Stories of evil water monsters are part of Irish legend and the reports have not come solely from 20th century witnesses who might be jealous of Nessie's fame and hope to encourage tourists to visit Ireland's lakes. St. Patrick tricked the monster of a southern Irish lough into imprisoning itself beneath a large vat, while St. Colman of Dromore rescued a girl who was swallowed by a monster while washing her nightdress in a pool. From the number of old legends and stories that mention lake monsters, it is clear that belief in them was widespread.
Sometimes monsters called piast, peiste, payshtha, ollphiast or ullfish, these water demons were said to be horse-like- hence another name still used today, horse-eel. It come from traditions of water horses, which look so much like real horses that people seeing them often mistook them for land horses. Legend tells that, in County Cavan, enchanted water horses would come out of Lough Ramor at night and graze on the oats in a farmer's field. He managed to catch a foal and trained it to work on his farm, but one evening as he rode it beside the lake, the water horses neighed and the foal plunged into the water, carrying the farmer with it. Neither was seen again. The same fate befell a boy working near Lough Caogh in County Leitrim, who captured what he thought was a stray horse and used it to harrow a field. After a while it ran back into the lake, taking harrow and boy with it.
Although such stories as these are farfetched and should not be considered as descriptions of actual events, they may indicate that people in past centuries saw monsters in the loughs just as people do today and that, observing horse-like features, they wove tall tales around the facts.
Some of the factual reports that follow liken the appearance of the monster's head to a horse's, but sometimes from a distance even today's monsters look entirely horse-like. Patrick Canning saw what he described as "A lovely black foal" beside Lough Shanakeever in County Galway around 1955. He had gone to fetch his donkey out of the rain and from about 180 metres he saw a black animal, the size of a foal, circling round the donkey. It had a long neck and he also saw a head with ears. As he approached, it went into the water. Lough Shanakeever is th scene of many other sightings; these will be described later. Meanwhile, here are reports of some of the monsters that have been see in the loughs around Ireland.
It is always possible that a monster may attack witnesses - and this thought evidently went through the mind of Georgina Carberry, who with friends saw a monster in Lough Fadda, County Galway in 1954. Miss Carberry was the librarian at Clifden and in the 1960's she told monster hunter F.W. Holiday about her frightening experience. She and her three friends were on a fishing expedition to the small lough - 2.4 kilometres long and only 550 metres at its widest point - and by the time they pulled their boat on shore for a tea break, they had caught several trout. Then one of the four noticed what looked at first like a man swimming in the water. But as it slowly got closer, they could see that it looked like nothing they knew.
When it was only 18 metres away, they apprehensively moved back from the water's edge. Miss Carberry remembered the creature's open mouth quite clearly - "a huge great mouth", which was white inside. The monster's body was "wormy... creepy" and "seemed to have movement all over it all the time". The head stood high above the water on a long neck and as the watchers moved back the creature dived round a rock, showing a forked tail. When it surfaced further up the lake, they could see two humps out of the water behind its head. The shock of the sighting caused Miss Carberry to have nightmares for weeks afterwards.
Such a reaction is not surprising, of course. Most of us could not easily cope with a sudden encounter with an unknown monster. Its horrible appearance and its apparent intention, as it heads open-mouthed towards the witness, of grabbing a quick meal of tasty human flesh, are enough to give anyone nightmares. But the monster that swims towards lake-shore watchers may only be curious, like cows that wander across a field to stare at people. The monsters are also likely to be harmless herbivores.
The Irish loughs where lake monsters have been seen are very small – too small, it might seem, to support large mysterious creatures. But would-be monster catchers face fewer problems in searching one of these than in confronting Loch Ness, a huge body of water, 35 kilometres long.
During the 1960's, the number of sighting reports increased, perhaps because of a generally growing interest in lake monsters. Some investigators visited the Irish loughs to carry out experiments and they also talked to local people who had seen strange animals.
F.W. Holiday, who researched deeply into lake monsters, wrote that there are "a least 50 credible accounts" of monsters seen on land. But there is a lack of food for as many monsters in small Irish loughs and the failure of determined hunters to prove conclusively the existence of even one lake monster after years of concentrated effort make him wonder whether these monsters are not just large aquatic animals, but might also have a paranormal aspect.
On numerous occasions monsters appeared immediately after observers had put their cameras away or else the cameras jammed. The comment he made in 1976 is still relevant, "Monsters are certainly a fact; but they are not the sort of fact we first supposed".
Why then those monsters are almost always seen by people who are not expecting them, who react by running away and who never have a camera to hand? Because so many of the loughs are small and remote, they are rarely visited, unlike Loch Ness, which has 65 kilometres of motor road around it, frequently patrolled by goggle-eyed tourists. It is usually local people or fishermen who see the Irish lough monsters - no one else visits the loughs.
Story 1
On 18th of May 1960, three Dublin priests fishing in the waters of Lough Ree watched a long-necked, flat-headed animal swimming in the water only 90 Metres away. It was a warm, calm evening and the men saw the creature quite clearly. The head and neck, between 45 and 60 centimetres long, were separated by about 60 centimetres of water from another part of the body that could have been a hump on the back of a large creature beneath the water surface. They watched for two or three minutes as the creature swam slowly towards the shore. It gradually submerged, reappearing a couple of minutes later and then disappearing again 27 Metres from the shore.
Story 2
Two local men, Michael McNulty and John Cooney, came upon the monster at night on 1st of May 1968, while driving home. As they passed the lough, a strange creature ran across the road only a few yards ahead of the car and then disappeared into the thick undergrowth. They could see it clearly in the car's headlights and what they saw made the driver step on the accelerator, with no thought of stopping to investigate! It was 2 to 3 metres long and about 75 centimetres tall, the animal had a long thick tail, a long neck and a head like a sheep or greyhound. It was a shiny dark brown in colour and as it ran it rocked from side to side.
Only a week later, 15-year-old Gay Dever saw the monster in daylight. He was cycling by Sraheens Lough when he heard a splashing noise on the shore. Stopping to look, he was amazed to see a large black animal crawling out of the water. It was much bigger than a horse and had a long neck, a sheep like head, a tail and four legs, the hind ones being the biggest. Gay Dever's reaction was to leave the scene without delay. Two days later, the monster was allegedly seen yet again, by two girls trying to hitchhike home to Achill Sound. They were waiting near the lough and as a car stopped for them, one of the girls turned back towards the lough. By the light of the full Moon she and the driver saw a monster.
Story 3
In the 1960's a researcher in the lake monsters of Connemara in County Galway, Captain Lionel Leslie tried some experiments in monster raising. His first was in October 1965 at lough Fadda, where Georgina Carberry had a clear sighting of a "creepy" monster while fishing in 1954. Captain Leslie got permission to detonate gelignite at Lough Fadda. His intention was to create a large shock-wave that would disturb the monster and cause it to surface. He set 2 kilograms of explosive against the rock where Miss Carberry had seen the monster at close range. Ten seconds after it exploded, the Captain and his companions saw a large, blackish object surface amid much splashing about 45 Metres away. Unfortunately not much detail could be seen because of the splashing, but they saw enough to convince them that there was a monster in the lake, still very much alive.
