Snowbound mother nursed sick child for three weeks
A young mother today described how she nursed her sick child while marooned in her snowbound home for almost three weeks.
Lisa Ni Dhomhnaill, her husband Donan and their three small children – one an eight-week-old baby – were forced to survive on tinned food and use water from a nearby stream after being cut off by blizzards in Cloughlea, one of the remotest parts of the Wicklow mountains.
With no phone reception, a series of power cuts and medical help a long and treacherous drive away the couple’s eldest daughter Caomhog, aged five, fell ill.
“I think it was a bug from living around a fire for five days maybe,” Mrs Ni Dhomhnaill said.
“There was no power and we had no heating and no water because we’re on a pump.”
Electricity was cut for a five-day stretch at one point forcing the couple to collect drinking water from a nearby stream.
While their child has made a full recovery the couple now face dwindling food supplies, with little signs of a thaw in the 1,500ft high region.
“We’ve just been using tins of food and we had a two-ring gas stove. We’re running low now – I wasn’t thinking of three weeks or four weeks on,” Mrs Ni Dhomhnaill added.
“We’ve had supplies from neighbours, they’ve been coming up every morning seeing how we are.
“If it wasn’t for them I don’t know.”
The family have now been visited by crew from the Civil Defence who used a six-and-a-half tonne Swedish tracked vehicle to make their way to the home, completing the final kilometre by foot through snow of up to several feet deep.
The 35-year-old and her print worker husband have been living in their isolated cottage against the stunning Wicklow mountains backdrop for the past eight years.
Despite the problems inflicted on them by the current cold snap they are determined to remain in their home.
“You need to be mad to live up here!” Mrs Ni Dhomhnaill laughed.
“But we’re a strong family – that’s what a lot of people have said.
“And this is gorgeous, it’s a different world up here.”
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