A cancer nurse, a young father and the youngest of 11 siblings have been identified as the three victims killed by Hurricane Ophelia in Ireland.

Winds of 119mph battered the coast, leaving 120,000 homes without power, ripping roofs off buildings and forcing airbourne flights to land. 

The blasts were so strong that a stand at Cork City Football Club's stadium, Turner's Cross, collapsed.

Families paid tribute to road traffic victims Clare O'Neill and Fintan Goss, 33, as well as 31-year-old Michael Pyke, who died in a horrific chainsaw accident.

The first of three people to die as a result of yesterday’s devastating weather  conditions was cancer nurse Mrs O’Neill. She was killed when her car was struck head-on by a section of a tree.

A branch smashed through the windscreen and it is believed that it struck her with full force straight in the chest.

She is thought to have died immediately and was pronounced dead at the scene of the appalling tragedy on the R671 near the village of Aglish, in Co Waterford.

A passenger, believed to be her mother and who is in her 70s, was taken to Waterford Regional Hospital, where she was recovering from the injuries she had received.

Gardaí were at the scene at 11.40am. They said: ‘A female driver in her 50s was fatally injured when the car she was driving was struck by a falling tree. A female passenger in her 70s was injured.

Ms O’Neill, who is also survived by her daughter Rosie, is believed to have been driving her mother between Aglish and Clashmore, Co Waterford, when the tree fell on their car.