Legend has it that St Patrick banished snakes from Ireland but a Co Cork man recently found evidence to the contrary when he spotted one slithering alongside the tracks near Kent Station.
Colm Twohig contacted the Opinion Line on Cork’s 96FM to say that he was out walking with a colleague when he came across a snake, thought to be a non-venomous escaped family pet.
Mr Twohig and his co-worker Siobhan Horgan had gone to see the new points system at the railway track at the end of Myrtle Hill when they noticed something unusual on the ground.
“We were looking at it and walked over towards it and next thing it moved.
“‘Cripes, what’s that?’ I said. It had to be a snake. You wouldn’t expect to see a snake down around here.”
He said that he and Ms Horgan moved closer to get a better look at the creature.
“I took out my camera then to video tape it. And his head was up two inches staring at us. We went around to the back of him and he moved off.
“We thought we might pick it up. We didn’t know if it was dangerous or not. We thought it might be a corn snake. I got close to him and I thought ‘Will I or won’t I (pick him up)?’ We decided to get gloves and a bag to put it him into.”
Mr Twohig and another colleague went back down with gloves and a bag, but they were unable to find the snake. They had hoped to rescue it and return it to its owner.
“We couldn’t find him at all. He won’t survive in this weather. We were frantically looking around. He was a lovely looking thing about three foot long. He was frightened.
“He was right beside the train track. He was crossing the track when we spotted him. We thought it was a bit of cloth first. Hopefully he isn’t dead.”
A member of staff from Fota Wildlife Park also travelled to the scene in a bid to find the snake, but with no success.
