1909
Boy encounters 'lion or bear' at Rosmead
An odd ''sensation" took place at Rosmead, Delvin in August 1909, when a young boy named Glennon, who was picking potatoes in a field, was "suddenly terror stricken by seeing what appeared to be a lion standing five or six yards from him. The animal opened its mouth and growled menacingly when it caught sight of the lad, who thereupon ran with all haste to where his elder brother was," the report in the August 14th 1909 edition of the Examiner read.
The beast chose not to pursue the boy, and disappeared into a nearby oats field.
The paper speculated that the young lad, in his terror, had mistaken a bear for a lion. It seems that sometime during the summer of 1909, a bear had escaped from a circus somewhere in Ireland, and had been seen in a number of places around the country.
(Westmeath Examiner, August 14, 1909)
