Released yesterday on the anniversary of Rachel Peavoy’s death in 2010, this radio play is inspired by that tragedy of a young mother dying of hypothermia in a council flat and the bungling bureaucracy that whitewashed the council’s neglect.

The play was put together by Alan O’Brien who can often be seen around this parish. Here’s some details on it from the Soundcloud play:

“It is a fictional tale, where the only concrete-similarity between Rachel and Joanne Boland is the nature of their tragic and untimely deaths. Joanne Boland’s character consists of a cacophony of mother’s voices that have resonated with the author while growing up there. Joanne Boland represents all Ballymun mothers, sisters, aunts etc. It is also a reflection on what has been lost in the ‘Mun, from the closeknit community that thrived there, bustling in and out of the shopping centre and its two public houses, The Towers and The Penthouse; to the whistling of the wind from the wind-vortexes that emerged between the blocks. ‘Snow Falls and So Do We’ is both a homage to Ballymun and to the people of Ballymun past and present.”

And as the nights get colder, Oireachtas Retort has some more context for you.