White '47: tops of telephone poles stuck out of the snow

By Tom Gillespie

PART 2

SEVENTY-five years ago (1947) Ireland was gripped in a freezing blizzard in what became known as White '47.

The hardships encountered by families at the time were vividly recorded by John Gunnigan in the 2010 Ballyhaunis Annagh parish magazine.

He wrote:

We never saw anything like the drifts of snow. There could be up to 10 or 15 feet of snow in places and little or none in other places.

We had to dig up our drinking tubs and get the watering hole open again; I thought the poor cattle would never stop drinking.

We were lucky that the way to the river was exposed and most of the snow had blown away from it. We also found one of the wells so we had water for the house too.

We were also able to find our potato pit out in the field, and we also had turnips pitted that we were able to get at. Most people were nearly self-sufficient at that time. We had plenty of milk, home-made butter, eggs and plenty of home-cured bacon, so we weren’t going to be hungry.

We had to walk to Kilkelly for tea and sugar and a bit of fresh meat, if it could be got. The frost was very hard all the time; the days were sunny and bright but very cold.

We were kept busy feeding and watering the stock; there was really nothing else we could do. All other farm work came to a halt.

A few nights after the blizzard began a neighbour came to our house asking for my mother’s help as his wife was ill. When my mother saw the woman she decided that she needed medical help. Two young neighbours were sent off walking the three miles to Kilkelly for Dr. Lyons.

Looking back now Dr. Lyons couldn’t have been a young man at the time, but that didn’t stop him coming out in the snow to attend the woman. The men who went for him told later that they walked on the top of the ‘eskers’ all the way from Cloonturk to Doogarry as there was no snow there: it had all blown away. Some of those eskers are gone now as the county council used them up when they were building the N17.

When he got to the house, Dr. Lyons asked my mother for a basin of hot water. He put his hands into it, as he said, to get some feeling back in them. He then did the same with his feet.

He then attended the young woman (who made a complete recovery). When he had all done he had a cup of tea, and set off to walk the three miles back home.

The young men went with him carrying his bag and lighting his way with an oil lantern. By the time those young men got back home they had walked 12 miles in the snow at night. They didn’t think anything about it. That was just the way people helped each other in those times.

Fr. Concannon walked to Woodfield every Sunday to say Mass. He always called in to our house on his way and we all walked from our house to Woodfield on the river as the snow was much lighter there, and it was easier to walk on.

He would have his breakfast with us on his way home. He never tried riding the pony again - once was enough. He told us that the morning after his ride home he had trouble putting on his pants he was so stiff and sore! The poor man had not been on horseback since he was a young lad, so it was no wonder if he was a bit stiff.

At one stage we ran short of flour. All the flour came in either four or eight stone bags at that time, so I was sent off to Aghamore on horseback for a four stone bag. We had two horses at the time: a big heavy mare and a lighter pony.

My father thought that the mare was the best for the job, but before I went very far I knew that she wasn’t going to make it as she was going right up to her belly every step she tried to take. I got her turned round, which wasn’t as simple as it sounds, and made my way home, and decided that I would give it a try with the pony. I got on well with him as he wasn’t nearly as heavy as the mare.

There was one very bad part just past Doogarry School. There are hills to the east of the road at that point and the snow blew over them and left a huge amount of snow there - in fact there was only a few feet of the phone poles sticking up over the snow.

I got through it with difficulty and I got the rest of the way without too much trouble. Some parts of the roads were clear and in other places the only way you could know where was the road was by the phone poles.

I got my four stone bag and made for home. I was uneasy all the time about the very deep snow at Doogarry. When I reached there I got off and I tried to lead the pony through it with one hand and hold the bag on his back with the other one. About half way through the bag slipped off, but I kept him going until I got out of the worst of it.

I left him there panting and walked back to retrieve my bag. Just as I was getting it up on my back I heard a noise and I looked up, and there was the pony plunging back towards me!

I got him turned round and led him out of the deep snow and this time I tied him to a pole until I got the bag as far as him. I think that he was afraid of the snow and thought he was going to left on his own. I got the rest of the way home without too much trouble.

The hard frost lasted until March 10 and then a very rapid thaw set in. We were very glad to see the last of it as, at that stage, we had it for about two months.

The most of the snow thawed in a short time but the remains of the big drifts were to be seen for long enough. I remember working on the land with my father and you could still see traces of them on the hills where the airport is now in the first days of May.

I often wonder how we would manage if we had a blizzard like that now.

There is no way that the electricity wires would stand up to it. Everything we eat and drink now is bought in the supermarket. Everything in the house is run on electricity. Most open fires have a back boiler and, if the circulation pump wasn’t working it may not be safe to light a fire. Most of the wells are gone as we all have piped water now.

I’m afraid things would be in a right mess.

Those are some of my memories of the big freeze up of 1947.