Irish ship's surgeon makes fortune from Admiral Lord Nelson's injuries

This week 1,000 Royal Navy Medical Officer Journals were made available to the public at the National Archives in Kew.

One of the journals is that of Irishman, William Beatty, who was the surgeon on HMS Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21 1905. His journals record treating sailors and soldiers, stitching and amputating limbs, half torn off and musket-shot wounds from the French shooters.

Beatty makes no mention of the other surgeon from a smaller ship who rowed over to help him and does not mention one particular musket-shot victim: Lord Admiral Nelson. Nelson survived only long enough to learn that the battle had been won.

Although he is not mentioned in the journal Beatty wrote a detailed account of Nelson's injuries, treatment and death, when back on dry land. It became a bestseller.

12-foot man buried in County Mayo

Back in 1961 a headstone in a graveyard near Breaghwy House, Castlebar, made international headlines. The gravestone stated that 300 years ago a man in Mayo grew over 12-feet high.

The headstone weighed over 200 pounds and recorded the size of the giant.

According to the Connaught Tribune the headstone read “The above stone was found at Brefy A.D. 1732. The coffin of Genan contains a skeleton 12 foot long, Glenmask, Ireland, A.M. 2352, P.D. 702, A.D. 1681. This monument is erected to show the antiquity of the Irish character and the size of mankind in those dark ages, 1756."

This massive stone was found by the Irish Land Commission. Also on the land they found a second stone with Ogham inscriptions, characters used by the ancient Irish. The stones were both moved indoors and reported to the National Museum.

Of course the locals believe that Mayo men 300 years ago were 12-foot tall giants! However, the tallest man in recent history was Robert Waldow who was 8 foot 11.1 inches (see right, pictured with is father).

The Irish are hunting 5,000 minks

In the majestic countryside of Donegal 5,000 minks are roaming free.

Anderson's Mink Farm, in the northwest of Ireland, had a disastrous weekend. Many of their cages and fences were cut and opened letting an estimated 5,000 mink run free. The other 28,000 on the farm declined the offer of freedom and thankfully stayed put.

Hunters have already captured about 100 of the freed mink although several hundred have already been run over or killed in the wild. Drivers have reported seeing groups of confused looking minks standing on the roads dazed by the headlights of cars.

The agricultural authorities have warned that the surviving minks could decimate local salmon hatcheries, rabbits and fowl.

While animal rights activists in Ireland have denied that they released the animals they are praising whoever did it.

An Irish scarecrow that Father Ted would be proud of

Giant Emerald at center of custody battle

It’s green, it’s the size of a suitcase, it weighs the same as a fair-sized horse, and it’s worth $400 million. And no one knows who owns it.

That doesn’t mean no one’s claiming it, though. The Bahia Emerald is 840 pounds and it’s being claimed by a crowd of people, all of whom will meet in a Los Angles court house on Friday to hammer out the issue.

The emerald is a bit of a mystery. Tony Thomas claims that he bought it for $60,000 from a Brazilian gem dealer just after it was discovered. He claims that it was stolen while he was having it shipped home and the he was told it had gone missing. Thereafter, it had an interesting life, popping up on eBay (for a ‘buy now’ price of $75 million), narrowly avoiding flooding in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, before being seized by Los Angeles police, where it remains under lock and key. That is, until Judge John A. Kronstadt works his way through the conflicting reports of ownership, the tangled journey the big rock took from Brazil, and finally decides who, exactly, owns the Bahia Emerald.

Irish man buried alive to raise money for Song Contest

In Castlebar, County Mayo, in 1973, a man named Tim Hayes was buried alive for three days in an effort to raise money for the Castlebar International Song Contest.

The Connaught Telegraph reports that the "corpse" Tim Hayes, from Cobh, County Cork, made international headlines. He had already been buried alive on other occasions but this was his more daring feat.

He was carried in a coffin through the town to his final, albeit temporary, resting place. A Castlebar Urban Council gravedigger dug his grave and he was buried with just two pipes, one for air and one for food, as his connection with the outside world.

His friends and others involved in the committee for the song contest kept vigil over his graveside. All was going to plan until on his third day he sent an SOS that he was gasping for air. He was brought to the surface shaken but unharmed.

Tim vowed that he would repeat the challenge but he was never buried alive again.

One in three Irish people have never been online

New data from the European Commission shows that one in three Irish people have never been on the Internet.

Currently half of Ireland economic growth now depends on the Information and Communication Technology sector. However the European spending on this sector is less than half of United States levels.

The European Commission have said that every household will  have fast-speed broadband Internet by 2020.