IRISH TIMES ODDITIES:A WEALTHY BEGGAR
While Thomas Mulrennan, licensed pedlar, of Castlerea, Co Roscommon, was having a night's rest on a casual's ticket in Mayo County Home, civic guards took charge of a bicycle which they found chained to the railings of the parish church.
In a parcel of old clothing on the machine they found evidence that the owner had £1,500 on deposit in the post office. Next day Mulrennan claimed his property. When prosecuted at Castlebar yesterday for begging and obtaining food and lodgings by false pretences, he was missing. Having been informed by the guards that Mulrennan had been seen on the previous day at Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, District Justice Coyne sentenced him to a month's imprisonment for begging.
April 13th, 1944
HUNTER CHOKED LEOPARD
A Malawi hunter, Mdwandwa Musichili, fought with an enraged and wounded leopard and finally won by ramming his fist down the animal's throat, choking it to death, according to the official Malawi news agency. The fight happened recently at Mzuzu, 310 miles north of Blantyre, after the leopard had been wounded in the hunter's trap.
After a savage tussle in which Musichili was severely clawed on the back and legs, he hurled the animal to the ground and killed it. He is reported to be doing well in hospital.
January 3rd, 1967
STRIKE DELAYS ANIMALS FOR NOAH'S ARK
Hundreds of animals on their way to enter Noah's Ark were held up in the Alps yesterday by an Italian rail strike. A spokesman for film producer Dino de Laurentiis said that 13 boxcars for the ark sequence in his film The Bible were held up at the Italo-Swiss border town of Chiasso. The animals, including lions, leopards and elephants, were on their way from a West German circus when caught in Italy's current labour upheaval.
November 11th, 1964
A DOG STORY
Sir, The following true incident may interest your readers. During the occupancy of the "Black and Tans" three lorryfuls of these gentlemen were one day passing through a certain village in the west of Ireland at their usual breakneck speed. A little child of 15 months, just able to toddle, was on the road. The girl who had charge of the child ran out towards it, but to her horror the child ran away from her, right in front of the first of the lorries.
The sheep-dog belonging to the family was lying on the opposite side of the road. He immediately dashed out, seized the child by its clothes and drew it back into safety, holding it until all three of the lorries had passed. Surely this was something more than mere instinct. Two distinct cats of reasoning must have influenced the thoughts of the dog - first, that this monstrous thing speeding along the road was a danger to the child; secondly, that, although the child was saved from the first lorry, it would not be safe for it until all three had passed, and so he must retain his hold of the child. - Yours, etc.
"A Dog Lover."
Co Galway.
October 30th, 1923