2020 strikes again.
Everyone knows that there are no snakes in Ireland. We’ve known it since we were old enough to go to school and our junior infants teacher told us so. Old St Patrick banished all the snakes from Ireland, chasing them into the sea after they attacked him during a 40-day fast atop a hill… we’d have done the same to be fair.
That’s the story, and we’ve never had any reason to doubt it thus far. Sounds like he may have missed one though and a fairly important one at that, as one of the world’s deadliest snakes was just found down in Offaly.
Happened upon by 9-year-old Fionn Kilmurray, he was out playing in his back garden when he made the discovery. Running in to tell his mam, the youngster was apparently ‘as cool as a cucumber’ about the whole thing.
Speaking to RTÉ, Fionn’s mother, Aoife, said that the snake turned out to be a saw-scaled viper. One of the world’s deadliest snakes, it’s responsible for more annual deaths than any other type of snake. Unaware just how dangerous the situation was, the family remained calm while they contacted the National Reptile Zoo for advice and thankfully an expert was on site within a few hours to take over.
🐍 Nine-year-old Fionn Kilmurray got a surprise in his back garden in Co Offaly when he spotted a snake, which just happens to be one of the world's most dangerous reptiles. | https://t.co/AFwdasSyHx pic.twitter.com/0J2SHFtNSj
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 21, 2020
Believed to have arrived in the country in a consignment of limestone from India, Director of the National Reptile Zoo James Hennessy said that leaving the snake alone was a ‘brilliant decision’ on Fionn’s part.
What an Offaly scary find…I’ll get my coat.
Header image via Shutterstock/Saw-scaled Viper snake
