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RTÉ reporter Cathal O’Shannon reporting on horse meat for sale in Phibsboro in 1966. RTE Archives

Horse meat for sale in Phibsboro and other wacky clips from Ireland's past

RTÉ has released special archived footage for the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage.

HORSE MEAT ON sale in Phibsboro, a UFO spotted in Tipperary, and the seventh son of a seventh son in Galway.

These are just some of the wacky and wonderful stories captured by RTÉ throughout the years since it first started broadcasting.

Some of the more stand out, offbeat reports from its various current affairs programmes over the past number of decades have been compiled in the RTÉ Archives.

A special curated selection of reports and clips detailing some of Ireland’s more eccentric goings on has been compiled in the archives to mark the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage today.

The special Weird and Wonderful collection of 15 videos details various different events and happenings throughout Ireland during the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Among them, the reports include:

  • Two dogs that sing the opera in Phibsboro (1971)
  • Investigating reports of monsters in Connemara lakes (1969)
  • A ‘magic’ priest balancing his niece on a sword in Achill Island (1971)
  • A man travelling to Dublin from Longford by steamroller for unknown reasons (1965)

Liam Wylie, curator at RTÉ Archive, said the videos showed the importance of preserving audiovisual content for the future.

magician_priest - RTÉ Archives Weird & Wonderful Collection (1) The magician priest in Achill.

The RTÉ Archives has over 650,000 thousand hours of moving image and sound recordings as well as significant collections of photographs, manuscripts and administrative documents.

As much as 27% of weekly RTÉ News programming is made up of archive content.

Read: 11 wonderful Christmas memories from the RTÉ Archives

Read: Watch Richard Nixon get egged as he travelled through Dublin

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18 Comments
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    Mute HOTBank
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    Oct 27th 2016, 6:52 AM

    What is weird and wacky about horse meat?

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    Mute mcgoo
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    Oct 27th 2016, 7:18 AM

    I mean it’s found in all of your finest burgers.

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    Mute paul delaney
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    Oct 27th 2016, 7:20 AM

    Fancied horse meat burgers last night but they were off….

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    Mute Paul Mc Manus
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    Oct 27th 2016, 6:46 AM

    Horse meat is actually a better grade meat.

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    Mute Sean taoiseach
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    Oct 27th 2016, 7:50 AM

    Makes a change from where priests nowadays would be balancing their nieces

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    Mute Bleep12345
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    Oct 27th 2016, 11:03 AM

    Nah, still using their swords I’d imagine!!

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    Mute Red hurley
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    Oct 27th 2016, 7:27 AM

    Why don’t we eat horse meat?

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    Mute Damocles
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    Oct 27th 2016, 8:05 AM

    @Red hurley: We aren’t French.

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    Mute mcgoo
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    Oct 27th 2016, 1:17 PM

    We do. We just don’t know it.

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    Mute Peter
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    Oct 27th 2016, 6:24 AM

    What do u mean “in the past”

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    Mute Gene Parmesan
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    Oct 27th 2016, 7:35 AM

    When that expression is used it means that the event occurred some time ago. This was 50 years ago. Just so you know, We also had a minor scandal involving horse meat a few years ago.

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    Mute William Willis
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    Oct 27th 2016, 9:28 AM

    Cathay o Shannon was a hero. “Even the olives are bleeding”. Great doco.

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    Mute Brendan Mason
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    Oct 27th 2016, 7:01 AM

    Greyhounds love it.

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    Mute Seth Cheffetz
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    Oct 27th 2016, 7:36 AM

    If it’s good enough for IKEA meatballs it’s good enough for me!

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    Mute Jason Matthews
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    Oct 27th 2016, 9:53 AM

    I ate horse curry in France once at a metal festival.it was Yummy

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    Mute Gus Dennis
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    Oct 27th 2016, 9:24 AM

    excellent. thanks

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    Mute selfsustainable
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    Oct 27th 2016, 10:53 AM

    Go away outta that ya fuppin eejit!

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    Mute Steven Cee
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    Oct 27th 2016, 3:00 PM

    Fup off ..ya baxtard.

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