IRISH TIMES ODDITIES: LEGLESS MAN'S FEAT OF ARMSA legless man, who walked through the streets of Dundalk on his hands last Saturday, was followed by a large and surprised crowd, writes Allen Foster.
He wore sandals on his hands, and was accompanied by a goat, harnessed to a small cart, containing camping equipment and cooking utensils. Civic Guards were engaged in regulating the traffic and keeping the crowds moving to enable this athlete to proceed on his way. He is said to be an ex-officer of a Canadian regiment, who lost both his legs in World War I, and to be engaged on a walk from Dublin to Belfast for a wager.
March 12th, 1927
PORTUGUESE CASE
A few days ago a man was attacked by another, and was found lying in the road by a friend, who helped him to the nearest inn and afterwards to a first-aid station. On the way the friend asked the wounded man who had attacked him, and he understood the reply to be, "My brother". The wounded man died almost immediately in hospital, and the friend, anxious that the murderer should not go unpunished, told his story to the police. The dead man's brother was arrested, but it was easily proved that he was not the guilty party. The police officer investigating the case then thought that the friend might have misunderstood the dying man and that instead of "my brother" the latter had said "thy brother"; so the friend's brother was arrested, and eventually confessed to the crime. When the dead man's friend found that he had been the unconscious means of delivering his own brother to the police, he hanged himself. When the news of this second tragedy reached the murderer in prison, the fact that he had been the cause of two deaths so worked on his conscience that he also hanged himself.
October 21st, 1929
WHALE CAUGHT IN FISHING NETS
While a number of Inniskea fishermen were fishing off the coast of north Mayo during the weekend, a large whale appeared on the scene, and, becoming entangled in the nets, completely destroyed them. In order to save their lives, the fishermen had to cast their nets adrift. In a few cases, where vain efforts were made to save their property, the fishermen had narrow escapes from drowning. The whale, in trying to extricate itself, only became more entangled. The fishermen fled from the scene, but, cautiously returning some time afterwards, found the dead body of the whale floating on the surface.
October 17th, 1927
GIRL KILLED BY FALL OF GRAVESTONE
While arranging flowers on the family grave in Augsburg, Bavaria, yesterday, a 16-year-old girl was killed by the stone cross, weighing three hundredweight, which suddenly fell upon her. A girl friend, aged 18, who accompanied her, was also pinned down under the cross, and is in a dangerous condition.
November 4th, 1930
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Identical twin brothers are on trial in Havana as counter-revolutionaries because the authorities are not certain which one they want.
Forty-two-year-olds Herminio and Carlos Pino Lopez are among 140 prisoners facing a military court at the Cabana fortress, in the biggest trial of alleged subversives since Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba a year ago. Both men are bald, with identical horseshoes of grey hair framing their pates, and both have black moustaches and wear horn-rimmed glasses. The Cuban government is satisfied that one of the Pinos was an active campaigner against Fidel Castro. The police, not being certain of which one, arrested them both.
January 25th, 1960
Culled from the archives of The Irish Times, available online at www.ireland.com/archive.