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ALLEN FOSTER MUST be some guest to have at a party. An author and researcher, he has found some of Ireland’s strangest true tales, and delights in telling them.
His new book (which is his eighth), Foster’s Historical Irish Oddities, is a compendium of stories from all over Ireland, like the one about a sleepwalker who fell 15ft without blowing out his candle; the fortune discovered in a Belfast piano; and the Wicklow terrier who brought down an eagle.
“I have literally read hundreds of books and newspapers looking for odd stories and tales of remarkable people,” Foster, the author of a number of books, told TheJournal.ie.
We have a selection of some of the weirder tales here for you to enjoy this Bank Holiday Monday. Hungover? Your head might hurt a bit more after reading these.
The man who packed himself into a trunk
On the morning of 1 October 1941 a porter working on the North Wall Docks in Dublin upended a large case that had been accidentally turned upside down the night before when it was being unloaded from the ship Slieve Bawn from Liverpool. The porter thought it was his imagination when he heard tapping coming from inside the crate. He listened carefully and it started again. He tapped the case and received an answering tap from inside. He called other porters to help and the case was quickly opened.
The men were amazed to find a hysterical semi-conscious Frenchman upside down and encased in a large plaster cast. The frantic man was brought to Jervis Street hospital. There he identified himself as 40-year-old Maurice Carcassus de Laboujac, an artist with an address in London. M. de Laboujac’s paintings were due to go on show in Dublin, but he was unable to obtain the necessary visa, so he arranged to ship himself inside the crate to a Dublin art gallery on Molesworth Street. The Frenchman planned his trip carefully and had a plaster cast made which fitted his body and prevented him being buffeted too severely in the packing case. He spent four days en route from London to Dublin.
Everything had gone to plan until a careless dockworker unloaded the packing case and left it upside down with its occupant standing on his head and unable to do anything about it.
The shower of fish
At about 10am on 23 April 1900 there was a shower of small fish in the bog close to the coastguard station at Kilcredane, County Clare about three hundred yards from the sea. Several men were working in the bog at the time and reported the unusual occurrence to the officer in charge of the station. He investigated and found about 150 fish had fallen from the sky. They were young sand-eels (Ammodytes lanceolatus), which frequent shallow water near the coast at that time of year. The bog was west of the Shannon and the direction of the wind was north-north-west, force 2. It was a fine day, the sky was clear and the wind blew steady.
Coloured hailstones
Coloured hailstones have sometimes fallen. RA Mullan, a solicitor from Newry, was driving a gig near Castlewellan, County Down on 7 May 1885 when he was caught in the middle of a hail shower. Some of the hailstones were red. The colour pervaded the substance of the stones, and on melting, it stained Mullan’s fingers.
Escape of a thief
The daring ingenuity of an Irish thief who fell foul of the Greenock police made news in January 1880. When caught the man feigned a comatose state. His ruse did not fool the Greenock police surgeon and a state of consciousness was quickly induced. The thief was transported to the town where, it was alleged, he had committed a robbery, and jailed there to await trial. He soon escaped the jail and fled. A few days later he was caught red-handed and taken into custody, but not before some hard blows had been exchanged between him and the constables. Bleeding from the mouth as a result of a whack from a baton, the Irishman was brought before a police surgeon who did not know his tricks.
The cunning thief pretended to be dying, and his acting was so convincing that the surgeon really believed the thief had died in front of him. After laying out the ‘dead’ man in the mortuary, minus his boots, the surgeon hurried off to report the fatal assault by the police. The mortuary was attached to the police station and the surgeon left the door ajar. After the surgeon made his report to the ranking officer the policemen involved in the assault were detained. When this officer and the surgeon returned to the mortuary to examine the corpse it was gone! The Irishman had made another escape.
A shock to the system
In February 1773, 14-year-old Anne Mulligan of Roxberry went to visit a neighbour’s house one evening and returned home that night having completely lost her voice.
She remained that way until May 1777, when friends brought her to Dr Connell of Bunnoe, Cavan. Dr Connell was known as the ‘mad doctor’ on account of his unusual methods, and his treatment of Anne showed how unorthodox he was.
The doctor heard her story and examined the girl, then brought her into his dining room and locked the door. He sat her at one end of the table, then sat opposite. He began by distorting his features in ‘a shocking manner’ intended to frighten the girl. After some time he jumped up, grabbed a dagger that was hanging over the mantelpiece, and ran at Anne, swearing that he was going to kill her. She dropped to her knees, begging him to spare her life, then fainted. On coming to she completely regained her speech and never lost it again.
All excerpts courtesy of publisher Gill & Macmillan. Foster’s Irish Oddities is out now in all good bookshops, priced at €12.99.
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What a load of BS, this is a financial issue for the organiser that couldn’t care less about environmental impact, cheap tents (and other camping gear) are barely usable first time round let alone be reusable…. Whether binned by the organisers or by people at home the net result is the same… All that changes is ultimately who is paying for the service
@Jayo Breathneach: Exactly, it’s just littering on an epic scale
@Jayo Breathneach: completely agree, but an organisation dodging financial responsibility while trying to claim they are being environmentally conscious isnt helping the actual environmental issue.
Every person that leaves gear behind was seen to do so by a number of other people. Let festival goers police themselves and ultimately either pay more for their tickets to cover the financial burden, or lose their festival if they fail to do so.
At the very least have gardai/litter wardens on duty the final morning issuing fines for illegal dumping.
Take the financial and convenience benefits away from cheap gear and it becomes a less attractive option nudging people towards better quality gear that they can use for years, thereby contributing towards improving both problems
@Ian: B&S operate a green camping zone where sustainable and litter-free camping is encouraged and policed, it’s a much nicer environment to stay in and the people there are really good about leaving the place spotless. It’s free to stay there too, that’s where I camp each year.
@Ian: There’s a bigger issue here, it’s not the festival organisers or Garda etc responsibility to police such behaviour, nor can you directly blame the public. Yes the public are more lazy, but we live in and have created a throw away culture. As a result of everything we buy becoming cheaper and more disposable. Not just with tents but with other products that pollute the environment. Maybe there should be higher levels of Tax on lower quality products. The “Tesco tent” being a prime example, why should the responsibility not be on the producer/seller of the product. There should be some kind of benchmark pricing structure on certain consumables. Tents, Plastics, etc.. Not sure how that is implemented, but consumers should be encouraged to purchase products that have a longer life span, at the point of purchase. An extension of the plastic bag Tax on other products, encourages both the consumer and the seller to go for more quality/long life products Change peoples purchasing habits and you’ll change the world, Quality over price. If consumers have to be more discerning in their purchasing habits, then less waste is created.
They should have a tent station at exits for people who don’t want to take them home pack them up leave them a the tent station and they can then be donated to homeless charities throughout the country
@Richard Slattery: homeless charities? Seriously, do you think some priveliged kids second hand mouldy €20 tent can be used to house the homeless? Christ almighty. The condescension is reeking.
@Richard Slattery: the problem is that people aren’t bothered about packing them up ..
@yelkcub: he didn’t say use it to house the homeless .. and is it only privileged kuds that go to festivals ??
@Suzie Sunshine: * kids
@yelkcub: I think it could help out in the short term I don’t see them as a housing solution and never stated so and as for privileged kids at festivals I’ve been to many and I am far from privleged so not sure what your point is there …. And as for the reek of condescension I suggest get that checked out by a doctor
@yelkcub: Scouting Ireland volunteers used to spend half of the Monday after Oxegen harvesting salvageable tents and camping gear to donate to A) less well off scout groups and B) refugee camps around the world. The only thing that’s changed is that tesco, argos and halfords all do cheap disposable tents now that are no good to anyone.
Problem is with mindset. Take for example eating in McDonalds. In other countries you tidy up after yourself out of courtesy. Here in Ireland I’m told that “I’m keeping people out of a job” when I tidy up behind me.
@Kimmixa:
Ive never been told that, I’ve always cleaned up after myself using fast food restaurants (supermacs, KFC, Mc Donald’s).
@Kimmixa: people who say that are only using it as an excuse to be lazy and not clean up after themselves. …
@Suzie Sunshine: And don’t work I bet !!!
I’ve seen a few people incinerate them fairly handily before heading home from any festival.
@Mark O’Connor:
And I reckon if someone had burped at that particular time they could have incinerated themselves as well with all the fumes been let off.
I don’t get why you’d leave your tent behind. Would you leave your clothes and other possessions too? I used to have a much beloved festival that went with me everywhere. Well, mostly Metal festivals in Germany. I had to give it away when I moved countries but made sure I gave it a good home.
@Rui Firmino: most people with a decent tent wouldn’t even dream of leaving it. Problem really lies with cheap single skin tents that are sold as disposable
Sometimes on Monday morning after a festival I like to wrap myself in my tent and pretend I’m a slug
@Richard Slattery: I think the homeless of Ireland might prefer a home in a house, not a tent from someone too lazy to dispose of it themselves.
@Janet Healy: that’s stating the obvious but short of that I know I’d prefer somewhere to keep myself dry and out of the elements instead of sleeping in doorways
@Janet Healy: i expect my dog gave to live in one of those cheap tents let alone a human being
@Ian: *wouldnt
OK here’s an idea maybe get everyone to pack up the tents properly and put them in a big truck at the entrance and send them away to poor countries!
@Linda Hughes: Scouting Ireland used to do that at festivals (I worked Oxegen and EP 2007-2009) but the problem is the tents now are cheap single use ones that can’t be salvaged more often than not
Yes, tents at festivals is the issue. All tents ever will need to be disposed of at some point, starting from that point would be helpful. A much bigger problem is single use coffee cups. Millions used every day in this country and the overwhelming majority are not recyclable or biodegradable.
@Dave O Keeffe: back on the pile – Randy
Ian and Linda. The issue is that the lazy bums that don’t bring the tents home will also not take them down. The tents aren’t dismantled and then left behind, they are just abandoned… the stations would just see empty handed people walk past and see a field full of tents
@Karel Lootens: not sure what stations I have proposed? Unless there’s another Ian you referring to.
My solutions are load everybody’s tickets of cleaning the previous years campground and let the people police themselves, OR, if you check in to festival and are not carrying a tent you get a wristband, if you go to leave not carrying a tent and don’t have a wrist band you get an instant on the spot fine/summons for illegal dumping
@Ian: that’s actually a good idea ..
For these initiatives to work you must make it easy for people. Provide recepticals and visuals and incentives. Charge an extra 10euro for every ticket if you need to set up the correct provisions/litter stewards.
@Sarah Ennis: it’s all ready 250+ to attend electric picnic, to stay in a cabin instead of a tent it’s another 400. Considering I can get 5 nights in new York for 599 it’s hard to justify making festivals more expensive
Here’s a better idea, fund and promote the use and refining of biodegradable plastic.
Some people just dont give a shit. I always bring everything home with me. Over 12,000 scouts attended jamboree in Punchestown 2008 – not one scrap was left behind.
Bleeding hippy’s…..
I have 3 tents, 4 sleeping bags, an inflatable Vango mat and a few other bits that are all abandoned festival gear. If you’re going to ditch it at least leave it in good nick so someone else can reuse it if you won’t!
Why not charge a tent deposit, refundable on exit once it is confirmed you are leaving with your tent. Uncollected tent deposits would cover the cost. There won’t be many tents left behind then.
have your say