Donal Hickey: Remember the 'Big Freeze' of 1963? Jog your memory with these images
ESB Networks technicians Tom Kelleher, Anthony McHugh and Leo Walsh respond to a fault on a power line in early January. They were working on a single phase 20kV line to restore electricity power to homes at Araglin, near Kilworth, County Cork. The snow-covered Knockmealdown Mountains are in the backgound. The power line came down due to the weight of snow and ice on it. Picture: Larry Cummins
The need to plan for extreme weather conditions, in a climate change era, was again underlined during the recent snowy and icy spell.
And wasn’t it eye-opening to see how isolated some people can still be in what we regard as a modern country with good communications in the 21st century!
Our near total dependence on electricity was highlighted. When the electricity lines came down, many people had no power, no heat, no mobile phone service, no television for several days… and no fire in chimneyless houses.
Trees and branches falling on powerlines prompted calls for new regulations to ensure trees are planted a safe distance from these lines.
Unsurprisingly, one of the areas worst hit and cut off by snow and frost was the highland countryside along the borders of counties Cork, Kerry and Limerick, where large-scale afforestation has taken place in the last 40 years.
— ESB Networks (@ESBNetworks) January 2, 2024
Like falling trees, snow volumes can cause electricity wires to hang low, or even fall. Politicians and community leaders have been calling on the ESB, and forestry owners to ensure trees are planted away from powerlines and are properly maintained.
Comparisons have been made with the so-called Big Freeze of 1963, with similar examples of neighbours helping each other.
Rural Ireland, however, has changed enormously since then. For instance, many villages which then had plenty of shops now have none — worsening isolation in times of crisis.
A cluster of villages along the previously mentioned highland country, including Mountcollins, Gneeveguilla, Knocknagree, and Cullen, are left without shops, post offices and filling stations.
Take Mountcollins, in south-west County Limerick, which once had 16 shops. To buy a newspaper, locals have to go to the neighbouring villages of Rockchapel and Brosna, which each have one shop.
Said Johnny Walsh, a retired schoolteacher in Mountcollins: “Only for our neighbours it would be a disaster."
He supported a suggestion that farmers be designated in parishes, given equipment and paid to keep roads clear in weather emergencies: “They know the local terrain and the needs of the people. It would be great to have an emergency group in each parish ready to spring into action, with phone numbers of the leaders available to those in need of help."
Finally, some people have been saying the recent icy spell was 'unprecedented'. Not true. I well remember the winter of 1963… especially because of extended school holidays and childish craic in the snow.
The freeze set in over Christmas Eve 1962 and lasted well into March, with the lowest temperature that winter (minus 11°C) recorded in Birr, County Offaly. Snowdrifts more than two-metres high blocked the Ballydesmond/Rockchapel road.
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