15 Let’s celebrate the snow heroes who led us through the blizzard...

WE live up in the Dublin Mountains — 1,000ft above sea level. That’s according to the ordinance survey map when we moved here over 20 years ago.

Away from the hustle and bustle, our home is our sanctuary, our little bit of heaven on earth. We love this house and have so many happy memories here.

Yes, we love this house, especially when we have guests. Last week started out well — our visitors arrived on the Sunday morning before the bad weather. I made my way to the shops beforehand to stock up on delicious food. Breakfast was a full Irish — using Derry Clarke’s (who else?) breakfast sausages, bacon and black and white pudding.

Our visitors left at 2pm on Tuesday as the snow started to fall. They wanted to make sure they arrived at the airport early. Snow fell on Tuesday evening, but not a lot. We didn’t feel the need to buy any more supplies as we had what we thought was enough in for the two of us.

We woke up on Wednesday morning and it had snowed heavily, but nothing we couldn’t handle (there’s a reason my mum calls us hillbillies). However, it was bad all over Dublin and a red weather alert was issued, so we decided to close the restaurant.

On Thursday morning we woke up to a huge snowfall, much heavier than the day before. Our neighbours were away and we decided to drive up to check on their house. There was a huge snow drift blocking the lane —at least 8ft high — so we could do nothing but reverse back to our own home.

IT was then that we discovered there were similar snow drifts blocking the lane below us, too. I drive a Toyota Land Cruiser and I have to say it does exactly what it claims to do, and more. We would have been lost without it.

In Dublin, l’Ecrivain remained shut because we wanted all of our restaurant team to be safe. We informed our customers and waited to see what would happen next.

We sat and watched the blizzard from the comfort of our sitting room while keeping an eye on the news on TV for updates. We watched people being rescued with tractors and ploughs, which got them to the emergency services.

We watched how kind, generous and helpful people are in times of need and the great community spirit that is what makes us Irish such a special lot.

Friday morning Derry and I woke up to snow drifts outside our house more than 10ft high. There was no escaping it — we were officially snowed in. Darling Derry braved the elements and took some amazing photographs while checking out the best way for us to ‘escape’ as we were beginning to feel like prisoners in our own home.

The initial novelty was wearing off — we were beginning to feel trapped.

The restaurant remained closed because we were mindful of how difficult it would be for our team to get to work. Their safety is paramount.

We now knew that the only way we were leaving our home was in a helicopter. No joke. I am terrified of falling so I didn’t venture out, not once. I stayed in the safety of our warm house. We had plenty of bread and milk, food in the freezer and wine on the rack.

Come Saturday, the drifts were worse and the snow that had been falling continuously for four days was compacting. The drifts were now 20ft high on the roads below our house.

A few of our team opened the restaurant, but when they arrived the pipes had frozen and there was snow damage to the structure on the patio.

The majority of our staff were still snowed in just like we were, so we made the decision to stay closed until Monday. We were definitely not going anywhere and, it seemed, neither was anyone else. One of our neighbours sent us a video of the N81, which runs below us, on Sunday and even if we had been able to get to the main road, it was completely impassable with abandoned cars at the end of our lane.

I remember the big freeze of 1982. I was living at home and working in town.

There was no question of not turning up for work. The buses were operating a limited service, and the Irish Army were called out to fill in the gaps. Naturally my friends and I chose to be transported in the army trucks. We had great fun with no fear of breaking bones or hurting ourselves. It was the first time I had seen snow like that since I was a child growing up in Chicago, and I loved it.

As I got older and started to travel and go on skiing holidays I got to see more snow, but usually in other European countries that are used to extreme weather conditions and have the infrastructure in place to cope.

For example, when we visited Iceland the cars and buses all operated normally despite the heavy snow and ice because all vehicles have snow tyres.

If climate change means we are going to experience this kind of weather more frequently, we as a nation need to rethink our infrastructure.

It is all very well to tell people to stay indoors until the snow dissipates, but that will not work indefinitely. We cannot shut down the whole country every time there is an extreme weather warning.

We need to be snow-proofed and we need help from our Scandinavian cousins to help us achieve this. If they can function normally in harsh weather, surely so can we?

We need to have a national plan in place to prevent the country coming to a standstill. We need to keep everything moving as well as keeping everyone safe.

AT the time of writing, we are on our sixth day stranded and it looks as if we will be here for another day. But hopefully by the time you read this we will no longer be captives in our own home.

There have been plenty of heroes this past week. Those in the emergency services — ambulance workers, firemen, Gardaí, the Irish Army, the Civil Defence and the Coastguard. The charities that helped the homeless, the elderly and all those in difficulty. Also we need to acknowledge the ESB crews and Bord Gáis Energy personnel who worked through the nights to restore power to those affected, and county council workers.

People like these are often forgotten. They are our unsung champions — and they deserve all the praise we can heap upon them.

But for everyone who helped someone — whether it was digging out a car, checking on an elderly neighbour, picking up somebody who slipped in the snow — well done. You are truly amazing. And you know who you are.