Obituary: The diligent Irish postmistress whose weather report delayed D-Day 

Obituary: The diligent Irish postmistress whose weather report delayed D-Day 

D-Day heroine Maureen Sweeney. Picture: Tom Reilly

Maureen Sweeney, who has died aged 100, has been described as the woman who saved D-Day, but she had no idea that her weather forecast would assume such significance when she went out in the early hours of  June 3, 1944 to take another hourly barometric reading.

She just did what she had been doing during the war years and took a detailed reading despite the ungodly hour. It also happened to be the day of her 21st birthday, but that did not distract her from her work. Maureen Flavin, as she was then, was thorough and conscientious.

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