PHOTOS of Ireland’s first-ever sheep dung spitting competition taken by Impartial Reporter photographer John McVitty have grabbed the attention of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, the global franchise which aims to “unlock the weird” and has 31 Odditoriums dotted around the world.

Last year’s Lady of the Lake festival in Irvinestown made world headlines when the mad-cap crew, led by hotelier Joe Mahon, devised a new event: sheep dung spitting.

“Sheep dung spitting is one of my favourite stories in this year’s annual,” Ripley’s lead researcher Sabrina Sieck, who is based in Florida, told The Impartial Reporter.

Sabrina is constantly on the lookout for a ‘believe it or not’; “something that is incredibly hard to believe, but undeniably true.”
When she spotted the colourful photos of Joe covered in sheep dung and locals, including the Lady of the Lake Eimear Donnelly, trying their best to spit the dung, she knew she had hit the jack-pot.

“When researching, if I have a visceral reaction or audibly say: ‘Oh My God!’ at my desk, I know it’s a Believe It or Not,” Sabrina explained.
“The Lady of the Lake Festival’s sheep dung spitting contest is truly a believe it or not! Not many people can fathom putting animal excrement in their mouth for sport let alone reusing it when there are too many contest entrants, although Kopi luwak is quite the delicacy! I’m not sure if your readers are coffee fans, but this brew comes from the civet, who first eats the coffee berries, digests them, and…they are retrieved. Perhaps Kopu luwak could be on next year’s festival menu!”

Incredibly, the sheep dung spitting contest is not the first Fermanagh story to grab Ripley’s attention. In 2009, Portora art teacher Tim Smith was fishing on the Victoria Nile River in Uganda when he landed a 249-lb Nile perch, which at 6 foot long, was taller than him. He battled for 45 minutes to reel in the monster and then had to pry his catch from the jaws of a crocodile that launched itself at his tiny boat in a desperate bid to snatch the fish. His remarkable story was included in Ripley’s 2011 annual, Strikingly True.

John received his copy of Ripley’s 2016 annual and a certificate of recognition for his contribution just as he arrived back into the office from photographing the 2016 sheep dung spitting competition at the Lady of the Lake festival.
“This is a great recognition for Fermanagh and the Lady of the Lake Festival,” he commented.

“Ripley’s are always looking for weird and wonderful stuff from around the world. Their catchphrase is: ‘unlock the weird’ but I unlock the weird every year at the Lady of the Lake Festival!”

This year, the Lady of the Lake festival held a goat look-alike competition and Sabrina is very keen to see the photographs.