Lough
Ree may be the most recognized amongst Irish 'monster-haunts' but
few seem to realize how ancient the tradition actually is. A passage
in Life of St. Mochua of Balla tells of a hunting party refusing
to pursue a stag that had fled to an island on account of
"a horrible monster that infested the lake, and was accustomed
to destroy swimmers." One hunter decided to chance a
swim and arrived on the island without incident, but "as
he was returning the beast devoured him."
Indication
of a 20th century monster in Lough Ree were seemingly blank blank until one well
publicized incident broke what had otherwise been an informal code of
silence. The incident in
this case is perhaps the most famous of all Irish reports as it involved
a total of three witnesses whose vocation elevated the issue of credibility
to a new height.
Father Quigly, Father Murray and Father Burke were all familiar with Lough Ree
and at the time fishing off Holly Point. It was 9:30pm on May
18, 1960 on a warm summery evening when one of them pointed towards
an unusual object about 100 yards away exclaiming, "Do you see
what I see?"
"Lough
Ree Monster Sighted!"
The
Westmeath Independent broke the story on May 28th, 1960 with
front-page headlines reading "Lough Ree Monster Sighted!"
In an interview with one of the paper's senior reporters one of the
priests stated the following:
"It was moving. It went down under the water and came
up again in the form of a loop. The length from the end of the
coil to the head was 6 feet. There was about 18 inches of head
and neck over the water. The head and neck were narrow in comparison
to the thickness of a good-sized salmon. It was getting its
propulsion from underneath the water, and we did not see all of it."
A drawing of the
animal by one of
the priests.
(© Peter Costello In Search of Lake
Monsters 1974)
The
testimony of three clergymen was more than enough to create a local
stir which quickly poured out from Athlone and seized the attention
of the country's leading newspapers. After the BBC caught wind
of the matter the story went international appearing in multiple languages.
Letter
to the Inland Fisheries Trust:
"....its
identification poses a most interesting problem."
Recognizing the importance of their observation the trio submitted
a detailed report to the Inland Fisheries Trust:
There
were two sections above the water; a forward section of uniform
girth, stretching quite straight out of the water and inclined at
the plane of the surface at about 30 °, in length about 18-24 inches.
The diameter of this long leading section we would estimate to be
about 4 inches. At its extremity which we took to be a serpent-like
head, it tapered rather abruptly to a point.
Between the leading and the following sections of this creature,
there intervened about two feet of water. The second section
seemed to us to be a tight, roughly semi-circular loop. This
portion could have been a hump or a large knob on the back of a
large body under the surface that was being propelled by flippers.
As to the dimensions of this section, if a loop we should say the
girth of a large fifteen pound salmon; if however, a round hump.
. . we should put its base at about 18 inches. . . We would estimate
the overall length to the two visible sections, measured along the
surface from tip of snout to end of hump, at about 6 feet.
The movement along the water was steady. There was no apparent
disturbance of the surface, so that propulsion seemed to come from
a well-submerged portion of the creature. There was no undulation
of its body above the water. It was cruising at a very leisurely
speed, and was apparently unconcerned about our presence.
We watched it moving along the surface for a period of two or three
minutes in a north-easterly direction. It was going towards
the shore; then it submerged gradually rather than dived, and disappeared
from view completely. Another couple of minutes later it reappeared
still following the same course. . . It reached a point 30 yards
offshore, where it submerged and we saw it no more.
Elsewhere
in the letter it was stated:
"One
ought not, of course, to assume that the answer to the problem is
some completely unknown creature....nevertheless we are in this
case convinced that what we saw was not a pike or otter, or any
other fish or animal familiar to us, nor was it some inanimate object
such as a tree branch carried by a current in this part of the lake....
We were convinced that what we saw was a living creature and we
feel that its identification poses a most interesting problem."
Despite
the optimism and excitement surrounding the prospect of Ireland boasting
its own counterpart to the Loch Ness Monster, not even priests were
immune from the all too predictable onslaught of debunkment.
Listed amongst the various and sometimes colorful explanations were
inline-swimming otters, a row of ducks or a configuration of several pike
entangled upon a hook line.
Stories
Begin to Surface
While
some sought to slay
the Lough Ree creature as a case of misidentification, it didn't take
long for locals to break their long silences on the matter and step
forward with experiences of their own.
One such report told of two men who one evening were walking along
the shore at St. Mark's Bay when they saw what appeared to be calf
swimming in the lake. It had a raised neck about a foot above
the water (this alone disqualifies a calf as they cannot hold their
necks out while swimming) followed by a black hump. After rushing
out on boat to save the calf, the animal submerged.
In Charts of the River Shannon amongst an area of 70 feet deep
water a spot is labeled "unidentified snag". The cause
for this curious marking is the result of a cabin cruiser striking
an unidentified object in mid-channel. The spot was later dragged
but nothing was found.
Paddy Hanley,
a retired postman, added his own experience to the growing collection
of reports in Lough Ree. His experience took place a full 30
years prior to the priests' sighting. While fishing north of
Yew Point at the mouth of Bally Bay, something powerful took his line.
In a somewhat ironic twist, because he was using the strongest fishing
line available on the market at the time ("like a rope")
Hanley found himself being towed about the lake until finally severing
the line. According to Mr. Hanley such a strange occurrence
had been claimed by other fishermen on the lough.
Joining Hanley's account is F.J. Walters who told that while fishing
off Beam Island he'd hooked something using a heavy line. The
'thing' dived rapidly towards the bottom, using up the 70 feet of
line before snapping. Such speed, Walters noted, was impossible
for any fish.
In 1958 two lucky English tourists reportedly had their own experience
on the Lough Ree Monster Ride as they were dragged across the lake
upon hooking something until one finally cut the line.
Two months prior to the priests' sighting a pair of fishermen, Patrick
Ganley and Joseph Quigly, fought with something large that had entered
their pike net. Though they couldn't quite make out what it
was the creature's thrashing reportedly sending up columns of water
six feet in the air. It was "strong as a horse" and
after finally escaping left a nine-foot hole in the relatively new
net.
COSTELLO, Peter In Search Of Lake Monsters (p.136-141)
[Berkley Medallion Books 1974]
Lough
Ree 2001
For
five days in June of 2001 a three-man team representing GUST (Global
Underwater Search Team) conducted an "expedition" into Lough
Ree searching for any indications of current lough monster presence
through surface monitoring and the deployment of a hydrophone. The
team consisted of GUST leader and founder Jan Sundberg of Sweden along
with Espen Samuelsen of Norway and myself, at the time on leave from
the U.S. Marines.
Two
events transpired that were later announced as to have possible relevance
to the Lough Ree Monster. One was a peculiar sound Jan detected
with the hydrophone that he stated as being quite similar to sounds
heard on previous expeditions in Norway. The second was an observation
had by Jan and briefly noticed by Espen, involving a small, dark tube-like
object seen swimming away from a small island. The object was
being propelled by something beneath the surface.
During
our time in and around Athlone I tried my best at asking locals what
they recalled as far as stories sightings in the lake. The response
always defaulted to the famous sighting by the priests but I acquired
an impression that most were assuming we knew more about the matter
than they did and therefore didn't know what else they could contribute.
Eventually one lakeshore resident mentioned something about a story
that had been circulating during the 1970s regarding a sighting of
an animal swimming like a dolphin near a lakeside hotel.
On
a later occasion while socializing at a resort's pub someone referred
to a particular time when either American or Canadian tourists had
come ashore from a boat trip thinking that they'd encountered a snapping
turtle. Apparently something below the surface had seized an
oar in its jaws. The behavior was deemed as unlikely for a pike
but at the same time there are no known native turtles in Ireland
leaving question as to exactly what kind of animal had bit the oar.
Midland
Water-Horse?
Not
until the final evening of my stay (Jan and Espen were to continue
for a few more days) did it became apparent my inquiries themselves
were misguided. While out on the lake with a local acquaintance
we'd made I asked if he was familiar with the term water-horse.
Previously he'd commented that all he had ever heard of the Lough
Ree Monster was regarding the sighting by the three priests.
But in reference to "water-horse" his response was quite
unexpected. He stated that growing up they'd heard of folks
seeing them in parts of the lake but had assumed they were
mistaking cattle swimming from the islands. That very well may
have been the case but what's significant here is how the term "water-horse"
was deemed so distinctive that it failed to register within inquiries
regarding "lake monsters." How many others would have
likewise been able to recall stories from past years of water-horse
sightings but otherwise were unfamiliar with reports of a "monster"?
The otherwise absence of recent reports does not necessarily imply
an absence of recent sightings. Still, even with the consistent
media attention centered on the GUST "expedition" it would
appear that no new sightings were brought forward despite the inviting
atmosphere. At least none that we came to hear of.
Postcard reads: The
Lough Ree Monster Comes To Town
Peistes@Yahoo.com
