Comments on: The Dobharchu

By: sschaper

sschaper — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:40:07 +0000

Definitely an otter

The Bwcca of Gymru isn’t I think, described like an otter, but more of a Brownie.

By: loopstheloop

loopstheloop — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:37:29 +0000

Brilliant post- I know ‘Sligo County’ pretty well (we’d call it County Sligo, or just Sligo, though!) and have family there today, as well as in neighbouring Leitrim, my ancestral home! Also, Leitrim is home to the Glenade stone and famous dobhar-chú carving- but enough cross-county rivalry! Irish cryptids are vicious- stay back from the edges of the loughs, folks! The water dog takes no prisoners…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you all.

By: dogu4

dogu4 — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:44:23 +0000

Oh, and I took a look at the Wiki on 'dobharchu' and really have to wonder if it couldn't have been a remnant of some rare species of predatory otter or seal similar to a leopard-seal, that because of its aggressive nature might have been eliminated pretty quickly when humans with weapons arrived to defend themselves with lethal tools. An artist claims to have seen one as recently as 2003.

By: dogu4

dogu4 — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:37:22 +0000

Excellent story, and most interestingly hints at the possibility of the lingering existence of all-but-extinct animals, which I, like anyone with a inveterate interest in cryptic aspects of our natural history, would think points to the fact that our understanding of the past as it’s presented to us as scientific fact and based on the fossil record is weak at best and that extinction is sometimes forestalled by remnant populations in hold-over ecological niches functioning as refugias.
When I think back to how the vast reaches of Eurasia must have been for most of the last two or three million years while our planet was subject then, as it still is, to glacial periods which dominated the northern hemisphere’s continental land-masses and how it stands in contrast to the last few thousand years now that glaciers are conspicuously absent from boreal latitudes. Once upon a time there may very well have been creatures that for lack of a better word would seem like monsters and worse. Occasionally ‘once upon a time’ is ‘now’.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:26:47 +0000

I love tales like these. Do not forget, though, that the word “Puca,” or “Pwca,” as it is known elsewhere, was the basis for the word “Puck,” which is of course Shakespeare’s immortal mischievous spirit. Of cose there are Pucas in the British Isles as well— they do damage there, too.