Irish Suffer in Snowstorm.

By Georgina Brennan

THE powerful snowstorm that plowed through the New York area and piled more than two feet of snow in some places over the weekend meant a host of problems for the Irish community. 

In an unusually busy weekend for the community’s social calendar the heavy snowfall meant a mainly empty dance card. 

In Seera’s hair salon on Friday afternoon, several women having their hair done for the Tipperary, Sligo or Roscommon dances, or the Carlow Christmas party, were aghast as the news slowly spread that the snow was causing cancellations. 

“Unfortunately we had to cancel our Christmas party because of the weather conditions,” said Roisin Mullins from the Co. Carlow Association. “But we are rescheduling for the Southgate Tower Hotel on Sunday, December 14 between 3-7 p.m. Luckily Santa is going to be able to make it this time,” she said. 

On Friday night, the 40-mile an hour winds and almost 18 inches of snow falling meant that buses destined for the Roscommon football club annual dinner at the Green Tree Country Club in New Rochelle had to cancel. 

Dance organizers Jimmy Naughton and Pat Dolan were on their way to the club early because of the weather, and they realized it was too dangerous to let the dance go ahead. 

“At 5:30 we cancelled the dance. At 7:30 we had Rory Dolan’s booked for a Sunday lunch, with an open bar,” said Naughton.

“We had 11 people out from Ireland including the guest of honor Seamus Cuddy, and nine from San Francisco. We had awards to present and so we had to do something. Thanks to Rory Dolan’s we were able to have our event with awards and our journal on Sunday

“Actually it turned out very well because families were able to bring their children so it turned into a great family day. It all worked out in the end, despite the weather.” 

Naughton joked that he met a woman who had had her hair done for the event on Friday and wondered what she would do when she heard it was cancelled.

“I told her we would work it out for Sunday so she would just have to sleep sitting up until then to show off her hair,” he laughed. 

Fortunately the Roscom-mon club was able to recoup most of its costs. The Green Tree Country Club and the band Good Clean Fun both promised to refund the club after the event was cancelled. 

Meanwhile, the Tipperary Hurling Club, expecting 450 people at the Polish Center in Yonkers, decided at the last minute to cancel. 

“It wasn’t going to work out, at the end of the day it was a safety issue,” said organizer Mike Ryan by phone on Tuesday. Ryan said there would be another event on the last week of January in Yonkers to accommodate everyone. 

Still the weather couldn’t keep the Tipperary club down. They were able to get enough people together to host an informal party on Sunday where Jimmy Doyle, the famous hurler, was honored, and everyone celebrated a good year. 

For other events, the weather just meant a tighter crowd. The Cavan Gaelic Athletic and Social Club of New York were fortunate to be able to run two buses from Granuaile on McLean Avenue to the Astoria World Manor for their night out on Saturday. But the crowd was smaller. 

The Sligo Football Club was not so fortunate. Their awards dance at the Manhattan Club was cancelled.

National Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Foley told the Irish Voice the biggest surprise at the weekend was not that there was snow but that there was so much of it. “It is unusual that we would have a December snowstorm that would yield this amount of snow,” he said.