Christmas night near Fiddown Bridge at 10am. The River Suir is pictured frozen solid. |Photo: Joe Cashin/Carrick Camera Club
For the first time in at least seven decades, the River Suir froze at approximately 10pm on Christmas Day.
These remarkable images were snapped by photographer Joe Cashin, who had received a phone call requesting him and his camera to the Fiddown Bridge by local resident John Bartley.
“John gave me a ring to let me know that the Suir had frozen over,” said Joe, a long-time Munster Express contributor.
“He felt it would be a historic photo, one worth taking, so we left the Christmas festivities behind and headed out into the night, even though it was minus 11 degrees!”
The Suir famously froze in January 19th 1867, when it iced completely over at Ferrybank, sweeping the New Ross bridge away that same day.
The Suir also froze in both 1903 (at Cahir) and at Carrick-on-Suir back in 1947, as recalled in the memoirs of the late Liam Clancy.
