Schol exams were postponed on January 11 due to the ‘deteriorating weather conditions and the expected snowfall.’ The Senior Lecturer, Dr Aileen Douglas, sent an email to all undergraduates on January 10 informing students of the postponement.

The snow covered the whole college and barriers were erected in Parliament (Front) Square for safety.

Members of the college and visitors were directed to the perimeter or centre of the square on alternate days in order to allow the compacted ice to become less slippery.

People were also asked for the first time in recent history to ‘keep on the grass’ so as to avoid slipping on the icy cobbles. The front gate was also closed for the weekend to minimise the number of visitors in college.

The snow not only affected Trinity students thousands of primary and secondary level students were told to stay at home when most schools closed for health and safety reasons because of the snow and icy conditions.

The Department of Education said it was up to boards of management to decide whether local conditions warranted the closure of a school.  

The city’s transport infrastructure was also massively disrupted by the bad weather. Some roads were impassable and Dublin Bus cancelled some services while most others were disrupted becuase of the icy road conditions.

There was a shortage of salt for gritting the roads. Retired former National Roads Authority regional engineer Michael Cahill said what most people understand to mean gritting is often the salting of roads.

‘The purpose of putting the grit out on the road is to give you some purchase’ he said. This is different to salt which operates by melting the snow and by lowering the temperature at which water freezes. Salt water starts to freeze at about -2 degrees.

Most of the paths in college were gritted by grounds staff as a safety precaution.

Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews said city centre traders had experienced poor sales during the bad weather, he said ‘retailers in Dublin city centre were hit exceptionally hard by the recent spate of bad weather which deterred people from shopping and socialising.’

He was speaking about the reintroduction of the bus gate on January 18 which was closed for two months over Christmas.

‘The rush to reinstate the bus lane is unnecessary and short-sighted. I would ask that the council delay this move, and give businesses an opportunity to recoup some of the lost revenue of the past two weeks,’ said Andrews

The effectiveness of the bus gate will be reviewed by the council next May.

Water supply was also affected by the cold weather. Many parts of the country being without water due to frozen water mains bursting. Trinity has not been hit by the water shortage yet but many say that the warming weather could still cause problems when pipes begin to thaw.

The snow was a seasonal distraction for some students as snowmen began to appear around college.Snow ball fights were also a common sight with a large one taking place in College Park between those studying for Schol exams in the library when they found out their exam was postponed they quickly went outside to have fun.