AN IRISH MERMAID (YE EDITOR WRITES)

I have been reading Fairies-a Dangerous History by Richard Sugg.  Sugg narrates a very interesting tale of an Irish mermaid.  The tale was related in 1910 to the folklorist Thomas Westropp, but he heard it just a few weeks after the event.  It was told him by Martin Griffin as something which had happened in the recent past.

A mermaid had been seen near the shore near the town of Miltown Malbay and a number of people had tried to make friends with her.  They gave her bread and she ate it.  She was reported to have white skin and well shaped hands.  When somebody threw a pebble at her she dove and was seen no more.  The interesting point here is that this was something of recent occurrence, which could easily be confuted if it were a falsehood.

Sugg also makes a point regarding anecdotal evidence.  Such evidence is often scathingly dismissed by skeptics, but not all such evidence should be so spurned.  After all, anecdotal evidence has been used to secure convictions in a court of law.  It all depends on the nature of the anecdotal evidence.

Fairies; a Dangerous History is published by Reaktion Books.