Met Éireann pays tribute to Irish woman whose forecast saved 1944 D-Day landings

Blacksod's position on the western seaboard made it one of the first stations to report westerly storms.

Her readings showed a steady wind and increasing rain as the pressure continued to drop, indicating that unsettled, stormy weather that would affect the English Channel on June 5. 

June 5 was the date originally planned for Operation Overlord: the Allied D-Day landings at Normandy in France, what was to be the largest seaborne invasion in history. 

When her weather reports reached England, officials phoned the post office at Blacksod to confirm the readings directly. 

The area of low pressure, identified by Ms Sweeney, resulted in strong southwesterly winds in the English Channel, which would have made the seas too rough for the landing of troops on June 5. 

Conditions also would have been too cloudy for bombing operations to be successful. 

This would prove to be a major stroke of luck as, at the time, German weather forecasters were far more limited in the information available to them. 

The Kriegsmarine also had limited vessels in the Atlantic and their weather stations in Greenland had been shut down.

Although early June had been identified as a possible date for invasion by German military planners, they were of the impression that the continuation of the disturbed pattern of weather would make an Allied landing all but impossible. 

As such, they stood down some of their troops on defensive duties, leaving the coast without numerous senior officers.

Once English officials relayed the Blacksod weather readings to US general and future US President Dwight Eisenhower, the allied forces agreed to postpone D-Day until the following day, June 6. 

The rest, as they say, is history. 

Maureen Sweeney would not learn of the importance of her weather readings until 1956. 

During an interview at that time with RTÉ, Maureen noted that the US Army “could arrange everything, but they couldn’t pre-arrange the weather.” 

In 2021, in recognition of the fact that her observations delayed D-Day by 24 hours, thereby allowing for its success, she was awarded a medal by the US House of Representatives. 

A proclamation of her achievements was also placed in the US Library of Congress.

A native of Co Kerry, Maureen Sweeney moved to Co Mayo where she took up the job in Blacksod post office. 

She later married the son of the post mistress, Ted Sweeney, who had confirmed her readings that fateful day in 1944. Maureen ran the post office until she retired in the 2000s. 

She passed away at a nursing home in Belmullet on December 17, 2023. She was 100. 

In a statement on Monday, Met Éireann paid tribute to her: "Met Éireann would like to offer our sincerest condolences to Maureen’s family, and to celebrate the legacy of Maureen for her part in this pivotal moment in Irish and International weather history."