On this day:
DOBHAR-CHU: WATER HOUND
September 24, 1722 is written across the tombstone of Grace Connolly, a young bride who took her washing to Glenade Lake and never returned. Terence McGloughlan, her husband, found her at the lakeside, with a dobhar-chu stretched asleep across her lifeless body. Raging mad, McGloughlan shot the creature. Its high-pitched dying scream called its mate from the lake. Jumping on his horse, McGloughlan got his brother, and they set up an ambush for the water hound at Castelgarden Hill. Blocking the ancient fort's entrance with their horses, they hid and pounced on the dobhar-chu with daggers as the beast burst forth from between their horse legs. The story is recorded in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
A dobhar-chu is said to resemble both a dog and an otter. Folklore defines it as the magical seventh cub of a regular otter, which grows to five times the normal size. The pelt, either slimy dark or white with black markings, is said to stop injury from horses, bullets, and shipwrecks.
In 1684, a man walking near Lough Mask in Norfolk, Britain, was spied by a dobhar-chu swimming in the middle of the lake. It fixed the man's position, emerged, and, biting the man's elbow, pulled him into the lake. The man stabbed the creature with his knife, turning the lake red with their blood. A water hound was also reported numerous times on Achill Island, in 1968. It was caught in vehicle headlights while bolting across the road and was also seen by a man riding his bicycle.
Text from: Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored by Juanita Rose Violins, published by Weiser Books, 2009
