Since the snow arrived on Tuesday night, we have been inundated with messages from around the county.
Some have been of pictures of Laois people building things and enjoying the snow.
But other have shown how people worked day and night to clear snow from roads to free people stuck in some of the most isolated areas.
Up to Sunday, volunteer crews of Laois Civil Defence had responded to 147 calls since the extreme weather began.
These calls were a mixture of support to HSE staff and logistical support to Laois County Council and gardaí.
While there have also been stories of people, working in essential services, who have spent nights sleeping in their places of work or in nearby hotels in order to keep things functioning.
One such place where this was demonstrated was Oakdale Nursing Village in Portarlington.
Matt Moore said: “Oakdale Nursing Home Management in Portarlington would like to say a big thank you to all our staff for the huge personal effort they made over the past few days in coming into work.
“Some of them stayed overnight on temporary beds to ensure that a full service was maintained for our residents.
“They displayed a great sense of loyalty and camaraderie to Oakdale and the residents.
“In spite of the adverse weather a great sense of community spirit was displayed by all to the benefit of our residents.”
The HSE also put into operation a plan to ensure that care of patients was able to be provided.
A HSE spokesperson outlined that on foot of Met Éireann’s status red weather warning, where it was decided nationally that for reasons of public safety no avoidable travel should take place that onsite and hotel accommodation would be provided to staff due to work at Portlaoise hospital.
A spokesperson said: “The (Portlaoise) hospital would like to extend its heartfelt gratitude to all staff who are working and travelling to work in these extreme weather conditions and stayed overnight in the hospital or in local accommodation.
“Staff requiring overnight accommodation were facilitated and additional support to transport staff was provided by hospital management, alongside Laois Civil Defence.
“The hospital would like to acknowledge the work of Laois Civil Defence for their support in these extreme conditions.
“The teamwork shown by all staff in ensuring the continuity of patient care has been outstanding.”
Members of Laois County Council were out in force shortly after the Red Alert was lifted on Friday afternoon to clear as many of the primary routes as they could.
But in the places that they couldn’t get to, local people took it upon themselves to put their shoulder to the wheel.
There were multiple stories of ordinary people using their own machinery to clear roads to help others.
Jim and Martin Bennett from Coolrain cleared the roads up from The Pike of Rushall to Coolrain and Coolrain to Camross.
These roads were completely impassible, even to jeeps.
In Timahoe, Seamus Foyle was out near Cullenagh clearing six foot drifts.
JJ Peters for cleared the street in Castletown, Eugene Ryan did the same in Ballycarroll while Michael Cahill was at it in Tullore, Ballyroan also.
Frank Bergin cleared the road in Ballydavis while Ger and George Abbott did the same in Lacca and Roundwood.
Up in Killanure, one of Laois’ toughest hurlers spent all of Saturday clearing the roads using a digger.
Martin Cuddy cleared eight foot drifts on the R440 so that local residents could get in to town for the essentials.
Meanwhile in The Heath, Mark Barry spent another day clearing local roads using his digger.
In Ratheniska, Brendan Greene, Pat Ramsbottom, Paul Ramsbottom, Diarmaid Drennan, Enda Fingleton, Clive, Paul, Wesley Carter and Colm Fingleton all did trojan work to clear the roads around Ratheniska.
On a weekend where disgraceful scenes of robbery and looting dominated our TV screens, these people and their incredibly selfless acts are what we all should be talking about.
To see the people of Laois coming together like this at a time of great adversity demonstrates the character and good nature that exists here.
Fair play to all!
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