Tina stranded in icy Maurice’s Mills

ON the evening of Monday, December 21, Tina Watkins drove home to Maurice’s Mills from Shannon.
She noted a distinct nip in the air. She didn’t think, however, that the nip would escalate into the worst freeze in half a century and detain her at home for 24 of the following 25 days.

Until this Wednesday, Tina had been unable to direct her Suzuki down her avenue and onto the road. Two days before Christmas, however, she had no choice but to venture out by foot on a 14-mile round trip.
“On December 23, I walked from my own home all the way down through Maurice’s Mills, to Loughville Motors (Lahinch Road, Ennis). I needed something for my Christmas dinner, be it a packet of ham and a pint of milk,” Tina told The Clare Champion on Wednesday.
She would have bought more but felt that she mightn’t have been able to carry it up the hill on the way back to her cottage.
“It was very difficult to carry anything back up so I bought a litre of milk, a packet of ham, a small loaf of bread and a pound of butter. So that’s what I had for my Christmas dinner. And there was a diet coke in the fridge, which I was saving,” Tina, who presents a programme on Shannon-based JetFM, laughed.
“I met very little traffic,” she said of her lengthy trek. “The road even then was lethal with ice. On the way back it was worse because you’re trying to go uphill on ice. A very good neighbour of mine passed me about halfway and he said ‘what the hell are you doing?’ So he dropped me at the top of my boreen. But even he said he’d never seen it as bad,” she added.
On Wednesday, Tina decided that she had to escape. To successfully complete her task she had to put the foot to the floor as her Suzuki sped downhill from her house, hope that there was no car passing, shoot across the road and up the opposite hill.
“I know I took a risk getting out by taking that running drive at the hill and going out blind but after 25 days you start slightly to lose it. The only way I could do it was with speed and without slowing the car to check both ways. When you’re on your own as well it’s very odd to have people moving around me now. It’s very, very strange,” she said, gazing as people walked past in Ennis.
“It’s been an experience, one I won’t repeat. If there’s a hint of bad weather next year, I’ll be heading for a major town,” Tina predicted.
Four days before Tina marked December 25 with a ham sandwich, her birthday passed her by without much fanfare either.
“My birthday was on December 21. I sat there and I thought, ‘oh to hell with the birthday. We won’t worry about that.’ Then Christmas came and I had my ham sandwich. By that stage I was swearing that if I got out, I’d go to the nearest restaurant and eat everything on the menu. But since then that kind of mad fetish wore off,” she mused.
Although her mother Joan lives in Shannon, Tina’s isolation was especially evident on Christmas Day, when she hadn’t a single present to unwrap.
“I got over the birthday bit. Christmas Day was quite painful because if you get up Christmas morning and you haven’t one present to open, it’s a very strange experience. It’s a long time since anybody’s got up on Christmas morning and not had something. Even a card,” she reflected.
Last Thursday, Tina made another attempt to walk to the shop but the depth of the ice forced her to turn back. In fact, without the help of a couple of St Vincent de Paul volunteers, (Cathal and Tony) who visited several houses in the area, she would have been without a morsel at all.
“They were up and around Maurice’s Mills delivering groceries to people. They were fantastic people to do that. But for that, up until this morning, I would have had nothing,” Tina explained.
Her friends in Limerick couldn’t believe that she was stuck at home and couldn’t drive anywhere, while Tina’s mother warned her not to attempt leaving the house.
“Her main concern was that I didn’t drive and I stopped the walking,” Tina remembered.
However, her friends had trouble imagining the depth of her isolation, given that she lives just 15 minutes from Ennis.
“They found it hard to comprehend that there was such a difference between where they live in Limerick city and where I live. And I find it difficult looking at Ennis today to comprehend where I’ve just come from and the amount of ice that’s up there,” Tina, who works as an artist and is also part the JetFM management team, observed.
On hitting Ennis, Tina, who lived in London from 1982 until 1997, had some shopping to do. Her first purchase?
“Toilet paper,” she replied immediately. “I’ve found a new use for sketch books. They’re not only good for drawing on. They’re wonderful in cases of emergency. Needs must,” she said stoically.
Although relieved to be mixing with people again, Tina will be staying with her mother until she can return to an ice-free Maurice’s Mills, where she has lived for 12 years.
It will take time, however, for her anger towards Clare County Council and the Government to dissipate. She is certain that both could have tried a bit harder to grit local roads and suggests that the army should have been called in.
“The only good thing that’s come out of it is the community spirit. When I was driving to Ennis, my neighbours were waving at me saying ‘on the way back, come in for a cup of tea and a bit of company’.”
Having had to make do with limited human contact for nearly a month, Tina has some cramming to do on the company front.