Tall tales, urban legends and spoofers

Muahahaha wrote: »

yeah Ive a mate from Mayo and he thinks the whole team bus passing a funeral cortege and the priests curse thing is an urban myth. However he said his parents are quite religious and his dad genuinely believes that there is a curs. He has taken Mayos recent losses in All Ireland finals as proof of this and he genuinely believes they wont win one again until the two remaining team members from the 1951 winning team have passed away.

He was saying there would be a fair few people in the county who believe in it and he wonders has it effected members of the team who might believe it and then it become a self fulfilling prophecy as they believe they cant win because of this curse. Its mad stuff really

KevRossi wrote: »

The 9/11 thing happened to Sarah Ferguson, she worked for some charity at the time and they had an actual office in the towers. She was due into work that day at some stage.


The Mayo team didn't pass a funeral in Foxford, a journalist with the Connacht Tribune checked the story out and no deaths or burials were recorded in the area at the time. Possibly happened somewhere.

Then there was a curse on the Clare team stating they would never win an All Ireland unless every player on the team was a bachelor. They didn't win it from 1913 to 1994 and that team had indeed no married men on it.

Muahahaha wrote: »

It happened a few celebs too, Mark Whalberg had a ticket for one of the 9/11 planes but didnt take the flight, instead at the last minute he had a spontaneous idea and chartered a private plane with friends and they all went to a film festival in Toronto.

Seth McFarlane was also due to be on one of the 911 flights, he was hungover and got to the airport to be told the gate was closed and he had missed his flight. He's said there was another passenger there who also missed it and they booked on the next one but while waiting in the lounge they saw the flight they were supposed to be on fly into the second tower live on tv.

It was also claimed years later that Michael Jackson was due at a meeting near the top floors of one of the twin towers but he was up late the night before and slept in and missed it. Michael never said anything about it at the time or before his death, instead his brother Jermaine claimed it happened in a book he wrote years later. Im not sure that one is true, it sounds more like a ruse to get publicity for the book sales.

ciaran76 wrote: »

Another one I heard a few versions of is of school tours stealing a penguin from Dublin zoo.
Heard it was a 6/7/8/12/14 years old.

Heard it again last year from my nephew as he was convinced it happened to the 2nd years in his school !

Basically its a school tour of and one the kids take a penguin. The kids are told go draw an animal so they have time on their own or some reason to be on their own and they take the penguin then.

When he gets home, the boy goes straight upstairs to have a bath. All of a sudden, a very strange, disturbing noise comes from the bathroom. A parent charge upstairs, burst through the door to be confronted by 14 year old son and… a penguin.

He caught a penguin, put it in his backpack and brought it home

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Someone did steal a penguin a few years ago.

It was in the news

A penguin was found on the street in Dublin today after being stolen from the zoo in a suspected prank.

The female penguin was kidnapped by a gang of men at about 8am from the Phoenix Park and discovered several hours later a few miles away in the north inner city.

It is believe the men broke in to the zoo before carrying her out and making off in a taxi.

The penguin at the centre of the kidnap ordeal was a 10-year-old female called Kelli. She is a Humboldt, a small breed native to parts of South America, mainly Chile. It is understood the penguin was tracked through a microchip, fitted to all animals in the zoo.

Gardaí were alerted to the theft this morning.

In a statement, Dublin Zoo described the theft as an annoyance and “not amusing”.

“Dublin Zoo confirms that a penguin which had been missing has been returned,” a zoo official said.

“The penguin went missing this morning at 8am but due to the security measures that are in place at Dublin Zoo and the rapid response of gardaí, the penguin was soon recovered and returned.

“Dublin Zoo was naturally relieved that the animal was returned safe and unharmed and back at the zoo. We wish to underline our annoyance at this incident.

“The welfare and health of all animals is our primary concern and this kind of incident is not frivolous and certainly not something amusing.”

Zoo staff thanked the gardaí for their help in tracing the stolen animal and said she was none the worse for her outing after being safely returned to her enclosure.

There were no reports of any damage to zoo property.