Archive - 'Most uneventful' Christmas on record in Kilkenny (1973)

What for many was the longest Christmas holiday ever also turned out to be, possibly, the quietest and most uneventful Christmas on record.

There were no tragedies, no serious accidents, no fires - with the exception of a few isolated chimney blazes - no robberies, vandalism or larcenies.

The torrential rains on December 20, which flooded the Black Abbey and many houses in Blackmill and St John’s Quay, brought fears of a repeat of the disastrous floods of Christmas five years ago.

But the skies cleared and Christmas was not only dry, but also mild and sunny.

And it was the ice-free roads, coupled with the petrol shortage, to which the Casualty Department of St Luke’s Hospital attribute ‘a very quiet holiday’.

The Gardaí in Kilkenny described the holiday as ’extremely quiet’. They were called to one accident - a young boy who had been struck by a car. But he is now recovering well from his injuries.

Apart from this incident there was virtually nothing. Said a Garda spokesman: “We didn’t even have a drunk at the station on Christmas Eve. And we had no vandalism or other crime.”

For the first time in their memory, the Kilkenny Fire Brigade had a completely free holiday. Having assisted flood victims on the morning of Friday, December 21, they received no other calls until Friday 28 - to a small chimney fire.

“Owing to the heating oil shortage we were expecting to have a busy time,” said Fire Chief Hugh Corrigan.

“We thought people would be lighting fires which had not been lit for years and a spate of chimney fires would not have surprised us.

“But unlike ever before, the whole holiday period was free. On a few occasions we had an uninterrupted Christmas Day, but never an entire Christmas. And the picture seems to have been the same throughout the county.”

A contributing factor may have been the record length of the holiday break. It was due to the fact that Christmas Day fell on a Tuesday and the following Tuesday was the new bank holiday, New Year’s Day.

Some firms who closed their doors on Friday, December 21, did not reopen again until Wednesday, January 2.