IRISH TIMES ODDITIES
BIRD SWALLOWED HOOK AND FISH
AN INJURED gannet, starving and exhausted, which landed on Tuskar Rock, six miles off Rosslare Harbour, Co Wexford, was befriended by the principal light-keeper, Nicholas Lawlor, and his two colleagues. Apparently the gannet dived to catch a fish attached to an angler's hook and had swallowed both. The fishing line became entangled in the bird's legs, leaving it helpless. The light keepers cut away the line, but were unable to remove the hook from the bird's stomach. They caught fish to feed the gannet and gradually it regained strength. Yesterday they put it into the sea and it swam away.
August 5th, 1976
LIFE PRESERVED BY A WATCH
AT A meeting of the East Riding Militia, a day or two ago, at Westwood, Beverley, one of the spectators of their evolutions had a marvellous escape from death. A private named Harrington neglected, after loading his rifle, to remove his ramrod, and on the firearm being discharged, the rod was shot away and struck a man named Bartle.
Fortunately the end of the rod came in contact with a double-cased silver watch Bartle had in his waistcoat pocket. The watch was shattered to atoms, but to the resistance it offered its owner was indebted for the safety of his life, as, from the force with which the rod struck him, there is no doubt it would have penetrated his body had not the watch warded it off.
The rod, when picked up, was found to have been bent into a zigzag by the force of the collision. Bartle did not suffer beyond feeling an acute pain in the side for a short period.
May 30th, 1862
CROCODILES AS PETS
A LADY IN Paris has left her husband, on officer of the French Colonial Service, because he installed 70 young crocodiles in the bathroom of their flat.
The animals crawled about the house, gave the children nightmares, and generally, were tiresome and inconvenient.
This gentleman's enterprise, although, perhaps, excessive, deserves to take its place among pioneer attempts at the domestication of the wilder animals.
June 1st, 1927
SHEEPDOG MOTHERS HARE
A SHEEPDOG, owned by Mr Thomas A Beck, Lisnarable, Seskinore, Omagh, recently gave birth to puppies, but these were taken from her, and soon afterwards she brought in a young hare, which she is now mothering.
September 8th, 1937
DUBLINER FALLS 7,000 FEET AND LIVES
A DUBLIN man who plunged more than 7,000 feet when his parachute failed to open is very ill in a Hereford hospital. Noel Farrelly, aged 35, who is a civilian worker at Bishopscourt (Co Down) RAF base and radio control centre, hit a tree at Shobdon Airfield, Hereford, breaking his fall after his main parachute failed to open. His reserve parachute only partially opened. Mr Farrelly, who had multiple injuries, is a member of the Irish parachuting team preparing for the Irish champion- ships this weekend and was at Shobdon on a training course. The chief instructor at the Hereford club, Don McCarthy, said: "It's a million to one chance for both chutes to malfunction, but hitting the tree helped to cushion his fall."
April 6th, 1977