Maureen Flavin- little-known D-Day hero from North Kerry
On her 100th birthday, the U.S. Congress acknowledged the contribution of a 21-year-old woman from North Kerry to the success of the D-Day Invasion on June 6, 1944. In a movie just released however, Hollywood ignored it.
Maureen Sweeney (nee Flavin) cooly confirmed the weather data for June 5, 1944 that convinced Dwight D. Eisenhower to delay the Operation Overlord invasion by one day. If he hadn’t, an approaching nasty North Atlantic storm would have made the landing impossible.
A movie called Pressure was released in theaters over the weekend. At its center is that fateful forecast. But there’s no role for the Irishwoman who passed it on and stood by it.
So, from the PHS website 8 November 2023, here’s the story of how Maureen Flavin played her role in history.
BY ED CURTIN
One hundred-year-old Maureen Flavin may now be living in a nursing home in Belmullet, County Mayo, Ireland, but her actions long ago on the day she turned 21 likely saved much of Europe from the continued horrors of Adolph Hitler and his Nazi war machine.
On that day, June 3, 1944, Maureen Flavin changed the course of history with meteorological information she recorded while working as a post office assistant at a weather station at Blacksod, County Mayo, on the far western coast.
Five years ago this month the Irish Times reported, Maureen Flavin Sweeney was awarded a special US House of Representatives honour for her part in the war. Her role was recognised at a ceremony held at Tí Aire nursing home in Belmullet, Co Mayo, where she now lives. Her son Vincent Sweeney, said his mom was proud of the weather dispatch’s influence, but primarily “happy that she got it right. The main thing was that she got the forecast right…We could be wearing jackboots, if you like,” he said.
Maureen Flavin Sweeney turned 100 in June of 2023 and died 17 December of that year.