Snow time to lose...Chloe and Bridie uncover the real stories behind the great Blizzard of ’47

Moynalvey pupil Chloe and grandmother Bridie storm through the research to uncover the real stories of those who survived the Blizzard of ’47

A TEN YEAR-OLD Moynalvey National School pupil and her grandmother proved themselves to be true historians when they took on a class project.

Instead of relying on Google or the history books, little Chloe Heraghty and her grandmother Bridie Heraghty both of The Rath, Kilmore, decided to do their own research.

The class assignment was a project on the 1947 blizzard which caused chaos across the country.

“I suggested to Chloe that, rather than looking it up on Google, we might ask a few local octogenarians what they could remember about it,” says Bridie.

She arranged for Chloe to meet a number of elderly Meath residents who shared their personal memories of the time with them.

Those who relived the period for them were Jackie Kerrigan, Mick McGover, Annie Dunne and Peggy Melia.

“It was fascinating listening to them as their memories came flooding back. It was just after the war and rural Ireland was in a desperate state. Money was very scarce and there was little food for cattle and sheep after a poor 1946 harvest,” says Bridie.

It started snowing in the midlands on 20th February, and of the next 50 days, it snowed on thirty of them.

On 24th February the blizzard began. It lasted fifty hours and covered the entire country. Roads were impassable. Rivers and lakes froze.

“One man remembers all the boys and girls cycling and dancing on the 18 inch-thick ice. Schools were closed and even the ink froze in the inkwells. Twelve-feet-high drifts covered roads, stone walls and hedges.

“People walking on top of the drifts could see the church steeples in the distance and Masses went ahead as men cleared the snow as best they could and made pathways to the churches in villages and towns. We can only marvel at their dedication.”

“Peggy Melia remembers food being dropped from a plane in Batterstown, while someone else vividly recalls being out with his father in search of sheep and seeing little holes in the snow indicating an animal breathing underneath.

Chloe and Bridie spoke to a man originally from the west of Ireland where most people had plenty of turf and cut the odd tree for firewood.

“Luckily, they had flour and provisions in when the snow started but it soon got worse and food got scarce. One man remembers his father having a shotgun so they had plenty of soups and stews of wild duck, while the geese and rabbit were cooked over an open fire.

“Neighbours helped each other and a man told us that, as people walked in search of missing persons and animals, they left a sock or a cap on top of a pole to let others know the direction they had taken.

“One woman remembers waking up and finding the doors and windows covered with drifts and the room being exceptionally bright from the glare of the snow. She also remembers the unusually bright nights and the fun they had playing in the open air at midnight and her father scraping the snow away to make a path around the house.

“In some places, temperatures went as low as -16°.

A thaw in March gave some relief from the intense cold. Snow lay on the ground until May and, with the thaw, the country became a dirty brown mess of sludge, broken poles, dead animals, boots and bicycles strewn in fields and ditches.”

Chloe and Bridie were told that a brilliant summer followed, and then a bumper harvest.

“A complete contrast to that of 1946. It was said that the harsh weather had enriched the soil.”

“Through this fascinating homework assignment we got in touch with a lot of interesting people.

“It opened our eyes to an event that many of us had never heard about. It also got me thinking that, were this to happen now, we would be told it was due to climate change or was of our own making. Food for thought!” says Bridie.