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At Findmypast, you’ll find the largest online collection of Irish family history records, which provide an incredible opportunity to trace your family back to Ireland and build a brilliant family tree. On top of that, there’s the fabulous newspaper collection from 1710-1955, which includes a number of local Irish newspapers that can help to put your ancestors’ lives into context.

One of our favourite publications in the archive is the Illustrated Police News, a penny dreadful that dealt in the salacious and macabre. We’ve explored the News for mentions of Irish people at the time, and have made some weird and wonderful discoveries.

Whatever it is that you think is happening here, that is exactly what is happening here. We’re not sure why the man on the ground is so angry about it, or so incapable of catching a man on stilts.

Unsure as to whether this is a positive or a negative development, but whoever drew that picture had never, ever seen a shark before.

Actually quite an incredible number of articles involving Irish people in the News take place at wakes. Very few of those wakes are as on fire as this one appears to be, however.

We’re not ones to be throwing accusations around, but the dog clearly did it.

Tracking a man in a coffin, when that coffin is in an undertaker’s, probably isn’t the most complex police work, but it’s results that matter.

If you want to explore millions of newspaper pages from all over the world, visit the Findmypast newspaper archive today!

For more stories on tracing your Irish heritage from Findmypast click here.