This headline alone has got 'Old Man Yells At Cloud' vibes. The great giant silver ball fiasco of 2021.
We're still not done with the effects of Storm Barra as many counties in the country are under a status orange or red weather warning.
The storm has brought high gusts of wind of over 150 kmph in places. It's been a bit of a distraction from other newsworthy items at the very least.
Nothing could have summed up an Irish weather warning more than a massive silver ball rampaging through the streets of a town, Bannon's however.
This giant silver ball was attached to a jewellery shop (Bannons) on bray Main Street. It’s now heading towards little bray via castle street. Stay safe, be vigilant. (I don’t know who shot the footage) pic.twitter.com/RzbycXN8vb
— Aaron McAllorum (@AaronMcAllorum) December 7, 2021
Silver Ball Origins
Over on Twitter - Aaron McAllorum shared a video of the ball making its way through the streets of Bray which quickly got people's attention.
After doing the rounds on social media - the investigations started. The giant ball had a home. Bannons Jewellers on Main Street in Bray.
The original capturer commented under the post, Rachel, and said she took the video from Starbucks on Main Street at around 8:30 am.
Joe Duffy answered the call (literally) of Rachel over on his Liveline show on RTÉ Radio 1. He likely wasn't expecting to fill a segment about a giant silver ball but he's filled worse.
After all, after witnessing an occurrence like that, the only way to recover properly is to 'Talk to Joe'. In the video, Rachel is heard saying "Oh for fuck sake, that's going to cause a crash."
Project Mayhem well underway I see pic.twitter.com/BddoKq4kra
— Andy Saul (@andrewpcsaul) December 7, 2021
Here's the transcript from Liveline:
Joe: Rachel, what happened this morning? Where were you?
Rachel: I was en-route to work and I was in Starbucks in Bray. It was myself and two of the baristas were just looking out the window and commenting on the weather and all of a sudden we saw a bauble.
Joe: A bubble?
Rachel: A bauble!
Joe: How big was the bauble?
Rachel: God, I'd say if it was beside me it would probably have been up to above my knee anyway.
Joe: And that was just rolling down the street?
Rachel: Yeah.
Joe: And where did the bauble fau-ble from?
Rachel: It was up on Bray Main Street. It was attached to Bannons Jewellers. And obviously with the wind it just...
Joe: Took off?
Rachel: Yeah yeah. So the alliteration possibilities are endless with the baubles behaving badly.
Joe: And Rachel, it's also a warning to people - outdoor public lighting, Christmas decorations are up, was that a Christmas decoration bauble in Bannons or a normal bauble in Bannons?
Rachel: It was a Christmas decoration. I don't know if you watched the video.
Joe: Yeah, I was mesmerized.
Rachel: You can see a car swerving to avoid it. I stopped the video and I followed its little journey down Bray Main Street. It seemed to kind of veer off down to another little business and down a residential road. It got off the road very quickly and didn't cause any crashes thankfully.
Clever Comparisons
Some likened it to the scene in Fight Club where they blow up a spherical sculpture as part of 'Project Mayhem' (see above) and have it roll into a 'franchise coffee bar'.
There were other pop-cultural references made too. It wasn't too far off the 1960s sci-fi show The Prisoner where a giant orb called 'Rover' stops prisoners leaving 'The Village'.
Others thought the Naas Ball had made its way into Bray somehow. That would have created some rivalry between the two towns.
You'd expect a bit of fallout from Storm Barra. Not many could have predicted a giant silver ball would have been one of the main talking points.
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