Ireland endured a bitter beginning to the year in 1982 as widespread blizzards engulfed the country, bringing snow drifts up to ten feet high.
Just one week into the New Year, what later became known as ‘The Big Snow’ cut off communities and put emergency services on high alert.
One of the biggest snow events in Irish history, it is remembered with fondness by many and fear by some.
Children walking down a partially cleared country road four miles north of Ratoath, County Meath, Ireland following the blizzard of 1982. Image: De Luan / AlamyBy January 20th, a slow thaw was underway and RTÉ set designer Charles Self was in top form as he celebrated some good career news in Dublin City Centre.
Born in England and raised in Scotland, the 32-year-old had moved to Ireland four years earlier to design sets for some of the country's most prestigious television shows.
An openly gay man at a time when homosexual sex was still illegal in Ireland, Charles is remembered by friends as a man of charm, wit and style who lived life to the full.
By January 21st, he was dead.
In the second season of Inside the Crime, Frank Greaney examines the crime, the investigation and the impact the murder had on Irish society.
His body was found slumped in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs in his Monkstown home. He had been stabbed 14 times, his throat had been slashed and a ligature was found around his neck.
40 years later, no one has ever been charged with the crime and those who knew and loved Charles are still struggling to come to terms with his untimely death and the controversial investigation that followed.
Charles Self.Through interviews with Charles' closest friends, his colleagues and those familiar with the inner workings of the case, Frank explores the many questions that remain unanswered all these years later.
Throughout the series, Newstalk.com will be bringing you Deeper Inside The Crime with everything from pictures and video to timelines, crime scene graphics and in-depth articles – you can find it all here.
Below are some images and video that set the scene for a bitterly cold city in the run-up to a barbaric crime.
Strong easterly winds caused extensive & deep snowdrifts on this day in 1982 ️
At the Phoenix Park there were 8 consecutive days with mean daily temperatures less than 0º C
taken at Clonskeagh, Dublin by Paul Daly
https://t.co/TIDxN7iIe5 @RTE pic.twitter.com/y5GJe1SZhh
— Met Éireann (@MetEireann) January 8, 2022
We've been here before. #Looting during the big snow, Dublin, 1982. From the front of the Irish Independent's Jan 12 edition. #sneachtageddon pic.twitter.com/fD6E16cJYL
— Seamie Ó Caoimh (@seamieocaoimh) March 3, 2018
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1982 was a golden period of cold and snow for here. One of our largest snowstorms on record + a week long big freeze to enjoy the snow unlike 2018. Dublin also recorded the national record low grass min of -19.6C on 12th Jan 1982.
This Friday will be the 40th anniversary pic.twitter.com/gdh5sWGwOp
— Snowbie (@SnowbieWx) January 3, 2022
January 26th 1982@U2 played RDS Dublin
Grafton Street on that day (the Big Snow) pic.twitter.com/sIHNcsJt8j— Valerie (@U2Partygirl5) January 26, 2016
Ah the 1982 snow... epic!!! pic.twitter.com/T8QG0jxcKK
— Adam Æ (@EvilJackeen) January 8, 2022
Looking like a Winter Wonder Land Fine Victorian architecture of Dublin's Fruit & Vegetable Market, Marys Lane. During the big snow of 1982.@PhotosOfDublin #RussianPalace #Dublins #FruitandVegitableMarket #MarysLane #bigsnow #WinterWonderland #VictorianArchitecture pic.twitter.com/70Gdfa7X8W
— World Reach Comms (@WorldReachComms) November 28, 2019
The big snow of 1982, Walkinstown roundabout. pic.twitter.com/PkNw0xZFwd
— Photos of Dublin (@PhotosOfDublin) February 8, 2014
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