29-04-2025
- Climate
- Irish Daily Mirror
Carl Mullan among Irish tourists affected by power outages in Spain and Portugal
Portuguese and Spanish officials remain in the dark about what caused a peninsula-wide power cut on Monday.
RTE 2FM presenter Carl Mullan and his family were among hordes of Irish tourists affected by the blackout.
The broadcaster and dad-of-three took to Instagram to document the experience. In a series of videos, he revealed the host of his villa dropped in with some candles and head torches.
In another, he revealed that his wife Aisling had washed her hair under torchlight but had forgotten there was no power to dry it when she was finished.
As night fell, Carl showed the view from the villa before taking a sip of rose while wearing his head torch.
In another, he goes to the fridge to grab a drink with the caption: "Nothing a nice warm beer won't fix."
But there was light at the end of the tunnel and Carl took to social media this afternoon to confirm his power had returned.
Meanwhile, in Spain, a barman at James Joyce Irish Pub in Madrid revealed punters still flocked to the boozer on Monday despite having no electricity.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, he said: "Even without electricity the pub was full, people were still coming. It was crazy but some wanted to come and enjoy a beer.
"We're open as normal today, everything is back to normal."
On Monday, 13 flights to and from Dublin Airport were axed as a result of the outage but things were back to normal today.
In a statement, the daa said: "Thankfully, the issues that affected airports in Spain and Portugal on Monday have subsided and flights are operating as normal this morning.
"At both Cork and Dublin airports, we've seen a full schedule of first wave flights depart, including many to Spain and Portugal.
"We're expecting a busy but smooth weekend at both Cork and Dublin airports this weekend, as many head overseas for the May bank holiday and with thousands of visitors set to come to Ireland for the long weekend."
It comes as the cause of Spain and Portugal's widespread blackouts remained a mystery, with some isolated disruption remaining after power was largely restored to both countries.
One of Europe's most severe blackouts grounded flights, paralysed metro systems, disrupted mobile communications and shut down ATMs across the Iberian Peninsula on Monday.
By 7am on Tuesday more than 99 per cent of energy demand in Spain had been restored, the country's electricity operator Red Electrica said.
Portuguese grid operator REN said all 89 power substations were back online and power had been restored to all 6.4 million customers.
On Monday, it was reported that Portugal's grid operator REN pointed the finger to a rare phenomenon known as "induced atmospheric vibration" but they have since rowed back on this.
The authorities in Spain have yet to provide further explanations for what caused one of the most serious blackouts to ever take place in Europe.
The Southern European nation of 49 million people lost 15 gigawatts - equivalent to 60 per cent of its national demand - in just five seconds.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the government's priorities were twofold - restoring Spain's electrical system and finding the causes of the blackout so that a similar event "never takes place again."
Such widespread electric failure has little precedent on the Iberian Peninsula or in Europe. Mr Sanchez urged the public to refrain from speculation and said no theory about the cause of the outage had been discarded.
Eduardo Prieto, director of services for system operations at Spain's electricity operator, noted two steep, back-to-back "disconnection events" before Monday's blackout.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, he said that more investigation was needed to understand why they took place.
Spain's meteorological agency, AEMET, said that it hadn't detected any "unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena" on Monday, and no sudden temperature fluctuations were recorded at their weather stations.
Portugal's National Cybersecurity Centre on Monday dismissed speculation about foul play, saying that there was no sign that the outage resulted from a cyber-attack.
European Council President Antonio Costa also said that there were "no indications of any cyber-attack," while Teresa Ribera, an executive vice president of the European Commission, also ruled out sabotage. Nonetheless, the outage "is one of the most serious episodes recorded in Europe in recent times," she said.
At Spain's largest train stations, droves of travellers waited Tuesday morning to board trains, or to rebook tickets for journeys that were cancelled or disrupted.
At Madrid's Atocha station, hundreds of people stood near screens waiting for updates. Many had spent the night at the station, wrapped in blankets provided by the Red Cross. Similar scenes played out at Barcelona's Sants station.
The Madrid Open tennis tournament resumed after the blackout caused 22 matches to be postponed on Monday. A packed schedule Tuesday included second-ranked Iga Swiatek advancing to the quarterfinals.
By 11 a.m. on Tuesday, service on Madrid's subway system was fully restored. In Barcelona, the system was operating normally, but commuter trains were suspended because of "electrical instability," the company that runs the service, Rodalies Catalunya, said on X.
In some parts of the country, commuter and mid-distance services were still suspended or running at reduced capacity.
Emergency workers in Spain said they had rescued around 35,000 passengers on Monday stranded along railways and underground.
The blackout was especially disruptive on transit systems, turning sports centres, train stations, and airports into makeshift overnight refuges.
Ruben Carion was stranded on a commuter train outside Madrid but managed to open a window and walk to the nearest transit station. He and a friend later spent the night in Atocha station after their train back to Barcelona was cancelled.
24-year-old Carion said that he chose to wait at the station instead of a hotel, so he could stay updated on when he could buy a new ticket home. Sleeping on the floor "hungry, thirsty and tired," Cairon described his experience in two words: "pure chaos."
