Remembering an amazing mid-century cold snap that buried parts of the country under 10 feet of snow... For Sunday Miscellany on RTÉ Radio 1, listen to Winter 1947 by Alexander McMaster above.
In the winter of 1947 Ireland was buried in snow.
Snow filled each hollow and ditch, piled against every hedgerow. It blocked roads and shut down schools. The blizzard seethed for weeks, delivered by an Arctic storm that raged and wrath'd over the country. My Father was nine years old.
In the winter of 1947, he shoveled a path to the coup so his Mother, my Grandmother, could feed the hens. The family lived for weeks on eggs and soda bread.
His Father, my Grandfather, the village postman, carried his bicycle on one shoulder and the post bag on the other, wading through ten feet of snow...
Listen to more from Sunday Miscellany here.
