It won’t have escaped Ireland’s large Standing Army of amateur meteorologists that the notably high temperatures which have been achieved in recent days have not been matched in May since 1944, when – unlike 2026 - most of the month had exceptionally warm and sunny weather, whereas May 2026 in Ireland has only come good since last Thursday, May 21st
We’re particularly aware of this because in May 1944, the vast and remarkably well-hidden allied forces were being assembled in the south of England for the unprecedentedly large cross-channel invasion against the occupying Nazi Germans in Normandy, who were so well led astray that they thought the invasion, when and if it came, would be through the Dover-Calais corridor.
THREE-DAY WINDOWS FOR THE LANDINGS
There were several three-day windows in the weeks ahead when tidal conditions would suit for the landings on the Normandy beaches, and as day after day of gentle weather prevailed through May, the optimal time of June 5th to 7th was selected, and Allied leaders pencilled in June 5th as D-Day with increasing confidence.
But June arrived with a marked deterioration in the weather coming in from the west and then the northwest. Despite it being usually the “most summery” month, this new wave of adverse weather was such that if the enormous fleet of motley craft got caught out during their 12 hour channel crossing, the entire Overlord project would be a disaster before any invading Allied troops had set foot ashore.
So many troops had to be transported across channel on D-Day in June 1944 that many of the boats used were unseaworthy in winds over Force 4. Photo: USCG
Thus the decision makers became increasingly reliant on weather information from their most north-westerly reporting station, which was Blacksod Lighthouse at the remote south end of the Mullet Peninsula in the most distant part of Mayo.
There, the lighthouse-keeping Sweeney family diligently recorded every change on this meteorological frontier and passed it on by telegraph to the Irish Met Service for onward transmission to the D-Day staff who advised General Eisenhower.
DISTINCT DETERIORATION
On the night of June 2nd-3rd, it was lighthouse keeper Ted Sweeney’s wife-to-be, the Blacksod post-mistress Mary Flavin from Kerry, who recorded a distinct deterioration in the weather, and the speed with which it was moving in a southeasterly direction straight towards the English Channel. Thus when the phone rang and a woman with a very English accent asked for extra confirmation, she and Ted not only repeated the information, but Mary went further by telling her they shouldn’t think of doing anything significant until June 6th.
Hugh & Mary Flavin Sweeney on their wedding day
That may have been going far beyond her remit, but you argue with a Kerry woman at your peril. Well, perhaps. Either way, General Dwight D Eisenhower took the advice on board when it reached him, and the audacious D-Day plan was postponed for 24 hours, with June 5th becoming a notably rough day on the English Channel, but June 6th was just about do-able, and they did it.
Over the years, the role of Centenarian Mary Flavin Sweeney (1923-2023) was recognised at the highest level, ultimately with a Medal from the US Congress in June 2021, with the award being made with difficulty owing to the Covid restrictions, but it was made nevertheless.
You’d have thought that recognition of the role of Mary and Hugh Sweeney in such a key decision was now something set in stone, most probably granite. But the word is that yet another made-for-TV special is on the way about D-Day, with all the credit for the vital decision gong to one Group Captain James Stagg, an RAF Officer who headed Eisenhower’s met advice staff.
Met Officer Group Captain James Stagg. The word is that in order to have a lone hero, the producers of the new D-Day television film have bigged up his role, and written Mary Flavin Sweeney out of the story altogether
In fact, rumours from the studio suggest that in the script, Stagg has been bigged up to become the total star, standing alone with his history-making decision, with Mary Flavin Sweeney being written out of the story altogether “as we couldn’t have our hero making the big decision on the advice of some old woman in the west of Ireland”.
Quite so. If this does indeed turn out to be the case, feel free to fling something substantial, preferably granite, at your teevee set.
Despite the Covid restrictions, the US Congress still managed to ensure that a Medal was presented to Mary Flavin Sweeney in 2021 when she was 98, in order to recognize her key role in the D-Day 24-hours postponement decision
