The present freeze brings memories of the lochán at Blackfort and the big freeze in 1963. The eerie sound of ice cracking as we slid around whacking a bachelors pea can with sticks. Castlebar ice hockey ! My grandmother told me of big freezes in the past when " the whole town" would gather on Saleen lake at night with lighted torches and English soldiers joining in the gaeity of the occasion.