Sheep trapped under 15-feet of snow rescued after five days in freezing cold
Farmers now fear floods and landslides from fast thaw could wash away other trapped sheep
Thousands of sheep got trapped when nearly five metres of snow fell on the Galtee Mountains.
Amazing images showed some of them being rescued by four sheep farmers, five days after they got snowed in last Sunday.
The Cunningham brothers Tom, John, William and Tom’s son Billy used clever sheep dogs Sue, Sally, Hemp, and Ted and spades to get them free.
The men’s sister Anne Cunningham Drake told the Irish Mirror: “The sheep were covered in 10-feet to 15-feet of snow.
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They went into a hollow to protect themselves from the freezing cold and winds. The snow would’ve blown over them.
They are sheep farmers and a lot of their neighbours would also be out looking for their sheep in the snow. There are thousands of sheep across the Galtees. Sheep dogs sniffed out the sheep and the boys started digging. Unfortunately, there will be losses. They won’t know the final count until possibly next week.”
The Cunningham men’s land at Knockknascrow in Co Limerick saw the worst snowfall in 60 years ago, according to Anne.
She said: “Our mother Nora remembers 1963 when the snow stayed on the ground until St Patrick’s Day. She remembers them digging sheep out alive after 15 days under the snow, so that’s giving great hope to my brothers and their neighbours, who are all pitching in to help each other.”
Anne, who lives in the Ballyhoura Mountains west of Mitchelstown, Co Cork, added: “They are mountain sheep and are very resilient but it’s still hard to believe that they would survive at those depths for four and five days.”
Sheep farmers in Cork and Tipperary have also been digging to rescue sheep that were trapped for days in the snow.
Anne said: “They’re euphoric when they pull an animal out alive and they are hoping now for a slow thaw. They don’t want a fast thaw because a fast thaw could lead to floods and landslides that would wash away the sheep who are due to lamb in April, so they are praying for a slow thaw.”
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