You might wonder what the legend of the Lough Derg "Monster" has to do with a blog about archaeology and heritage. However I think the stories appearance in the Irish Folklore Commissions schools manuscripts qualifies it. It means the story of a monster in Lough Derg dates to at least the 1930s.
Reading through them I found this story about the Lough Derg Monster from a school in Ennis.
"Long ago in the time of the Fianna a huge monster lived in Lough Derg. He had caused great havoc in in the neighbourhood and no one could approach the lake except when he was asleep. He had also eaten about thirty people.
When Fionn heard this he made up his mind to kill the monster. He then got the Fianna ready and set out in the direction of Lough Derg. When they arrived the monster began to splash the water until they were all drenched.
They then waited until he was asleep and they went to the Lough again. They made no noise this time. They were not there when be began to yawn. This gave Fionn an idea. He got his spear ready and waited until he began to yawn again and with one mighty leap he jumped into the monsters mouth. He stuck his spear down the monsters neck and before he could close his mouth he was standing on the shore.
The monster beld to death and his blood reddned the lake. After this it was know as Lough Dearg which changed to Lough Derg after a while."
I also recall reading another version of the story on duchas.ie from Newport in Tipperary and it is detailed here and I have included the text at the end of the page. (https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922159/4857068)
Growing up near Lough Derg, I never heard any folklore relating to a lake monster in the lake. As someone who had an interest in all things "mysterious" growing up and an avid watcher of Arthur C. Clarke's programmes I would have been delighted to hear that the lake had a legend of a monster. Link to the episode "Monsters of the Lakes" including 3 Irish priests in a boat on Lough Ree talking about something they saw there (from 10.40).
I knew the approximate time frame of the Irish Folklore Commissions survey was between 1937-1938. I wondered was there any other event relating to a lake monster in the news in the 1930s?
It was in 1933 that the Loch Ness Monster story broke to the world wide press. Seemingly the story was a media phenomena at the time attracting interest from all over the world A search of www.irishnewsarchive.com shows 40 newspapers reports in Irish newspapers during the year 1933. Could this be a case of foreign folklore have influenced local Irish folklore and been recorded in the Irish Folklore Commissions schools manuscripts? If you see the story from Newport school (at the end of the page) it seems more like a story than real folklore.
As an archaeologist friend said to me "folklore is only hearsay" and I suppose you have to be able to tell the real folklore from the made up. That said from reading the Irish Folklore Commission's manuscripts relating to Tipperary the folklore does hold up surprisingly well.
As an aside I also checked a book called "The Mystery Animals of Ireland" and it actually has a section on sightings of something in/on the lake. Sighting included one in 1961 by Lady Talbot of Malahide while fishing. In water of less than thirty feet near Bushy Island on the Mountshannon shore Lady Talbot and her gilly thought they struck something in the water which knocked them off their feet and they thought that whatever they hit "reacted".
Another sighting from 1980 was by a James Minogue who lived near Mountshannon and saw "a black hump much bigger than any appendage a creature in the lake had any business having near Red Island". Another sighting he had of it was "a black hump 3/4 foot above the surface in calm water, this time near Holy Island".
The book actually says that in 1968/69 a sonar survey was done on the lake by Captain Lionel Leslie (who it says was one of the founders of cryptozoology in Ireland) and a team of researchers and picked up a large contact of something not less than five feet long.
Do these sightings refute my claim that perhaps the folklore relating to the Lough Derg monster was due to foreign folklore influencing Irish folklore?
Was there really folklore from the 1930s relating to a "monster" in the lake or was it just exaggeration from reading newspaper stories about the Loch Ness Monster?
Postscript
In Dark Waters (below) there does appear to have been large pike up to 5ft 6" in length and up to 92 pounds in weight in the 1800s. This could certainly account for some of the sightings.
Video of the Johnstown Monster about a fake lake monster, it was shot around Lough Derg here.
Tradition says he was hydra-headed, and had tentacles like those of a giant
octopus but almost a mile in length, and huge seal like flappers. He was
believed to weigh a hundred tons, and his back was made of shell, like that of
a tortoise. He dwelt beneath the silvery waters of Lough Derg, on the Shannon,
where he used to repose by day. Although he used to lie at the bottom of the
lake, his huge tentacles used sometimes spread over the banks for several
hundred yards, at both sides, and if an unwary human being happened to tread
upon them, these slimy organs would embrace him and drag him to a horrible
doom. The tentacles when spread out, appeared like rough roots of trees, which
sometimes appear above the ground, where the trees are large, and the
surrounding soil shallow.
When the mantle of darkness used to be drawn over Lough Derg, and when the
people of the immediate neighbourhood were deep in slumber, this hideous
creature would creep from its hiding place and visit the local (gray)
graveyards, root up newly made graves, smash the coffins into match wood,
devour the corpses and retreat homeward when fully satisfied.
This went on for a considerable time before the people could diagnose the cause
of this unnatural occurrence. They began to notice at last that these
desecrations used only take place on the night of a funeral to a particular
graveyard. They attributed these occurrences to something supernatural, as
superstition was rife at the time, but a few men who were more materialistic
than their neighbouring fellow-men decided to keep watch at once of the local
graveyards, some night after a burial, and try to find out something practical
for themselves They did so, and their vigil lasted until mid-night, when low
and behold! Their vision encountered a sight too terrible to imagine. The
approach of a mountain like creature, with its numerous heads and eyes which literally
flashed fire, rooted them to the spot and caused the blood to almost freeze in
their veins.
When they recovered their presence of mind, they fled in terror to their homes
and related their tale of horror to their friends and neighbours, who, already
infuriated by the previous happenings declared they would destroy this horrible
monster, on the occasion of his next visit. But, like the mice that decided to
kill the cat, when the time arrived to put this idea into practice, not one man
was able to summon up courage enough to draw the first blood. A mental vision
of what they had to face made them powerless.
Eventually, however, two brothers named Kelly, resolved to do what others did
not do. They got two huge spears made at the Local forge and had them blessed
by a priest. Despite several appeals and warnings from their friends and others
to desist from fighting against such an unequal foe, they were firm in their
resolution to kill the enemy or be killed themselves in the attempt.
They lay in ambush one night after a burial, one at each side of the road. When
the destroyer arrived, he was attacked by one of the Kelly's who hacked off
what appeared to be the monsters principal head. The infuriated monster spread
out his huge tentacles in the direction of the attack and nearly crushed the
heroic attacker to death, with one of them, but his alert brother was quickly
to the rescue and hacked the menacing organ in many places. A crowd of
neighbouring men who were witnessing the fight from far off, and who had not
the courage to strike the first blow, armed themselves with sharp pointed
weapons and joined in the fight, when they saw the success which attended the
efforts of their brave comrades. The monster eyeing that the fight was going
against him, and that he was up, against reasoning minds, and not animal
instinct, sought safety in flight, but owing to his colossal size he was forced
to move slowly and was badly mutilated when he reached his home in the lake, as
his pursuers kept hacking and stabbing him all the time. He did not die for
many days after sinking to the bottom, and the spasmodic movements of what was
left of the horrible creatures body caused huge waves of foam to surge upwards,
and the lake became red with his blood. It is believed that it is for this
reason Lough Derg got its name, 'Derg' being a derivation of the Irish word
'Dearg' which means red.
The Kelly's were hailed as heroic after this great deed of heroism. A beautiful
temple was built as an everlasting monument to their memory. It served its
purpose well, for although it is now a roofless ivy-covered ruin, its
situation, and its picturesque appear- ance would immediately make such an
impression on the mind of the passer-by as to cause him to inquire into its
history, which is indeed a proud and eventful one. (The outstanding feature of
this noble deed of the brothers Kelly and the bearing it had on the name of
their ruin for) Templeahollow is a derivation of the words "Teampall an
Cheallaig" which means in English Kelly's Temple."
Our local fella
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champ_(folklore)