A HERD OF elephants stampeded down Main Street, Portarlington last week … well not quite, but they did provide an amazing sight not seen in the town in years.
At around lunchtime, traffic and pedestrians came to a standstill and stood in amazement, as five large elephants marched triumphantly down the town.
The fab five veered off towards the car park area of SuperValu supermarket, where they were fed with fresh fruit by their handlers before making their way back down the town.
“It was some sight,” said local woman Margaret GujitLawlor. “I was in my car with Ann Dunne, who is the secretary of Portarlington Combined Residents’ Association and also from the Dirty Old Towns project, and my son. We couldn’t believe our eyes. It was a great promotional stunt by the circus that was in the town. It was great craic,” explained Margaret.
“We thought at first it was Niall Donogher from the Portarlington St Patrick’s Day parade committee who had organised it. Every year he tells us that he is having elephants in the parade,” joked Margaret.
“Then there was a bet between myself and Ann on who would have the first of the pictures up on our Facebook pages. Both of us took pictures and got home as quickly as we could to upload them, only to find that local photographer Con Murphy had gotten his up first after taking a picture of them in SuperValu’s car park eating fruit,” she added.
The jovial Portarington woman went on: “Both Ann and I had a great laugh. We wondered if any of them had done a big poo in the middle of the road?
What damage would that do to a car if it ran into it?
We also wondered would the dung be any use for our roses?,” Margaret laughed.