Happy St. Patrick's Day

When a Bush Stopped Construction into Shannon Airport
Back in 1999, a new roadway into the airport was being constructed.  One fine day, the bulldozer operator was happily digging his way along when as he came to a blackthorn tree.  His blade was down to get this bush, right in the middle of what would be the road, out of the way, when he was stopped when an old woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere, screaming, "Do not touch the tree!  If you do, you will have fatal accidents right here!"

The bulldozer driver can't in good conscience run over the old lady, so he stops.  And then more people appear, all shouting with the old woman "Do not touch the tree!"

It turns out that the blackthorn tree is a meeting place for dueling fairy clans.  Reminder:  we're in Ireland, okay?  This minor, but sincere uprising made the papers and television.  The upshot was that the engineers divided the lanes to put the tree in the center.  Completion took 10 years.

And then in 2002 I think it was, some nut case attacked the tree with a chain saw and cut off many of the branches.   Ahhh, twas a serious mistake - anyone who cuts off a branch of a blackthorn is cursed and the curse is that the perpetrator will never have a good night's sleep ever again.

The Curse That Lasted 90 Years
The County Mayo hurling team had finally made it to the finals.  They were ecstatic!  But nervous. In previous years, they had not had the best of luck.  How to ensure victory?

A visit to Biddy, a well-known white witch who had a blue jar of magic, was in order.  The team wanted to take the blue jar to the tournament, sure that it would give them a win.

Biddy was adamantly against this separation from her magic blue jar.  Back and forth they went.  Finally after an appeal to her civic pride, she did give them the magic blue jar. with many a warning.  "Do not lose my bottle!"  Promises flew through the air as to the future safety of the blue jar.

Magic blue jar or not, the County Mayo team won the tournament!  They repaired to a riverside pub and the celebration went on into the night.  They proposed numerously toasts to Biddy and ... the inevitable happened.  The bottle fell into the river and although they searched frantically (and drunkenly), it was never seen again.

Biddy retaliated and put this curse on them:  "You will never win again until every last one of you connected with the team is dead," she screamed.

This was in 1905.  County Mayo did not win another tournament until 1995.  And the newspaper headlines screamed in 36 font, "Curse Finally Broken!"