Mermaid at Rossbeigh, Kerry

A Mermaid -- We have it from authority, so respectable as to admit of no doubt, that so rare and extraordinary a phenomenon as a Mermaid has, during the present summer, frequently made its appearance at Rossbeigh in Castlemain Bay. It often rests on a rock, distant about 300 yards from the shore, and has been distinctly seen by thousands of people. The face, neck, breast, and hands, strongly resemble those of a human being; but, in its movements in the water, it has been clearly perceived the body ends in the tail of a fish. It is a solitary creature, unaccompanied by any of its own species, and from the appearance of the breasts, and lower part of the body, it is supposed, by all who have seen it, to be feminine. It was seen to use its hands in washing and rubbing its face. -- Kerry Post.

In the Clonmel Herald, 31st August 1836.



Cynical, possibly slightly racist version: 

A "Rare" Mermaid. --  A Kerry paper assures us that "the rare and extraordinary phenomenon" - a real Mermaid - has recently been exhibiting itself (in a state of nudity) at Rossbeighs, in Castlemain Bay. "It often rests," adds the writer, "on a rock distant three hundred yards from the shore, and has been distinctly seen by thousands of people. The face, neck, breasts, and hands, strongly resemble those of a human being" or no doubt a whale! Our readers are not not to place the most implicit faith in the stories of Kerry people, for they have the rare power of seeing that which is invisible to every body else. It is firmly believed in that enlightened district that a lad named Dick Fitzgerald but a few years since actually contracted with a female "phenomenon" of the same character.

The Scotsman, 14th September 1836.

Rossbeigh. looks alright. CC image Goatoo