The Blind Eel-Fisher

Patrick Weston Joyce
1911

A blind man once lived at Clonmacnoise, who was the most expert fisher ever read of in history; only with this drawback, that he appears to have never fished for or caught anything but eels. He used no artificial aids of any kind—no fork or bait or basket: he merely plunged into the Shannon where it flows by the monastery: and after remaining a few moments at the bottom, he came up with an eel "in each of the forks of his fingers and toes"—sixteen eels, all wriggling and twisting about his hands and feet! And this he did without fail every time he dived.