It’s that time of year again. Look around, leaves are brown, and the sky is a hazy shade of winter, to quote one polo-necked singing duo.
Yes it’s winter, well almost. Clothing can help us fight the damp and cold, but the darkness is another story. You might need an emotional flak jacket for that.
It can be hard to get through these months. What to wear, how to stay warm, even how to keep going when brighter days feel far away. We asked people whose outdoor work or passions – from fishing to gardening – make them winter experts for their survival tips.
Fisherman Jackie Bates: ‘Hot food on a cold day. It tastes better out of doors’
If your winter peeve is getting your Vejas scuffed on the school run, spare a thought for Jackie Bates. Fishing out of Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, for over half a century, he knows winter. “The only time we take time off is if there are storms or strong winds. Other than that, we have to keep going. The boat has to be paid for, wind or no wind,” says the 72-year-old.
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“Nearly always during November, the weather starts to break,” says Bates. On stints of seven to 10 days at sea, he and his crew fish around the clock. “You’re towing your net for three hours, then the gear is hauled in, you see what catch is in it and throw it back out again.” He guts his catch by hand with a knife, then it’s washed, sorted, iced and boxed for landing. “Your hands are cold all the time, you won’t keep your hands warm,” he says. Daughter Alison and stepson Jason sell his catch at markets in Greystones, Arklow, Bagnalstown, Bunclody and Tullamore.
‘I’m telling you, you’re looking forward to that. Hot food on a cold day. It tastes better out of doors, without a doubt. You wouldn’t tell that to the wife though’
How does he keep warm? “Layers of clothes and plenty of tea drank.” His top tip for winter is to eat well. Most trawlers nominate one man to do the cooking. “You have your bacon and cabbage on a Monday, Tuesday chicken stew, Wednesday pork, Friday is always fish, and we have a Sunday roast.
“I’m telling you, you’re looking forward to that. Hot food on a cold day. It tastes better out of doors, without a doubt. You wouldn’t tell that to the wife though.”
Camaraderie helps too. “The five men on the boat, each man looks after the other man as well. You are looking after yourself, but you are also looking after the next man, and that’s very important.”
Five decades at sea has made it plain to him that our climate is changing, he says. “I think there are more storms, and we seem to have more wind now. The wind blows up and it could come any time. It’s unpredictable. The men on the deck are under more pressure. There are big seas coming in on them.”
Lollipop lady Fiona Ryan: ‘I’m like an Eskimo. Sometimes all you can see are my eyes’
Fiona Ryan is lollipop lady at Glencullen National School in the Dublin Mountains. It’s one of the highest villages in Ireland. “It’s a different world up here in the winter. It’s two degrees colder, it’s much windier, the rain would absolutely nearly knock you over, but it’s all part of the job,” she says.
Hail, rain or snow, Ryan has reported for duty twice a day for 23 years. “There are snowy days where you find it difficult to get to work. I know the children and the parents have the same thing, but I have to be there. If the school is open, I have to be there.”
There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. “They have me geared up to the nines,” she says of her employer, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. That’s a full-length waterproof reflective coat, hat, gloves and waterproof trousers. “I’m like an Eskimo. I wear one of those cowls across my face. Sometimes all you can see are my eyes. I’m fairly well covered because I don’t want to get the wind damage on my face, I’ve no intention of ending up with that.”
Woolly socks, leather steel-toe boots and lip balm complete the look. “If you are well dressed, you won’t get cold,” she says.
“Driving rain and wind, that’s the worst, because even trying to hold the lollipop, the wind can whip it out of your hand if you don’t hold on to it really tight. The wind can actually push you back, you have to brace yourself just to stay still.”
Her charges are a big motivator. “They are a great bunch of kids and they make my job so much easier.” Summer can be a more melancholy time for her, in fact. “Sometimes it’s very hard to say goodbye to them, because you have gotten to know them through those years. They are moving on to better things, but it’s still hard to say goodbye.”
Winter in the mountains has its rewards, though. “I love when it’s frosty and cold, but nice and bright. I have a view of the Sugarloaf and those are beautiful mornings.”
Sea swimmer June Curtin: ‘We have to work harder in winter time to mind our mental health’
Clare sea swimmer June Curtin doesn’t let winter stop her. She is the founder of Snámhaí Sásta, a community of swimmers who swim at Spanish Point beach in Co Clare seven days a week, 365 days a year.
“I hadn’t swam in years until I lost my husband to suicide. I suppose I was suffering very badly myself with my own mental health. I was struggling with stress and anxiety and the aftermath of what happened,” she says.
“I had tried all forms of exercise and one morning I said, maybe I’ll try sea swimming. The only problem was, I couldn’t swim. But at that stage it was sink or swim.”
Getting into freezing cold water was like a lightbulb moment. “I had no time to think of anything, only the waves coming at me at that very moment. It was almost like I left my troubles on the shoreline, and I just felt so good,” says Curtin. Three-and-a-half years later, she is still swimming.
‘We have to work harder in winter time to mind our mental health, and sea swimming is a great way to do that. People come together in the morning and there is so much laughter’
The mother of two teens meets her tribe of swimmers at Spanish Point every day, not only to swim, but to maintain mental health and boost morale in her community.
Winter can be hard. “Even the most optimistic and happy-go-lucky among us can feel it a little harder in the winter time, so it’s very important to surround yourself with the right people, where you can have a bit of a laugh and a bit of fun,” says Curtin.
“We have to work harder in winter time to find more ways to mind our mental health, and I suppose sea swimming is a great way to do that. People come together in the morning and there is so much laughter.”
Wear a hat when swimming in winter, she advises. Neoprene gloves and booties help, too. Dress quickly after your dip and use thin base layers, such as long-sleeve thermals, woolly socks and a dryrobe. Followers of her Snámhaí Sásta Instagram account will know that post-swim singalongs and maybe even some jiving help with the warm-up.
In December, Curtin will swim three times a day, at 9.15am, 1.15pm and 4.15pm. That’s 63 swims in 21 days. She is raising funds for the Simon Community in the midwest. She raised more than €50,000 for the charity last year.
Some winter swims are easier than others. “A lovely winter morning is the sun on your back. Even though it’s very cold, to have the sun on your back when you are in the water, that’s beautiful.”
ESB technician Dermot Cunningham: ‘Climbing poles, the wind could be cutting the head off you’
Dermot Cunningham is busiest when the weather is worst. In his 23 years as an ESB network technician, he’s seen it all. Storm Ophelia was the last big weather event. “As soon as it was safe, we were on the road. Fallen trees broke poles and pulled down lines. You are anxious trying to get people back on [the network]. Livelihoods are affected as well,” says Cunningham.
His work is all overhead. “You are up a ladder, climbing poles, the wind could be cutting the head off you,” he says. He works in darkness too, lit by a head torch.
“The ESB kits us out pretty well. We have Gore-Tex gear for when it’s lashing rain. You are covered head to toe.” A snood or open-face balaclava helps on the bitter cold days, as does lip balm.
“Usually you are in gangs of three or four lads together, everyone has the same objective. In a storm, everyone does that extra bit. There is a bit of camaraderie there.” When doing physical work in harsh conditions in remote areas, sustenance is important for energy and concentration. Trucks are kitted out with gas burners. “I’ll often bring in soup with me and put it in a little pot on the stove,” he says.
The big snow of 2010 was particularly memorable. “There were five of six of us doing a job over here, not a million miles from our house,” says the Roundwood resident. “The snow was falling and it was the real sticky stuff. Our hands were freezing. We’d been out all day, we were all wet, and it just seemed to really get in on us. We came back to my house here and my wife, in fairness, made up a really big batch of soup and it did the job. I’ll never forget it. It was the coldest day I ever spent in my life.”
His top tip for cold weather is to keep moving and always keep a woolly hat in the van. “If your car breaks down, it’s very important to keep warm.”
Gardener Pauline Dowling: ‘If our feet get wet, that’s the worst thing that can happen’
Pauline Dowling has spent a lifetime outdoors. Growing up on a farm in Co Carlow, she returned to the county after years as head gardener in Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green. Dowling is now foreman at the 40-acre Altamont Gardens, which welcomes 10,000 visitors a year.
“It’s much colder in Carlow, it’s probably the coldest county in Ireland in winter and the warmest in summer,” says Dowling.
“I don’t mind the winter too much, until we get to January. Up to Christmas it’s normally wet. I find January is the worst month, because we will probably get a bit of snow and it gets more difficult on the roads,” she says.
She and her team are in thermal socks from now until February. “We find that if our feet get wet over the day, that’s the worst thing that can happen,” says Dowling. OPW-supplied “Jolly” boots are warm and comfortable over rough terrain. Fleeces and sweatshirts are part of her uniform, but she swears by an Aran knit over them on the really cold days – “it copes with the Irish weather better than anything else”.
She rotates pairs of gardening gloves throughout the day as they get wet.
She’s not one for make-up. On her face, ”it’s just Astral cream, sunblock and lip balm,” she says.
She sees evidence of climate change. “We see the different storms, the high winds just coming up very quickly, that’s very evident. Trees are falling – a tree can be healthy enough, but if there is any kind of moisture, sometimes the whole root plate can turn over. So it is very evident, and it is a challenge for us.
‘I think the snowdrop, because it’s so small and it survives a very cold winter, a very long winter, I think it’s bringing the light out of the darkness’
“We have always found autumn to be a calm, quieter time, but now with storms coming up from the Atlantic, it’s getting very challenging. It’s harder to go on to the land as well – you have to use lighter machinery so as not to do damage, that’s definitely a big change.”
Food is fuel when you work outdoors and she tries to eat well. “For breakfast, I’ll have organic porridge with organic apples stewed through it. I’ll make lentil and tomato soup for lunch with pulses and beans. I try to make sure it’s organic and local. It helps with the immune system.” She takes a Vitamin D supplement in winter.
From the winter solstice on December 21st, there is a shift. “We see the day moving on, even a few minutes more daylight every day is a help to us.” And then there is spring to look forward to.
One of the first markers of the season is the snowdrop. Altamont Gardens has the largest snowdrop collection in Ireland, boasting 150 named varieties. St Brigid’s Day, on February 1st, marks the beginning of Snowdrop Month at Altamont.
“I think the snowdrop, because it’s so small and it survives a very cold winter, a very long winter, I think it’s bringing the light out of the darkness,” says Dowling. “For me, it is heralding spring.”
