Ireland's Eye: What's going on in the old sod this week

A look at news from around Ireland

Snake in the Graveyard

Gardai (police) were called to apprehend an unexpected visitor in West Clare after a woman reported an unusual apparition while she prayed in Kilmihil Graveyard.  The woman contacted Gardai at about lunchtime on Friday, September 16 and reported seeing a snake in the cemetery.

Upon arriving at the scene Gardai caught and detained the four-foot corn snake but not before calling the Clare branch of the Irish Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA).

“It is not an ideal situation for a person, who could maybe have a phobia, to go into a graveyard and see a snake,” said Frankie Coote, inspector with Clare ISPCA.

“The Gardai got in touch with me and enquired about the protocol for dealing with a snake. I explained that the main thing is to exercise caution and take a photo so that we could identify him. We would then examine the photograph, take it to a pet shop or look on the Internet to see what type it is.

“There was an incident a few years ago when a poisonous snake was loose in Ireland and bit someone, so you have to be careful.”

The corn snake is native to the southeastern part of North America and can live 20 to 25 years in captivity. They are often found in woodlands, meadows and abandoned buildings inhabited by mice and rodents.

According to Garth de Jong, reptile expert and Dublin zookeeper, the four-foot snake found in Kilmihil has little growing left to do.

“That would be a decent size. I’d say it is definitely an adult. That snake would be eating adult mice, maybe small birds comfortably. It could even manage a decent-sized rat if it was hungry enough.

“They constrict the rodents and squeeze the life out of it before eating them. They don’t have venom to kill their prey so they are fairly inoffensive,” he said.

De Jong says the reptile trade in Ireland is “booming” and believes there may be “hundreds” of snakes kept as pets in Clare alone.

“It seems likely that this was an escaped pet or a dumped pet. Corn snakes are very common in the pet trade.  Reptiles are a lot less demanding than a cat or dog or an aquarium full of fish.

“There are probably hundreds of reptiles being kept as pets in Clare. The likelihood of one escaping is fairly high and it happens reasonable often in Ireland. We have responded to a number of escaped pet removals,” he explained.

Coote is now seeking to find the owner of the Kilmihil corn snake.

“We are looking for the owner who may have lost it and if they have a genuine reason or explanation why it escaped, then we will return it to them but if it is not going to a proper home then it is a welfare issue and we will not return it,” Coote said.

The Clare Champion

Half Price House Sale

One of the biggest construction companies in Galway slashed up to €185,000 from its boom time house prices for a special one-day sale last weekend, to offload unsold stock.

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Nster.com