This Little Piggy Went To The Library

From a newspaper article – 12th of August 1963. The library was located on Church Street at this time. (supplied by Anna Collins)

“In the North Cork town of Newmarket they are telling the story of the literary pig which insisted, despite locked doors and well-secured windows in getting into the local library and browsing among the books.

The pig broke loose from the town mart and toured a number of streets before it decided to visit the library.

Finding the door locked it took a ‘running jump’ at the closed window and landed on the floor of the fiction department in a shower of flying glass.

With its head bloody but unbowed, the pig abandoned the works of fiction after a brief perusal of the titles. With a cursory inspection of the department of English literature, it turned up its nose and went to the shelves carrying volumes on European history.

It was then that the Librarian, Mr. Patrick O’Shea, arrived and when aid was summoned the loudly protesting pig was borne back to the less literate companions at the mart”