It is Christmas Eve, and the people of Ireland are looking forward with keen pleasure to the welcome break of the next few days. During the last week our country has been in the grip of the severest weather that has been known here for many years. Dublin has been almost snow-bound, and throughout the country districts conditions have been extremely unpleasant. As we write, there seems to be a prospect of an early thaw. Housewives whose domestic pipes have been frozen, and who have been dreading a Christmas without water, are beginning to breathe more freely again, and there is at least a reasonable hope that the dawn of Christmas Day will see the end of the icy spell. In a world that is torn with strife and dissension the people of this little island have much for which to be thankful at this season. Ireland at present is a haven of peace and good-will - one of the very few countries on earth in which the time-honoured greeting can be given by man to man without cynicism.
The Irish Times,
December 24th, 1938.