EXPLODING BIRDS

Feeding Seagulls

In the 1950s I was at primary school in Coláiste Mhuire in Parnell Square. My father worked for CIE in Broadstone, a relatively short distance up the road. Andy Kildea, a classmate who lived locally, used to give me a crossbar up to Broadstone at lunchtime where I dined with my father and some of his colleagues.

One day he told me the story about the birds. Apparently some of the youths in the Broadstone area used to feed the birds, seagulls I think, and shortly after the birds took to the air they exploded, just like planes shot down in a dog fight in World War Two.

For a young lad this was an exciting story, only much later to be thought of as cruel and disgusting. I never gave much thought to whether it was true or not. It did seem a bit far fetched.

Until, years later, I discovered carbide. Now, carbide was a chalk like substance that was freely available as it was used to power lamps, including bicycle lamps. My friend Tom Ferris's father had one.

The carbide was in a chamber in the lamp. A little water was added which produced an inflamable gas which was fed to a nozzle and lit. This produced a very strong white light.

And then there was the the carbide bomb.

The bomb made a lot of noise but I don't think it was ever used in any serious demolition work. What we used to do was take a coffee tin and puncture a small hole in the base. We then inserted the carbide and spat on it. The tin lid was put back firmly in place and a respectable interval left before lighting a match at the hole.

A loud bang followed and the tin lid was blown a fair distance down the road.

So what has this got to do with the birds. Well, I am now convinced that the youths put ground carbide into the birds' food and when this then mixed with their digestive juices the gas was produced with the inevitable result – the birds burst in mid air.

Children, as we know, can be very cruel.