Lough Ree — the 1960 sighting

OVERVIEW

Lough Ree — Loch Rí, the king's lake — is the second of the three major lakes on the River Shannon, between Lough Allen and Lough Derg, and forms the boundary between Westmeath, Roscommon and Longford. Its islands carry early monastic sites: Inchcleraun, where in Irish legend Queen Medb was killed, and Inchbofin, Inchmore and Hare Island, all farmed and lived on until the 1950s. It is a Special Area of Conservation.

HISTORY

On 18 May 1960 Father Richard Quigly, Father Matthew Burke and Father Daniel Murray were fishing from the shore of the lough outside Athlone when one of them noticed an object moving slowly on the flat, calm surface about eighty yards off. They described a serpent-like head tapering abruptly to a point, a body that rose and fell and formed a loop as it travelled, and estimated the whole thing at over twenty feet. Convinced by what they had seen, the three wrote an account for the Inland Fisheries Trust — which is why the sighting is on a file rather than in a pub.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

The 1960 report is the anchor; claimed sightings on the lough run before and after it. A Swedish expedition led by Jan Sundberg searched the lough in 2001 and found nothing, and has argued the reports are of large lamprey eels. RTÉ's archives carry the 2001 search and The History Show has covered the case. The entry records three named witnesses of unusual standing who put their account in writing to a state fisheries body within days.

VISITING

Open water. Boat hire and cruises from Athlone and Lanesborough; the shoreline is publicly accessible in many places. Normal inland-water safety applies — Lough Ree gets rough quickly.