Sir, – Frank McNally tells a tale of the Cursing Stone of Tory Island: “the King called them to the cliff where the cursing stone is buried, put them in a circle around the stone, and chanted the spell for its turning – a spell contained in its runic writings; and that the stone turned, the cliff shook, the the seas rose, and the miserable little gunboat was smashed on the rocks”.
Could such forces explain the disappearance of “a strong and durable 19th-century stone house”, which vanished in the 1990s when the owner was abroad?
Frank also noticed the absence of coffee shops on the island. Have they also been smashed on the rocks of tradition? – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
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Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Dhún na nGall.
Sir , – As a scientist, my eye was caught by Frank McNally’s reference to the involvement of Benjamin Joule in the affair of the wreck of the Wasp. Benjamin was the brother of James Prescott Joule after whom the Joule as a unit of energy is named. Both worked in the brewery founded by their father, also Benjamin. Benjamin St John Baptist Joule was also a magistrate in his native Manchester and was engaged in the early stages of the case against the Manchester Martyrs; coincidentally, their gallows were erected opposite the Joule brewery. – Yours, etc,
MILES PARKER,
Fowlmere,
Royston,
UK.
