Hot news from the Clare coast 1876

[smcarberry]

At least two U.S. newspapers actually published this article as news. The attached pdf is a short article from the
Inter Ocean newspaper of Chicago, Illinois, as it appeared on 26 Jan 1876 (page 5). I recognize the writing style -
it is just so "P.C." so now I realize that this tongue-in-cheek style is genetic. All is forgiven for having pulled our legs
so much, Paddy.

Sharon Carberry

[Paddy Casey]

Sharon,

As is so often the case the press has garbled and exaggerated this story out of all recognition. I can set the record straight. In 1873 my great-great-uncle Pat Casey of Moyrhee went to the coast for a day's fishing and, to his consternation and that of the nearby fishermen, he reeled in a very large and powerful amphibious creature, the likes of which had never been seen before. It did not exactly match the description in your article but, of course, I cannot rule out that another curiosity was pulled out of the ocean around the same time somewhere else in Clare.

Anyway, great-great-uncle Pat (a strapping lad, so the family lore goes) put a rope around its neck and led/hauled it the 30 miles back to Moyrhee. It was tied up outside their farmhouse for a while and nearly ate them out of house and home but it soon became tame and took to wandering around the neighbourhood and visiting the local farms. It was a great pet of the local children. The attached picture was taken at a neighbour's house. It particularly liked bathing in the Moyrhee river but its prodigious appetite for fish caused great annoyance among the local fishermen. It would occasionally take local cattle and was said to have once devoured a whole cow in less that 15 minutes.

Biologists from near and far came to examine and identify it. I understand that there are papers in the archives of the Royal Irish Academy of Ichthyology in Dublin and that it was given the provisional name Icthyopterix hiberniae var. clarensis but I cannot vouch for the exact spelling of the latter. Your research skills are well-honed so I'm sure you will be able to put your finger on it instantly.

Paddy

[smcarberry]

Why am I not surprised ? Dang, I just wish that photographer in 1873 had been more concerned with catching the well-described fins and porpoise-like tail. However I am sure you did the best you could regarding the tale. Thanks for
sharing.

Now, however, I can state a reference to something just as startling and seemingly incredible, for real. I think most of us
have heard about the gold hoard discovered in a small cairn by railroad construction workers, by a lake in the vicinity of
Newmarket-on-Fergus back in this general time period. Anyone going to Dublin should not miss a visit to view the official
collection in the National Museum. I am so glad that the local residents had a chance at a windfall when the discovery was made, in view of how much of the gold immediately disappeared. Thank goodness that a similar fate did not occur to an
even more important discovery of prehistoric jewelry known as the Glenisheen collar. Just Google on that and revel in the
wonder of a truly remarkable find. Be sure you find an article with a photo.

Sharon C.

[Paddy Casey]

Sharon,

That Glenisheen collar really was a find (see image) ! Thanks for the reference.

Some time back an uncle dug out a bronze cauldron in Tubber and it ended up in a museum in Dublin. He was rewarded with a few pounds. See attached copy from "The Parish of Kilkeedy - a Local History" compiled by Frank Brew.

Paddy

P.S. The amphibian caught by my great-great-uncle had a tail and fins but they rapidly atrophied as the creature took to land (similar to the axolotl's loss of its gills when it moves onto land or when you add a little thyroid hormone to the water in your axolotl aquarium). When this picture was taken they had gone completely. P.

[smcarberry]

That is an excellent photo, Paddy. The "collar" just takes my breath away, it is so stunning. My perspective, without having done any research on this type of artifact, is that this was so valuable a piece in its own time, that it was not used solely as jewelery in view of the lack of a way to secure it around the neck. I am thinking that it might have been worn around the neck with the discs on the ends being the means of attaching a cloak-type of clothing, prior to the time of the pin and circle form of clasp or perhaps as a more elaborate or ceremonial piece in use at the same time as the more
commonplace clasp.

Anyway, I suppose I should mention that I have a daughter now back in school for a master's degree in her field, which is
archaeology. Her inspiration, dating from childhood, were the photos in the National Geographic magazine. Then, when she
was 17, I sent her to the Achill Island (Co. Mayo) Field School, where likely she still is the youngest participant admitted. Besides her regular jog amid(st) the sheep, which she will remember for the rest of her life, she also had the thrill of making discoveries with just a trowel and her naked eyesight that no one else was able to do, despite all the high-tech equipment on site. Then, back in the U.S. when she became a field technician, the entry-level grunt work of the industry, she found objects which I cannot describe, in a location that I cannot name, due to extraordinary value and the need to protect the involved site. Suffice it to say that most archeologists only dream of finding one such item in a career and she found two in one day, followed by a third subsequently. Lucky I am that she felt she could tell me. We readily found photos online
from auctions of similar items, for prices that only the really wealthy could afford.

Sharon C.