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Rural Legends.

2

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  • #32
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,050 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    _Brian wrote: »

    Last one:
    I worked for years servicing milking machines on farms. A service engineer in the neighbouring county was telling me he got a call out to a farm he wasn't familiar with. He found the farm and called the house where the woman sent him on up the yard to where the machine and farmer were. Anyway, when he went up, there was the farmer standing on a crate trousers down "servicing" one of his cows. After an uncomfortable glance at each other the service man got in his van and left, no more calls from that farm.

    Reminds me of the old chestnut about when AI came out first.

    AI man calls out, asks the farmer's wife where the cow is, he is directed towards a shed and helpfully informed that there's a nail on the back of the door...to hang up his trousers.


  • #33
    galljga1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,938 ✭✭✭galljga1


    lizzyman wrote: »
    From your Tumblr:

    "I have little time for nostalgia though. It’s the comfort blanket of the procrastinator."

    And now you want old stories about Joe Dolan and the Quare Fellow. Tsk tsk Aongus. If you're going to be a douche at least be consistent about it.

    I think he is pretty consistent.


  • #34
    failinis
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,691 ✭✭✭failinis


    The Backwards Man wrote: »
    Years ago the neighbour was driving home from the pub full drunk, as was the custom at the time. Unbeknownst to him, another neighbour was taking his horse out of the field to go to the vet as it was acting up, but as he was taking it in the trailer it dropped stone dead in the middle of the road. So off he goes to get the tractor and linkbox, and a bit of help, to take it away. In the meantime, our hero comes tootering along and drives straight up on the dead horse and gets stuck on it, can't get forward or back. In a panic he runs home to wake up his brother out of bed, telling him the story, 'I killed Paddy's horse and now the car's stuck on it, come quick!' So the brother gets their tractor out of the shed and down the road they go, where they find the car parked neatly beside the road, and no sign of a horse at all. The brother calls him all the dirty drunken bastards under the sun, imagining a horse through drink, and to this day he hasn't touched a drop, and no one has ever told him that he really did drive up on a horse that night.

    That sounds mighty familiar, does the horse owner now have a black and white horse and goes out around iskaheen with it?


  • #35
    blade1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,776 ✭✭✭✭blade1


    DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »
    That's supposedly true. I looked it up there and it's attributed to a former Wicklow County Councillor named Jimmy Miley.

    Miley from Wicklow?
    Well Holy God!


  • #36
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,050 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    mariaalice wrote: »
    I am fond of the one about the landlord during the famine who shot a poor starving tenant dead on the steps of his big house, and eve after no matter how much they wash the steps they can never wash the blood away as it keep reappearing.

    reminded me of this....


    http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/mystery-of-footprints-linked-to-murder-255046.html


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  • #37
    failinis
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,691 ✭✭✭failinis


    I grew up near a mountain pass and it was the quickest way to Buncranna (and more importantly the beach)
    My mum went to see my aunt in Buncranna by herself, and retuned home the same way, it was 4pm but it was winter so it was rather dark/overcast.
    Apparently she had to stop the car as there was a massive dog on the small lane way.
    I think it would have to have been either an Irish Wolf Hound or maybe a smaller Scottish Deer Hound going by how she described it.
    It was barking at the car and she reverse a bit, to go drive forward again but the dog started to run up barking at the car before disappearing suddenly.

    But after my mother told some friends apparently it is not the only case of that happening. Years ago a fella and his date were walking back the same way to Derry and were stopped on the road by a huge dog. The fella made the girl stand behind him as he did not trust a strange dog, then it ran at him, but disappeared mid stride.

    I seen last year on some website a mention of the story of the man and his date, I was trying to find it there now but no luck.

    _Whimsical_ wrote: »
    There's that story that crops up several times in the "has anything creepy ever happened to you" thread. It's basically about a couple living in the country who have a son , or adopt a son depending on the version of the story, and leave him to fend for himself in a hen house as a small baby where he grows up believing he's a bird rather than a human. He has clawed feet he can perch on things with and pecks at things with his mouth and nose. In some versions the couple are eventually arrested and the boy goes into care and in others it's never discovered. There seem to be a good few old people,70s 80s who are quite convinced this happened in Ireland. I remember my elderly neighbour telling me about it and I read here other people's grannies telling them.
    Has to be a rural legend... surely?

    I am not going to say the chicken boy thing is true, but I was curious a few years ago and decided to read into it a little so are a few links.

    Here are scans of the newspaper reports.
    Article 1 photo Mourne Observer 28 October 1956
    Article 2 photoMourne Observer 28 October 1956
    Article 3 photo Mourne Observer 14th September 1956

    I found two threads on some irish forums of people claiming the knew the fella.
    Belfast Forum

    Some of what they say
    I knew Kevin. He used to holiday in Ballyhornan. As far as I know he is still alive.
    I remember meeting him once in ST Matthews club late eighties he seemed well adjusted considering his past. And from what I remember he was a good dancer.
    Haven't heard a lot since then, but if he is still around he would be in his fifties.
    I actually spent time in hospital with him - RBHSC - in the late 60's . . . 67/68 - I was in with Scarlet Fever and he was in a bed at the end of the ward. Kicked up a racket some nights but other than that didn't have much dealings with him. Is this my 15 mins of fame???
    My aunt was a nun in the Nazareth Lodge Orphanage on the Ravenhill Road. I remember my aunt telling my mother about this unfortunate boy shortly after he was taken into care there. I don't know how long he remained there.

    Then this Warrenpoint forum (They have scans of the newspaper articles on this link)

    Link from a now defunct website

    This states that the child was apparently disabled or different, and the father had died leaving the mother with a lot of children to look after herself.
    She said she only put Kevin in the hen house when she went shopping in Down Patrick, because it was less dangerous "Mrs Halfpenny was faced with the problem therefore of finding a safe place to leave the child while she went about her work. This was the safest place for a disabled or subnormal child where there was no fire, stairs and chairs about."
    The NSPCC and the police were notified. The child was named as Kevin Halfpenny, a seven-year old boy. He was immediately taken to the Nazareth Lodge Children's Home. While there he was examined by doctors who were horrified to find that he only weighed two stone. His height was a mere 30 inches high and it was claimed that he was suffering from rickets for at least five years due to continual denial of sunlight.
    NSPCC Inspector Alex Mahood gave evidence following his examination of the boy at Nazareth Lodge. He said Kevin looked pale and thin, his arm and leg joints were swollen, and his shin bones were concave in shape. Kevin Halfpenny could only stand without assistance for half a minute and then he fell down on his badly developed legs.
    The medical evidence showed that the child had been suffering from rickets for a long time and Judge Hanna commented that, for four years, the child was kept for at least some periods in this outhouse where there were bags placed over the windows which kept out the light. Rickets can be caused both by a lack of sunlight and a diet without vitamin D. Basil Kelly, who led Mrs Halfpenny's defence, said that she had no other place to leave her child. Apparently, "some of the children were out working and some were at home. Those at home were at school every day. Mrs Halfpenny was faced with the problem therefore of finding a safe place to leave the child while she went about her work. This was the safest place for a disabled or subnormal child where there was no fire, stairs and chairs about."
    Sister Irene Maher of Nazareth House in Cape Town remembers: 'I only met Kevin, the child in question, later in his life. The Sister who admitted him to a Nazareth House at the time related how the boy perched on his cot and cawed like a hen all through the first few weeks following his admission. During my stay there with the group of children, I saw him grow up, responding to love, enjoying music, but at the same time requiring a lot of medical treatment — especially to his legs; in fact, he had to have a great deal of surgery to straighten them. His speech was seriously affected. Kevin left Nazareth House eventually for sheltered employment with the Sisters of Charity.


    Other links I found included this paper as such about the boy by the British journal for developmental disability
    Another newspaper scan online
    In February of this year, Russian care workers discovered a seven-year-old boy in Volgograd whose mother had kept him in a two-room apartment filled with tame birds. She had fed and clothed him, but never spoken to him. A picture of the child was in the newspapers, a slender boy with a face so precisely beautiful it could cut your heart. He could not speak, but reportedly chirped and then agitated his arms like wings when he realised he was not understood.
    A similar story unfolded in 1956 in County Down, Northern Ireland, where a boy called Kevin Halfpenny, also seven, was discovered confined in the hen-house by his mother. He too was unable to speak, but cawed, and the reports of his discovery inspired "Bye-Child", an intensely moving poem by Seamus Heaney. The poem calls him: "Little moon-man/ Kennelled and faithful/ At the foot of the yard". It goes on to describe his release: "But now you speak at last/ With a remote mime/ of something beyond patience".
    The above was from an article released when the poor children of Fritzls were freed

    As I understand it, the chicken coop did not have chickens in it - the boy was just rarely spoken to and and locked up.

    Other cases around the world of similar things.
    This Russian boy was not spoken to and raised with birds.
    Vanya Yudin Russia boy 1
    Vanya Yudin Russian boy 2
    Vanya Yudin Russian boy 3

    Man spent 4 years in chicken coop then tied to a bed for 20 years
    Girl forced to work in a chicken coop
    List of alleged cases of being raised by animals


    It could all be total bollocks, but I bet there have been cases where children have sadly been locked up and treated like animals, and stories have been changed when past on etc.

    Sorry if this seems an over the top reply, but I found it such a sad and curious story.


  • #38
    harry Bailey esq
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,814 ✭✭✭harry Bailey esq


    blade1 wrote: »
    Miley from Wicklow?
    Well Holy God!

    :D:D
    Good old Mick Lally,surely he qualifies as a rural legend.By the way, any idea what the in gods name is an AI office, or an AI inspector for that matter? First I ever heard of them was when i thumbed through this thread.


  • #39
    melissak
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,873 ✭✭✭melissak


    That sounds like something my grandad would have done or at least have thought of doing. He could hold a grudge for generations but in a divilmenty way, for his own amusement. There were a few of them in it though. He was a funny old guy.
    Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »
    The story I heard was about two small farmers in rural East Galway. They fell out in the early 80's about something to do with access to a river for livestock. Didn't speak for the guts of 30 years. Wouldn't even acknowledge each other. Joe had a beautiful spring lamb robbed back in April. It was strange as no body was found, and if there was going to be a theft, then it wouldn't be of just one lamb.

    Two weeks later, his silent neighbour, Peadar, of 30 years comes across the road, says hello and goes down to herd his cattle. Arrives back and approaches the victim of lamb theft. Asks him to put the entire thing behind them, as they are getting old and what happened, happened. News of this spread throughout the village. A famous grudge had ended.

    They make some sort of peace, and eventually even got around to chatting in the weeks after that. It eventually got around to inviting the families to each others homes for dinner. All a bit forced, but that's the way things panned out. Peadar's family were invited to Joe's first. Had a lovely dinner by all accounts if the story is to be believed. After Mass the following Saturday evening was agreed for the week after.

    They arrived into Peadar's after Mass. Headed into the kitchen. What was for dinner? Two big succulent legs of East Galway lamb. Despite Peadar never keeping a lamb in his life. By all account they ate in stony silence.


  • #40
    housetypeb
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,197 ✭✭✭housetypeb


    True cunning at work...
    Back in the day,the local council yard had a big shed type garage for repairing the council machinery,diggers, tractors and trucks etc.
    Some of the local farmers were friendly with the lads working there and would call in to do a quick bit of welding or whatever.
    After time the council noticed that things were disappearing over night,generators,drums of oil,spare parts and so on-but there would be no obvious signs of a break in.
    The big sliding doors were padlocked every night and opened every morning by the foreman.
    Turned out that one of the local farmers would turn up the odd afternoon to shoot the breeze with the lads-and when no one was looking,he would take the open padlock from the door and replace it with his own similar padlock.
    The foreman would close this padlock when leaving,during the night the farmer would show up,open his own padlock with his key and take what he needed,then put the foreman's open padlock back on the door and lock it,ready to be opened by the foreman the next morning.
    Simple and effective.


  • #41
    galljga1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,938 ✭✭✭galljga1


    harry Bailey esq wrote: »
    :D:D
    Good old Mick Lally,surely he qualifies as a rural legend.By the way, any idea what the in gods name is an AI office, or an AI inspector for that matter? First I ever heard of them was when i thumbed through this thread.

    Artificial intelligence. They are experimenting on cows for decades to try and expand their intelligence seeking the one that will bring us to a higher plane.

    Either that or artificial insemination: the bull man.


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  • #42
    Red Kev
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,793 ✭✭✭Red Kev


    housetypeb wrote: »
    True cunning at work...
    Back in the day,the local council yard had a big shed type garage for repairing the council machinery,diggers, tractors and trucks etc.
    Some of the local farmers were friendly with the lads working there and would call in to do a quick bit of welding or whatever.
    After time the council noticed that things were disappearing over night,generators,drums of oil,spare parts and so on-but there would be no obvious signs of a break in.
    The big sliding doors were padlocked every night and opened every morning by the foreman.
    Turned out that one of the local farmers would turn up the odd afternoon to shoot the breeze with the lads-and when no one was looking,he would take the open padlock from the door and replace it with his own similar padlock.
    The foreman would close this padlock when leaving,during the night the farmer would show up,open his own padlock with his key and take what he needed,then put the foreman's open padlock back on the door and lock it,ready to be opened by the foreman the next morning.
    Simple and effective.


    It's neither simple, effective or cunning. He's a thieving bastard and nothing else. Of course it's alright because he's stealing from the gubbernment or the council. Fact is, it's stealing from the taxpayer, everything he nicks has to be replaced meaning either higher taxes or less services elsewhere.

    I fcukin despise people like this who just see fit to use and abuse state property as their own.


  • #43
    housetypeb
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,197 ✭✭✭housetypeb


    Ffs, Get over yourself. Nobody is condoning it,and yes, it was a simple and effective way of bypassing the lax security at the time.


  • #44
    paulbok
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,135 ✭✭✭paulbok


    galljga1 wrote: »
    Artificial intelligence. They are experimenting on cows for decades to try and expand their intelligence seeking the one that will bring us to a higher plane.

    Either that or artificial insemination: the bull man.

    The truth is it's Artificial insemination,
    Straight up, no bull


  • #45
    blade1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,776 ✭✭✭✭blade1


    paulbok wrote: »
    The truth is it's Artificial insemination,
    Straight up, no bull

    So it's not a cock and bull story??


  • #46
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,324 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    failinis wrote: »
    It could all be total bollocks, but I bet there have been cases where children have sadly been locked up and treated like animals, and stories have been changed when past on etc.

    Sorry if this seems an over the top reply, but I found it such a sad and curious story.
    Good links there. My dad knew a Guard out west who came across a kinda similar thing back in the late 50's, only in this case it was a girl of about twelve. They had a tip off about a possible poteen still in operation and went out to search this farm. The family were well known and liked and seemed not too bothered and the Guard reckoned it was a false alarm and thought the tip off was odd anyway. However when they went searching the family became increasingly irate and in the end they found this girl locked up in one of the small sheds. They weren't sure if she was mental disabled or ended up that way because of her circumstances. Could barely speak apparently. Dressed in filthily rags, matted hair that sorta thing. At this discovery I gather the family fell to their knees and started praying and wailing. They got a local nurse to take her away, but I dunno what came of her in the end.

    The "bottomless lake" is a very common one. It's also a legend with very deep(no pun) roots in the human psyche, especially the celtic one. They're often thought to hold huge monstrous fish(often giant eels) in their stygian depths and plenty of pub fuelled witnesses can be found to corroborate the beasts. These fish may even be blamed for drowning people whose bodies of course are never found. Haunted fields I've heard of too.

    Many worry about Artificial Intelligence. I worry far more about Organic Idiocy.



  • #47
    Sam Kade
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,309 ✭✭✭✭Sam Kade


    fleet_admiral wrote: »
    That us Jackeens like culchies. We dont, yis are all saps
    Fixed ;)


  • #48
    J DEERE
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 402 ✭✭J DEERE


    Red Kev wrote: »
    It's neither simple, effective or cunning. He's a thieving bastard and nothing else. Of course it's alright because he's stealing from the gubbernment or the council. Fact is, it's stealing from the taxpayer, everything he nicks has to be replaced meaning either higher taxes or less services elsewhere.

    I fcukin despise people like this who just see fit to use and abuse state property as their own.

    Loosen Ur top button ffs. Ya have to admit that's cute hoorism at its best


  • #49
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,050 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Re lakes and 'monsters' there were a couple here that supposedly harboured a 'Nessie' a la Loch Ness and attempts were made at capturing the beasties.
    http://www.bcscc.ca/blog/?p=52

    Another one I heard of was at a railway station in Co Tipperary. Apparantly, the stationmaster's family had a deformed child, so they locked him away during the day and only left him out at night when the neighbours wouldn't see him. One night he got out on the tracks and got hit by the mail train, and ever afterwards rail workers were reluctant to work nights in the signal cabin lest they catch a glimpse of a face peering in through the windows at them.


  • #50
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,050 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    J DEERE wrote: »
    Ya have to admit that's cute hoorism at its best

    Which says a lot about what's wrong with this country. Sneaking regard for the stroke-puller, despite the fact that he's robbing from all of us.


  • #51
    pq0n1ct4ve8zf5
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,070 ✭✭✭✭pq0n1ct4ve8zf5


    The old guy who lived on what's now my parents' land before they bought it was a notorious...eccentric. He was a bachelor, last of his line and totally anti-social.

    One of the neighbours cycled out to check on him one time, Tom had always been telling him don't bother your arse coming out here on that stupid bike annoying me I'm grand. Neighbour left the bike at the gate to go look for him round the back and when he came back Tom had knocked the bike over and was hopping up and down on it roaring at him.

    Wasn't a big mass goer, which would have been unusual at the time. The priest called out to him to have a talk about it and also to ask for the annual dues (Tom was also a well known miser), he left him the envelope and said bring it in next time you're coming to mass. Tom dropped the envelope back to him the next day. Wasn't money in it though. It was human shít.

    He eventually died in a house fire. My mam's a psychotherapist and she says from the stories we've heard (if they're true) she wouldn't be surprised if he was bi-polar or even schizophrenic. He's buried about a mile from the house, I keep the grave up from time to time. Any man who in the 1970s would shít in an envelope and give it to a priest is worth remembering I guess.


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  • #52
    Samaris
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,544 ✭✭✭Samaris


    Uriel Harsh Cantaloupe wrote: »
    Any man who in the 1970s would shít in an envelope and give it to a priest is worth remembering I guess.

    That is pretty amazing.


  • #53
    melissak
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,873 ✭✭✭melissak


    A lot of old people had the opinion that badgers are more dangerous than they are. That they attack and sometimes kill grown men. I have never encountered anyone who was ever attacked by one.


  • #54
    mikom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,391 ✭✭✭✭mikom


    melissak wrote: »
    A lot of old people had the opinion that badgers are more dangerous than they are. That they attack and sometimes kill grown men. I have never encountered anyone who was ever attacked by one.

    Dead men tell no tales............


  • #55
    failinis
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,691 ✭✭✭failinis


    melissak wrote: »
    A lot of old people had the opinion that badgers are more dangerous than they are. That they attack and sometimes kill grown men. I have never encountered anyone who was ever attacked by one.

    Oh I highly doubt they could kill someone, unless the wound got infected or they nicked a major blood vessel.

    I know a man who keeps the local country house (which is now disused) lands in order with his dog and gun.
    They found a badger one evening, and even though his dog was a bird dog it went for the badger and attacked it like mad.
    He did not want to shoot incase he hit his own dog so grabbed the badger as much as he could and got bitten himself.
    They both got away okay, and never went near the sett again. The dog had bandages when I seen him (where I found out what happened) and the guy was bitten on the arm.
    I doubt they would attack for no good reason, but they have a strong set of jaws and claws
    A few people have been bitten by badgers
    Edit: I don't know if its true but a woman kept a badger as a pet and it ended up mauling a child


  • #56
    melissak
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,873 ✭✭✭melissak


    True...
    mikom wrote: »
    Dead men tell no tales............


  • #57
    melissak
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,873 ✭✭✭melissak


    I'm sure a lot of animals could hurt you if cornered etc it just seems a bit over feared. An old guy in a pub said his friend came across one on the way home one night and a badger attacked him and threw him over the ditch bike and all. He was probably pissed and lied to his wife about how he broke his bike though in fairness.
    failinis wrote: »
    Oh I highly doubt they could kill someone, unless the wound got infected or they nicked a major blood vessel.

    I know a man who keeps the local country house (which is now disused) lands in order with his dog and gun.
    They found a badger one evening, and even though his dog was a bird dog it went for the badger and attacked it like mad.
    He did not want to shoot incase he hit his own dog so grabbed the badger as much as he could and got bitten himself.
    They both got away okay, and never went near the sett again. The dog had bandages when I seen him (where I found out what happened) and the guy was bitten on the arm.
    I doubt they would attack for no good reason, but they have a strong set of jaws and claws
    A few people have been bitten by badgers
    Edit: I don't know if its true but a woman kept a badger as a pet and it ended up mauling a child


  • #58
    failinis
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,691 ✭✭✭failinis


    melissak wrote: »
    I'm sure a lot of animals could hurt you if cornered etc it just seems a bit over feared. An old guy in a pub said his friend came across one on the way home one night and a badger attacked him and threw him over the ditch bike and all. He was probably pissed and lied to his wife about how he broke his bike though in fairness.

    Ha, that story sounded a bit exaggerated but yeah, I am sure a badger would go for someone if you got between it and its children or just scared the thing.


  • #59
    harry Bailey esq
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,814 ✭✭✭harry Bailey esq


    galljga1 wrote: »
    Artificial intelligence. They are experimenting on cows for decades.
    Either that or artificial insemination:

    Just as I feared,may lord have mercy on us all :eek:


  • #60
    Wibbs
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,324 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    melissak wrote: »
    I have never encountered anyone who was ever attacked by one.
    Actually I know a chap who was attacked by one in the UK. Well, "attacked" is too strong a word. It did charge at at him one night when he arrived home late. He got outa his car and this badger took umbrage for some reason and went hissing and snarling at him. Needless to say he legged it into the house and the badger wandered off quite happy with itself. :D

    Many worry about Artificial Intelligence. I worry far more about Organic Idiocy.



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  • #61
    _Brian
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,989 ✭✭✭✭_Brian


    galljga1 wrote: »

    Either that or artificial insemination: the bull man.

    Actually AI & "the bull man" are different.
    The bull man, which are pretty much gone now, was some guy who owned a top quality bull, when you had a cow in heat you could ring him, and he would bring his bull to your farm and the cow and bull would make happy-happy and baby calves resulted..

    The AI man fulfills a similar function but no bull is made happy.

    Incidentally, the last "bull man" I remember here locally was gored to death by the bull, occupational hazard I suppose, something the AI man doesn't worry about I suppose.


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