While the gritters, grocers, forecasters and emergency workers were keeping Ireland moving, the ordinary people of Ireland ferried, rescued, swam, got married, had babies on roadsides… and turned bread into a precious commodity! Social media and news reports provided the commentary with with unprecedented stories of human endeavour, kindness and more than a touch of Irish irreverence!
In this documentary, we go behind the news reports and social media posts to explore the human stories that captured the nation’s hearts.
This is the story of Ireland 2018 – The year of the snow.
Stories include –
A picture of a grinning granny sledging in the snow has become one of the defining images of Storm Emma in Ireland. Taken in Cork, the picture features 86-year-old great-grandmother Eileen Maguire and her grandson Jack. The picture, taken by daughter-in-law Deborah, quickly went viral and Eileen is delighted at the reaction.
Little Holly Carroll melted everybody’s hearts when the nursing staff at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin brought her in her own snowman to ICU where she awaits a heart transplant.
We also catch up with Emma the hare, who was rescued from a runway in Dublin airport, and is now living in the lap of luxury, with her knight in shining armour Terry McCahey who works with the airport police dog unit.
Stay at home dad Frank Price from Tallaght who togged out in swimsuit and dived from his bedroom window in to a snow drift and has now become an overnight viral sensation with over a million hits on the video.
Eric Horan and and his Welsh bride Sian Williams had their dream wedding thanks to Local 4X4 drivers who answered a call by Costello’s Centra shop in Kilmessan to drive the newly-weds and their guests through the blizzards to the Trim Castle Hotel, some 10kms away. Trim Fire Services also turned out to escort the happy couple to their reception. Locals grabbed shovels and anything else they could find to clear the church grounds of snow on the morning of the wedding.
Using the social media posts and the vast amount of news coverage available to us to create the skeleton of the documentary, we add the heart to ‘Snowmageddon’ with the stories of the ordinary Irish people who went above and beyond what was expected of them – for better or worse! The tone and shooting style is warm, humorous and gently irreverent, and encapsulates a very Irish experience of the five days when snow shut Ireland.