An international team of monster hunters is due to arrive in Galway this month in search of a fabled serpent with the body of a giant eel and a horse-like head.
The three-man team, led by veteran Swedish monster hunter Mr Jan Sundberg, plans to sweep Lough Ree in Co Galway for signs of a creature they think could be related to an elusive Norwegian lake beast known to locals as Selma.
"There have been a number of sightings in Ireland over the years of a beast that fits Selma's description. We want to see if we can record and compare the sounds," Mr Sundberg said.
Mr Sundberg (54) who earlier this year carried out an ultimately disappointing search for Scotland's legendary Loch Ness monster, said he had already spoken to a fisherman in the south of Cork who had recently hooked an ugly, eel-like creature more than nine-feet long.
"Unfortunately he was unable to land it, but these kind of things have been spotted all over Ireland for centuries," he said.
Irish experts, while confirming the myths surrounding the horse eel, were doubtful about Mr Sundberg's chances.
"I've read accounts of these things going back many years but my research tells me this is a culturally based phenomenon rather than a scientifically based one," Mr Daithi Ó hÓgáin, professor of Irish Folklore at University College Dublin, said.
Mr Sundberg, whose Global Underwater Search Team is due in Ireland on June 22nd, refused to be deflected.
"We've talked to a lot of people about these eel creatures over the years and I can tell you there is great consistency in the stories," he said.