Two years after the reported sighting of a monster in a Connemara lake Captain Lionel Leslie is still searching for the beast.
In 1965 RTÉ reporter Cathal O'Shannon spoke Una Moran and Georgina Carberry of Clifden County Galway about their encounter with Ireland's answer to the Loch Ness monster at Lough Fadda in Connemara. In 1967, he returned to Connemara to follow up on the story.
I had never seen anything like it before in my life.
These eyewitness accounts have led to a hunt on the lake by a "marine monster expert" Captain Lionel Leslie, who has spent weeks over the past few years trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it is that lurks in the lake. However, to date, he has found nothing.
Captain Leslie is a member of the Lough Ness Phenomena Investigation Bureau and has spent five years looking for Nessy on the Scottish Loch. Last year, Captain Leslie, along with other monster enthusiasts, returned to Lough Fadda with explosives. The intention was to blast the monster with noise and make him rise to the surface but nothing happened. Captain Leslie has not given up hope and has returned to Lough Fadda. He has stretched a strong net across the lake baited with rotten meat in the hope of catching the monster.
Captain Leslie tells reporter Cathal O'Shannon about his experiments and plans to capture the monster. He also comments on the efforts being made at Loch Ness.
This episode of 'Newsbeat' was broadcast on 24 October 1967. The reporter is Cathal O'Shannon.
(There are sections of the film missing)
'Newsbeat' was a half-hour feature programme presented by Frank Hall and ran for 7 years from September 1964 to June 1971. 'Newsbeat' went out from Monday to Friday on RTE television and reported on current affairs and issues of local interest from around Ireland. The final programme was broadcast on the 11 June, 1971.
