It is goodbye to the traditionally wet Irish summer, at least for the next almost 40 days and nights, if the legend of St Swithin’s curse is anything to go by.
Wednesday, July 15th, was St Swithin’s Day and if the myth of the holy man holds true then the hot and dry weather we have been experiencing is likely to be replicated every day for the next 39 days and 39 nights.
Swithin, the Bishop of Winchester, England, died in 862AD and was buried in a modest plot. He was canonised more than a century later his remains exhumed and moved from his humble resting place in the graveyard to a shrine in the adjoining Winchester cathedral.
Being a modest, if not grumpy individual, legend has it that his spirit was irked by the decision to move his mortal remains and he put a weather-related curse on the whole world.
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On the day his body was moved and as the ceremony to celebrate his saintliness reached its end, it lashed rain.
So great was the storm that locals believed it could only have been caused by the saint’s furious anger at the decision to go against his wishes and move him to the big shrine.
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“St Swithin’s Day if thou dost rain, for 40 days it will remain. St Swithin’s Day if thou be fair, for 40 days ‘twill rain nae mare,” was the quote attributed to the dead man.
With Met Éireann forecasting “minimal” rainfall, the legend if it holds, is bad news indeed for Uisce Éireann which has said water supplies across the State are on a knife edge, with a hosepipe ban due to come into effect in Dublin for six weeks from Thursday at 11.59pm. Night-time restrictions are already in place in some 40 water supply areas across the State.
There may be a possible “get-out clause” for those canny folk in west Cork and Co Kerry, which actually experienced “some light showers” early on Wednesday morning.
According to Met Éireann meteorologist Aoife Kealy the southwest experienced light showers, “but it may have been brief and occurred before many people were up.”
Kealy said the outlook for the next seven days was for further dry conditions. While it may get a little bit cooler at the weekend “with temperatures in the late teens or early 20s”, it will still be very dry.
“Any light showers that will occur will not be enough to have an impact on soils where moisture deficits are very high”, Kealy said.
Uisce Éireann has already issued a six-week, legally enforceable water conservation order covering Dublin, south Tipperary, Kildare, Meath, Wexford, and Wicklow. The utility has also issued a hosepipe ban and established a “reporting hotline” which can lead to fines up to €5,000 for offenders.
Margaret Attridge, head of water operations at Uisce Éireann, said “this is about protecting treated drinking water for the things that matter most – homes, hospitals, vulnerable customers, farms, businesses and essential services – while this order is in place.”
Uisce Éireann has also warned that if usage does not drop, it may have to introduce overnight water cutoffs in the Greater Dublin Area, mirroring night-time restrictions already implemented in dozens of smaller, drought-stressed local supplies nationwide.
