THE story of the ' Moses of the Snow' still grips the imagination 30 years later.

It was a Friday night in January and the worst snow in decades had descended on the county of Louth.

Massive snow drifts blocked roads, electricity supplies were cut, water was short.

But one story found its way onto the front pages of the local papers and made national news.

Johnny Finegan from Newtown, Monasterboice, had seen quite a bit in his career on the buses.

He had joined the GNR in 1949, which was later to become CIE.

He had been driving out of a few locations before being stationed in Drogheda bus depot from 1966.

Like the other drivers, he saw the snows of 1982 descend for days. He knew that there were difficult times ahead.

On this particular day he headed out on Bus 227 for Ardee, bound ultimately for Dundalk. However, in the midst of a snowstorm hardly witnessed before, his bus was reported missing for four hours. There were no mobile phones and, worse still, one of his passengers, 14-year-old Siobhán Gaffney from Ardee, was a diabetic.

Even army trucks couldn't get through the drifts. Johnny Finnegan and his 32 passengers would have to make their own way to safety.

But what happened that night, in the heart of rural Louth, showed the true human spirit, when charity and concern averted potential disaster.

The story began at 10am in the morning when Johnny headed out in the snows for Ardee. He got through the first part ok, but en route to Dundalk, stranded lorries blocked his way. A bus came out from Dundalk and passengers were transferred to one bus, with others destined for Ardee climbing onto Johnny's vehicle.

He turned and headed for Ardee, only to revert again out by Readypenny.

On the Corderry Road, the bus got caught in snow. A worried parent, George King, came out in his tractor to help, but it took David Redmond in his JCB to finally get the bus going again three hours later.

Finally they arrived in Louth Village and 18 disembarked.

Johnny learned from local curate, Fr Byrne, that there were fears for the bus and in particular Siobhán Gaffney. He took her to his house and gave her two bars of chocolate to help her condition.

Away they went again, but once more got stuck. Johnny got to the home of Gerry Griffin, a manager in Lisadell Towels. He wanted to put them all up but Johnny felt they needed to plough on. With visability zero, he made it to Lynch's Lounge, where Peter Lynch and his wife welcomed the party in.

'They couldn't have done enough for us,' said Mr Finegan. Soup and sandwiches were hastily eaten and the stew arrived, even without lights or phone.

Fifteen schoolgirls settled down for the night on the ballroom floor. Four more went to Mr Griffin's house. Mr Mcdermott, a local dentist, took three, and four also arrived at Brian Matthews' house. Johnny went to the home of a former colleague, Thomas Sheridan.

The next morning local farmers arrived in tractors and pulled the bus from the drift and they made it to Ardee. But again Johnny got stuck and it was Saturday afternoon when he made it home thanks to Freddie Matthews.

'It was an ordeal I wouldn't like to repeat,' said Johnny afterwards. 'But I am grateful that it all ended with no one getting injured. Much of the credit must go to the great people of Tallanstown.'

Afterwards, the grateful schoolchildren on the bus, hailed Johnny as ' Moses of the Snow'. Truly fitting.