On the night of January 10th this year a severe storm battered the northwest coast of Ireland, powering winds of up to 100 miles per hour. The next morning when Conor Ward, proprietor of Donegal Thatched Cottages, surveyed his ten traditional thatched holiday cottages he was pleasantly relieved to find that the damage had been confined to the ridge of cottage no. 10, from the chimney to the barge