Heavy falls of snow from early yesterday morning left many roads in the north-west in a dangerous condition.
Sections of the N4 Sligo to Dublin road were particularly bad and in places motorists could travel no faster than 20 m.p.h. Gardai in Donegal said there were up to five inches of snow on some roads and many minor roads in the north of the county were impassable. The areas worst affected were Milford, Fanad and Inishowen.
Most people heeded Garda warnings not to travel unless absolutely necessary after heavy snowfalls which, in some areas, started on Tuesday night.
The main Sligo to Bundoran road was described as "treacherous" by lunchtime, and among the accidents reported was a four-car pile-up close to the village of Grange, although there were no serious injuries. In Sligo, motorists had problems on some of the steeper hills on the outskirts of the town and some cars were abandoned.
Compacted snow also caused difficulties on the N4.
Conditions were particularly bad near Boyle on the Curlews bypass, where parts of the road were described as being like "a sheet of glass". Gardai in Carrick-on-Shannon reported a number of minor accidents and said that while the main roads were passable, it was impossible to get out to some of the smaller villages around the county and driving was difficult in places. The snow eased off by late afternoon, but by then temperatures had started to drop and driving conditions were expected to deteriorate further through the night. An ESB spokesman said the weather conditions did not cause any major problems although homes in a number of areas were left without supply for parts of the day.
In north Mayo, 90 homes were left without electricity when lightning hit a transformer yesterday morning.
Supply was also cut in parts of Sligo town and its outskirts when a conductor broke, affecting about 200 homes. Power was also cut for a time in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon.
The spokesman said he did not anticipate major problems over the coming days unless a lot of ice formed on conductors causing them to break, although this was unlikely to happen.