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DERMOT MCCONNORAN has been with Drogheda Coast Guard for more than 20 years and says yesterday’s call to investigate the apparent discovery of dinosaur bones in the River Boyne ranks among the strangest the unit has ever received.
McConnoran, who is the officer in charge of the unit, told TheJournal.ie that they were “very sceptical” when the call came through at around 12:30 yesterday afternoon.
The crew suspected it may have been a prank call but when they arrived at the scene, a short trip west of their boat house on Horse Lane, they saw three people standing on the river bank looking down at the apparent remains.
When they reached the “bones” themselves their scepticism quickly flipped to bewilderment and curiosity.
“We had a good look at it. Then we looked at each other. And we had another look at it. And then we looked at each other,” Dermot said.
It certainly looked like a dinosaur.
Upon closer examination it became apparent that it wasn’t the bones of an actual Tyrannosaurus rex but, rather, an impressive imitation.
McConnoran said the “bones”, which are made of plaster, were covered in silt and looked like they had been there a long time.
As news of the peculiar find spread some locals revealed they had spotted the ‘dinosaur’ as far back as late 2017.
One of witnesses, Bernie Mc Groarty, spotted it while on a blackberry picking expedition with her children in August of last year.
It was the kids that spotted it! It sure looked like dinosaur bones! To be honest we just took pictures and the kids had a great story for their friends about the dinosaur. But we thought nothing more of it.
Mc Groarty added that she thought it was an old cow that had met its end.
A quick Twitter search reveals photos uploaded in November 2017 that shows the skeleton in a less river-worn state.
karen smith / Twitter#Dinosaur in the Boyne River pic.twitter.com/laIJdQG94y
— karen smith (@forestdisa1980) November 14, 2017
McConnoran said that the crew didn’t disturb the ‘remains’ so anyone can see it for themselves when the river is low.
The speculation in the town is that the dinosaur is the work of a local artist but how exactly the ‘bones’ ended up in the Boyne remains a mystery, for now.
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“Looks like it’s been there a long time” – yeah that tends to be the case with dinosaurs
@Bill Clay: up to five thousand years, if some people are to be believed!
@Rodney Monaghan: impossible. The world only began 2000 years ago according to the DUP.
@Manbackonboard: Idiots, don’t you know the sky fairy ‘planted them there’ so we would ‘think’ the world was older……do you guy not listen on Sunday or what!
Then they looked at him and he looked at them , then they looked at them and they looked at each other..and they looked at him.
Dinosaur and the River Boyne in the same sentence. Made me think of the Dup.
@itzme: artist teaches lesson on DUP politics
@itzme: Am I right to think that King Billy was gay and that he was working for the Pope fighting against King James because the Pope had a few days public holidays for him defeating James at the Boyne.
“Mc Groarty added that she thought it was an old cow that had met its end”
She doesn’t work in zoology, then.
@The Quare Fella: One of those rare meat eating cows
@Simon Carroll:
medium rare?
Deadly! Harvest the dna and we can open up our own Jurassic Park on the Aran islands.
@David Malone: I don’t think there’s much DNA in fake bones
@James Wallace: life finds a way James
The artist was so preoccupied with whether he could, he didn’t stop to think if he should
Its there with Spider Baby. It has the body of a spider and mind of a baby
So the coast guard did not discover the bones this time. I wonder if they used their blue lights!
I’m no marine biologist, but that’s definitely a turtle without it’s shell.
It’s William of Orange’s horse.
@Austin Foley: More likely Shergar.
found a dinosaww!
Then they looked at him and he
Wow.
Ice dragon
Were the Macnas in tour again?
Then they looked at him and he
Has there been a theft of a model of Dinosaur bones in the last 10 years or so???
@Susanne Morgan: no need for theft – just re-construct the bones of DUP politics and there you are – one real, dead dinosaur
Did she recognise the “old cow”?
Lookalike fake and need remove and clean up dinosaur show to Rte news need proof?
Placed there by a local artist, the “Boyne Banksy”.
Do you think it was a Dinosaurscoming?.
@Frank Conroy: Make no bones about it, it must be Iron age lol.
have your say