When the country 'went white' in 1947

The 'Big Snow' of 1947 was the coldest winter in memory, writes Brian Byrne, and is recalled in an article by Turtle Bunbury in 'Ireland's Own' of February 10, 2017, kindly referred to me by Mary Fleming.

Hundreds of people died, all the canals (and some rivers) in the country were frozen over, and the blizzard of 25 February was the greatest single snowfall on record here, lasting almost 50 hours. Snow drifted as 'high as hedges' and in some cases to the top of telegraph poles.

Even the ink in the schools' inkwells had frozen solid, so that even those children who might have made it to school would have had nothing to work with.

It is quite possible that the pictures here from the Kilcullen Gathering Heritage Collection, courtesy of Peter Bardon, from a previous big freeze in 1938, were reflected in 1947 with people walking on the Liffey near the Valley and the bridge, frozen because the weir slowed the river's flow.

(The weir was subsequently breached that year by excessive water released by the ESB from the new hydro-electric dam at Golden Falls, Ballymore.)

The 'Ireland's Own' article is a fascinating and timely read, well worth looking up.