21 June 2024 Mysteries of Ireland

 

21 June 2024              Mysteries of Ireland

Yesterday’s blog recounted a simplistic history of Ireland, but today’s blog goes off on a different tangent – fun facts about some of the mysteries surrounding events that have happened in Ireland’s past (some are proven, some unproven, some believable, some not so).  I cannot say that they are all true, but they are fun to read.

The Nutty Night in Dublin

While Dublin slept on the night of 9 May 1867, they were awakened by the sound of objects pelting their rooftops and windows.  The next morning, to their surprise, they found the ground littered with round objects that were bigger than berries and hard as nuts.  No one had seen anything like this before.  As in the past when storms had dumped hundreds of fish on a specific area or a field of hay on another area, the most likely explanation for the round objects that fell was that the whirlwinds of nearby tornado-strength windstorm had sucked up the objects and when the winds subsided, the objects fell all at once to the ground.  While this seems a plausible explanation of how the objects fell, no one has been able prove what the objects actually were.  The most reliable explanation is that they were petrified hazelnuts that had been buried in peat bogs for many hundreds of years and a waterspout had destroyed the bogs and sucked up the debris into the air.  However, no one has ever been able to identify any bog that had been destroyed in such a manner.  And this occurrence has never happened since.

The Red Hail

While driving his horse and buggy in County Down in 1885 a lawyer was caught in a hailstorm.  But this was no ordinary hailstorm – the hail was red.  And when it melted whatever it came into contact with – hands and clothes – was stained red.  No one was ever able to determine what caused the red hail and the occurrence still remains unsolved.

The Bones Mystery

While excavating the Knockarea Cave in 2014, archaeologists uncovered 13 bones deep inside the most inaccessible corner of the cave.  While first believing that they were a father and son buried there, an examination determined that the bones came from a man that was 5,500 years old and a child that was 5,200 years old.  The archaeologists then decided that the cave must have been used as a holding place for bodies to decompose before being buried in their final resting place.  However, the place where the bones were found had no clear exit and there was no evidence that any other bodies had been placed there.  While the “what” that was buried there has been solved, the “why” still remains a mystery.

The Mysterious Adze (A Stone Ax Head)

When archaeologists uncovered the oldest burial in Ireland by the River Shannon in County Limerick, they found the cremated human remains (dating back 9,000 years) and a beautifully shaped adze (an ancient cutting tool similar to an ax).  As it showed no sign of ever having been used, scientists determined that it had been made as a symbolic offering to the person buried there.  What was truly amazing and cannot be explained is who made this instrument.  Why – because the next such adze did not appear again for 3,000 years.

A Field of Gold and Jewelry

While plowing their fields in Northern Ireland in 1896, farmers found gold, a heavy bowl, a sailing ship, and several pieces of jewelry.  After cleaning them up, they sold some of the pieces without realizing that they most likely were from the Iron Age.  While these objects have been printed on stamps and seals as examples of early Irish craftsmanship, two of the objects (loop-in-loop chain necklaces) were not Irish, but were either Sicilian, Roman, or Etruscan.  No one has ever been able to determine why or how they got there.

The Stowaway Artist

One very early morning in 1941, dockworkers in Dublin were awakened by an eerie knocking sound, but no ships had come in that evening.  One of the dockworkers traced the noise to a shipping container.  When he opened it, he found a French artist, lying upside down in a pile of plaster.  It seems to save money, the artist had made a plaster cast of himself (to protect himself from being jostled on the trip to Dublin), and then locked himself inside the crate.  When the container was off-loaded in Dublin, the workers just threw it off the ship and it landed upside down where the artist remained until someone heard his knocking.

The Magic Hill

There is a hill outside of Waterford (on the way to Mahon Falls) that seems to have a mind of its own.  After driving almost to the bottom and putting your car in neutral, it appears you do not roll down the hill but that you start inching back up the hill.  This is not magic but an optical illusion.  At this point of the hill, the horizon is not visible in any direction and the landscape itself undulates.  While it appears the road is going downhill, it is actually going up a slight incline.

From past experience on our many OAT tours, our Trip Leaders also have fascinating stories and legends about the places we visit.  Hopefully, this Trip Leader has some interesting (believable and unbelievable) stories that I will be able to pass on to you.