Cold-water coral mounds occur in discrete clustered populations over a broad region from the glaciated Norwegian continental margins to the non-glaciated margins of Iberia and northwest Africa. Here we report on an interesting correlation between the Holocene growth of a mound population west of Ireland and early Holocene paleoclimatic variations in the North Atlantic region, notably the well documented '8,200 yr cold event'. An age structure for the population is calculated from growth rate estimates for the coral framework constructor Lophelia pertusa and a previously formulated population growth model. The model growth curve for the Holocene period fits the observed data well, except for a significant deflection in the data trend at about 8,500 calendar years ago. This corresponds to the time that the glacial lakes Agassiz and Ojibway, which were once dammed by a remnant of the Laurentide ice sheet, drained catastrophically into the Labrador Sea and triggered the '8,200 yr event'. This cold period may also have played a role in triggering major submarine landslides, such as the Storegga Slide.