A WEEK or two ago you may have read in Weather Eye the reminiscences of Dr Adrian Somerfield of Churchtown, Co Dublin, giving a graphic, almost lyrical, account of life in the capital during the big freeze of 1947.
Patrick Cullinan of Clontarf also experienced that bitter winter half a century ago, and was so struck by the harsh conditions at the time that he recorded his impressions. Mr Cullinan kindly sent me a copy of that manuscript, written in a nicely rounded hand and dated March 16th, 1947.
"The summer of 1946 was one of the wettest for 50 years. Most of the crops were destroyed by bad weather, and towards the end of autumn thousands of voluntary workers from the towns and cities went out to save what they could of the already battered wheat, oats, and other crops.
"On Saturday, January 24th, Ireland was struck by a most violent snowstorm. From that day until March 9th, arctic conditions have prevailed parts of the country were isolated for weeks; several people were lost in the many blizzards; and thousands of sheep and cattle have died of hunger and exposure. Snow drifts up to 20 feet in depth have been reported, and traffic throughout the country was severely crippled.
"The fuel position has been the most serious in history. There have been no passenger trains since February 26th, only about four hours of gas each day, and half the houses in Dublin city have no fires - even in this bitter weather the turf supply has run out. Rationing is severe too; 6 lbs of bread per week are allowed an individual, half a pound of sugar, half an ounce of tea, and 2 ozs of butter."
Naturally our archives of the weather tell us nothing about rationing, but otherwise the Cullinan Report agrees closely with official records for 1947. Snow fell on 20 to 30 days of the 50 day period from January 24th to mid March, and some of the falls lasted for 20 hours or more. Major falls occurred countrywide on February 2nd, 8th, 21st and 25th, and also on March 4th. Munster and Leinster bore the brunt of the earlier snowfalls, those of late January and early February, while in Connacht and Ulster the most severe conditions occurred on February 25th.
Although the memorable snowstorm of January 1917 provided more snow over Ireland than was experienced during the early months of 1947, the latter year was remarkable for the longevity of the harsh spell, and for the cold, persistent wind that blew steadily from the east for weeks and weeks on end.