| Ballygally Storms - Local History |
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Serious damage occurred as the result of a storm on the night of Friday, December 21st 1894 as considerable flooding took place in low-lying areas. The waves damaged many parts of the Coast Road and large portions of it were swept away.
Jean had little contact with local people for she was regarded as an eccentric. Her tanned craggy features, long grey hair, old soiled clothes, and the fact that she smoked a clay pipe, led local children to call her a witch. Many years earlier a small boat drifted into Ballygally Bay. In the boat was a dead woman and in her arms a small baby. The baby girl was adopted by a kindly local family and called Jean. When Jean reached womanhood she married a local tenant farmer called Parke. Life was difficult on their small holding as Jean had to cope on her own as her husband was away at sea for many months of the year . During one of his long spells at sea Jean dreamed that he had been involved in an accident and had drowned. So vivid was her dream that she was deeply disturbed. From that day onwards she wandered down to the beach each day and spent hours just staring out to sea hoping to see her husband’s boat coming in. Months went past and Jean’s excursions to the beach each day left her farm neglected and eventually the bailiff’s moved in and evicted her. Homeless, and in despair, Jean wandered down to the beach. Determined to get shelter she gathered large stones and built four walls, then made a roof from driftwood and seaweed. Here she lived for many years gathering sea food from between the rocks along the shore. According to the ‘Times’ she lived principally by charity and a short time earlier was in receipt of Poor-Law relief. During the nights of December 21st and 22nd, 1894 a terrible storm swept over the country causing immense damage to property and considerable loss of life. No one could remember such a fierce hurricane before. Barns and houses were blown down while many others were completely deroofed. The contents of stackyards were scattered for miles around and many low-lying areas were completely flooded. Many roads along the Antrim coast came under severe attack and were partially swept away while ferry boats were destroyed against the rocks. She had been given repeated warnings by local people as to the dangers of continuing to reside in her seaside stone house during the storm but she was deaf to all advice and stubbornly repeated that her husband’s boat might come in at any time. She met her death that night as the high waves swept Jean and her house away. The next day James Blair, from the Old Mill, Ballygally was walking along the beach when he saw Jean Parkes body. It had been washed up half a mile away from her house. William Clarke Robinson, a Glenarm man, published a book of poems called ‘Antrim Idylls and Other Poems’ in 1907. One of his poems ‘Marina Jane’ is dedicated to Jean Parke, Ballygally and finishes: ‘The hungry sea had claimed what first it gave; She doubtless joined him after severance long; And o’er them both, beyond the broken wave, The sea wind sings its ever plaintive song.’
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