One of the strangest animals and the animal that I've had most stories about I think
is the weasel now I heard this story from a man who
experienced it himself the man is dead now but he experienced it when he was a young man he
was coming from Liscannor and you know if you come from Liscannor you have to come across
O' Brien's Bridge and you come into Ennistymon and on and on towards Ennis he was coming and
he was passing the golf club which is still there and in Lahinch golf club
and as he was passing he heard this racket he heard this racket like a dog and a cat fighting
and he stopped now he had been gathering seaweed and it was with a horse and cart
and he stopped he got down and he looked in over the wall and there was a
a weasel and a rat and the weasel he killed the rat but he was only gone about 20 yards when
he had the same racket again and just he said that's very odd and he stopped the horse again
and looked in over the wall and there was a weasel again and this time with a rabbit
oh christ he said that couldn't be is it the same weasel or is it another but jesus he said
it was a rabbit this time and the weasel had killed the rabbit but this was different
because there were poor times when I knew the man he was over 90 and there were poor times
that's why he was gathering seaweed and he said that's my dinner for tomorrow the rabbit that is
so what di he do well he bent down and threw a stone at the weasel and the weasel ran
in over the wall of course and grabbed the rabbit by the ears and the rabbit was
perfect like if it was a dog now that killed the rabbit it would be
torn great stuff and he came out threw the rabbit open the seaweed and off he went
now he wasn't going to Lahinch he was branching off towards Ennistymon
and on he went well be the lord he was only going a small while until after him
came the weasel and of course what did he do of course only bent down and threw a stone at him
as you would expect he didn't want any trouble with the weasels that he was going to keep his rabbit
and the weasel ran again and all the way into Ennistymon it was a case of bend down duck bend down
a fight against the weasel but the weasel accompanied him all the way into Ennistymon
and that's the most of a mile just over the night he'd been down through the storm because
there was no tarred roads at that time there were only dirt roads he'd bend down but now there was a
high wall you see the weasel was up on the wall crawling along watching watching him with the
little dark eyes he'd bend down throw the stone the weasel he'd jump off the wall and on he'd go
and when he looked again there was the weasel above on the wall following him following him following
him it was unnerving but he was a big man he wanted the rabbit that rabbit was his dinner for
tomorrow and finally he came into Ennistymon into the town where the church is there and the
bridge is here where the men were shot there in 1920 by the Black and Tans and finally no weasel
so by jaysus of course he was relieved and frightened too frightened as well
but he seemed to be safe he looked around him he looked around him the weasel
didn't come any further because behind it all the shy animals where there's people
that fierce when it comes to killing another animal but they're a shy animal but anyway he
crossed the bridge and up into the street and he went into a pub do you know his hands were
shaking he went into a bump tied up his horse outside and the rabbit was up in the heap of seaweed
but it was safe enough many of the dogs in the street you know it was hard enough
up and he didn't want to take the rabbit into the pub of course so he went in anyway for
a drop of something just to steel his nerves before he went home and there was a couple of
people inside because there'd always be somebody in a pub in those days not like today and when he
went in he called for a half whiskey and they noticed the couple of lads was there you know
that was it was unlike him to be in a pub at that time of day he wasn't that kind of man and they
noticed that his hands were shaking and one of them said what's wrong with you and he told him
his story and of course they only laughed at him you know a big man to be afraid of a little weasel
but that he wasn't amused at all after what he went through so he drank his drink and off he went
and the rabbit was still above in his load of seaweed so he would take his reins and off he
went up the street and he had a few messages to do for his wife and he did him but he told me
that he had only the last of the houses of the town put behind him
and he was only maybe uh a quarter of a mile out of the town he lived on the Ennis side
and he could just about see the gable of his own house
when he looked and there above in the ditch what was waiting for him
sitting on his grog the weasel there he was watching him with the little black eyes waiting
for him well he told me that he first of all down down to reach for a stone to do the same again
but then he stopped and he remembered something that his grandfather had told him one night and
they were sitting around the fire and they were talking and the subject of weasels had come up
and the grandfather had told him that if you steal something from a weasel
he'll be back he'll be back for it and he'll be back for you and you can lock the door
and you can go to bed but you'll be found in the morning
dead and they'll be on only one mark on you there you can lock the door
you can lock the windows but he'll find a way in or she will find a way in
a loose floorboard or a rotten floorboard or down the chimney or some way in and you'd be found
and when he thought of it and the lad watching him there from the ditch
he said to himself is a rabbit worth this
and he reached back and he picked the rabbit off of the load of seaweed and he said here look he
said here take your old shagging rabbit I don't want it here and he threw the rabbit in
and he said the next thing he saw was the weasel and he's dragging the rabbit off off
across the field until he saw him no more now he said the one thing that mystified me ever was
how did that weave know that I'd be going that road because he said in the town of Ennistymon
there's a cross in the middle of the town and I could have been going that way or I could have
been going the road that I did go and how did you know I was going to either road I don't
know and at the start of my journey were they two different weasels with the rat and the rabbit
or were they related were they brother and sister or what he said I have no truck with wheels
I have no truck with weasels he said because they think like a human being and
I asked another farmer about weasels I said to him what would you do if you had weasels in your farm
and he thought for a minute he said to me he said they're good and they're bad he said if you
have weasels you'll have no rats but he says if you have weasels you'll have no hens either
so he says to it is a toss up between them it is your own choice he said they're the good and they're the bad so
they're a strange animal but most people they won't do them any harm
then they're they think like a human being almost but they'll always get the best of you
the weasel is now they call it a stoat in other places like in England that but
Irish people didn't they call them weasels and there are so many stories about weasels
many many many stories about weasels in Ireland for an animal that you'll rarely see
and very secretive animal there are so many stories about them like I say
the fox and the weasel are the two animals that most stories are told about the fox for his
cleverness and the weasel for his almost human human intelligence uh the fox you can almost
laugh at because he's so clever but nobody laughs at a weasel you don't want to draw a weasel on you
because because like I say he's dangerous not because he's in just because his teeth
or anything because he deems because of his almost superhuman intelligence like in that story
you don't want to bring him on you because you don't know what you're drawing on yourself
weasels are something else entirely and they hold their own funerals
they hold their own funerals and if you interfere with a weasel's funeral
you're in for big big trouble a dog won't get in the way of a weasel's funeral a dog
will be afraid of weasels and their funerals and people might laugh at that today but I'd tell you
any of the old people wouldn't get in the way of a weasel's funeral they'll carry the dead weasel
on their shoulders and carry him away to a place where they'll bury him themselves very strange
I know a woman who saw one of them and it frightened in the life out of her