Met Éireann, the Republic of Ireland's national meteorological service, said that the country had faced wind gusts of 114mph in County Galway– the highest recorded wind speeds ever recorded on the island.

Ireland has been hit with record wind gusts of 114 miles (183 kilometers) an hour as a winter storm batters the country and northern parts of the U.K. Schools have been closed, trains halted and hundreds of flights canceled in the Republic of Ireland,

The storm had knocked out power to more than half a million utility customers by early Friday as it moved across Ireland.

Millions of people in Ireland and northern parts of the U.K. have heeded the advice of authorities to stay at home

Storm Eowyn Friday continued to cause power outages for hundreds of thousands, knocked down trees and disrupted transportation as it moved across Scotland and Northern Ireland into Britain's West Midlands region.

Record high winds from Storm Eowyn battered Ireland and Northern Ireland on Friday, leaving one man dead and almost one-third of Irish homes and businesses without power and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights.