This is a true story.
In 2011 I was with my girlfriend at the time and it was St. Patrick's Day. We were living in Galway and running late to the parade in the town centre. On the way in we came across a man on the road. He introduced himself as Martin, if my memory serves. The man asked me if I would be able to buy him alcohol. The man in question didn't have arms.
Naturally I said I would of course. He asked me to take the money out of his pocket and told me what he wanted. Having bought the drink I returned to him. "I'll take that here," he said, indicating that he would carry the bag in his stump. The stump was at his shoulder. I insisted we would walk him home with the drink.
We made polite conversation as we walked him home. Once we arrived at his house we helped him inside and settled him in his kitchen. The man was in his 50s, thin and grey hair cut short. On the table in the kitchen he had a row of cigarettes with the filter hanging over the lip of the table. He could pick them up in his mouth and used a lit candle to light them. We sat for a time speaking with him and he volunteered the story of how he lost his arms.
He said the circus came to Galway years earlier and he had been hired as an extra pair of hands. He was in the lions' cage when they attacked him and ripped his arms from his body.
We couldn't believe this story! It wasn't something we expected to hear in Galway that someone was savaged by lions and left dismembered. I always remembered the man, although I only ever saw him again in the distance in the town.
It wasn't until years later that I heard the true story of what happened to him.
I was working in Galway in early 2016 and the story came up in conversation. The person I was speaking with had grown up near Martin and told me that wasn't exactly what happened.
Martin used to train dogs. He was at the circus but as a customer, not an employee. He had been drinking heavily that day. During the course of the night, Martin decided to go down to the lion cage.
In his inebriated state he elected to attempt to steal the meat from the lions' bowl to feed his dogs later. He reached in with one arm and was attacked by the lion. It tore the arm from his body.
In a state of shock from the loss of a limb, Martin attempted to retrieve his arm from the lion. He put his other arm inside the cage, struggling to rescue his extremity. Unfortunately the lion proceeded to dismember the additional arm within it's reach.
An extraordinary circumstance that you would never expect happening in Ireland. A drunk man tried to steal a lion's dinner for his dogs, lost his arm and lost the second trying to save the first.
In Galway you never know what can happen, or who you can meet.
Balor O'Brien
In 2011 I was with my girlfriend at the time and it was St. Patrick's Day. We were living in Galway and running late to the parade in the town centre. On the way in we came across a man on the road. He introduced himself as Martin, if my memory serves. The man asked me if I would be able to buy him alcohol. The man in question didn't have arms.
Naturally I said I would of course. He asked me to take the money out of his pocket and told me what he wanted. Having bought the drink I returned to him. "I'll take that here," he said, indicating that he would carry the bag in his stump. The stump was at his shoulder. I insisted we would walk him home with the drink.
We made polite conversation as we walked him home. Once we arrived at his house we helped him inside and settled him in his kitchen. The man was in his 50s, thin and grey hair cut short. On the table in the kitchen he had a row of cigarettes with the filter hanging over the lip of the table. He could pick them up in his mouth and used a lit candle to light them. We sat for a time speaking with him and he volunteered the story of how he lost his arms.
He said the circus came to Galway years earlier and he had been hired as an extra pair of hands. He was in the lions' cage when they attacked him and ripped his arms from his body.
We couldn't believe this story! It wasn't something we expected to hear in Galway that someone was savaged by lions and left dismembered. I always remembered the man, although I only ever saw him again in the distance in the town.
It wasn't until years later that I heard the true story of what happened to him.
I was working in Galway in early 2016 and the story came up in conversation. The person I was speaking with had grown up near Martin and told me that wasn't exactly what happened.
Martin used to train dogs. He was at the circus but as a customer, not an employee. He had been drinking heavily that day. During the course of the night, Martin decided to go down to the lion cage.
In his inebriated state he elected to attempt to steal the meat from the lions' bowl to feed his dogs later. He reached in with one arm and was attacked by the lion. It tore the arm from his body.
In a state of shock from the loss of a limb, Martin attempted to retrieve his arm from the lion. He put his other arm inside the cage, struggling to rescue his extremity. Unfortunately the lion proceeded to dismember the additional arm within it's reach.
An extraordinary circumstance that you would never expect happening in Ireland. A drunk man tried to steal a lion's dinner for his dogs, lost his arm and lost the second trying to save the first.
In Galway you never know what can happen, or who you can meet.
Balor O'Brien
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