some 200 miles west of Valentia remained at sea, choosing to weather the storm rather than waste up to four days if they came ashore.
A spokesman for Valentia Coast Guard said the boats would probably designate one vessel to operate a roll call at regular intervals to check on the ships in the area. But most Irish vessels had come in to shelter, he added.
The north Kerry village of Ballylongford, on the Shannon estuary, was last night bracing itself for flooding, as the combination of high tides, flood waters and south-westerly winds struck.
Subject to flooding because of its position "just a few feet above high water level", locals feared the recent council prevention work would do little to protect the tidal village.
Houses in Bridge Street took in three feet of water during last February's floods. Work has since been carried out on sluice gates, drains, and on the sewage system, along with pipelines into the river to carry the overflow.
Mr Michael Finucane, a publican in Quay Street, Ballylongford, said the village had deployed sandbags but added: "Tonight will see if the council has in fact cracked it."
Elsewhere in Kerry there was localised flooding on roads, with trees down at Lisselton and Listowel and in the Kilcummin area in the south of the county.In Tralee gardaí warned the public to be vigilant, after slates came off a number of buildings in the town.
Secondary schoolchildren from the Co Mayo islands of Clare and Inisturk are enjoying a long weekend at home courtesy of the storms. Heavy swells have prevented the ferry operating from the islands. More than 30 islanders attend Sancta Maria, College, Louisburgh.
