Country Diary: The Burren, Ireland

Joy is abroad. On 20 March a swallow, the first this year, was sighted in County Clare. Like most of our swallows it came from South Africa. They are coming and breeding here a fortnight earlier than previously and they are very welcome, even if it seemingly confirms global warming. They come now when the blackthorn blossom is everywhere, whitening the hedges with its delicate flowers, such fragile blooms for such an old, tough thorn tree. Bad luck follows those who pluck the blossom, apart from suffering its rigid and acute thorns. Beneath it grow violets, primroses and ox slips. Unlike the hawthorn, the blackthorn can be cut and is made into shillelaghs (walking sticks) for tramping around the Burren. To cut the hawthorn/whitethorn is to invite the wrath of the fairies - something no sensible person would do!

This lore is all very well, but the strangest Irish county news comes from counties Roscommon and Dublin. It is a veritable mystery, a who dunnit of the highest caliber. Agatha Christie would be intrigued. It concerns the finding of a gold lunula (shaped like a half-moon and worn round the neck, dated about 2000-1900BC and used on ceremonial occasions) and two gold sun discs. They are small, pure gold, coffee-size saucers but flat and hammered in repoussé technique. They were worn on garments for decoration. Where in County Roscommon were these ancient, beautiful objects found? Herein lies the mystery. They were found in a pharmacy in Strokestown, it seems, in a safe containing drugs, cosmetics and antique jewelery.

Indeed truth is stranger than fiction, for they were found in County Dublin. The chronology: the pharmacy was broken into, the gardaí were called and during their investigation of the goods stolen they found these priceless articles, which are now in the National Museum of Ireland. Two men have been arrested in connection with the burglary. One avenue of investigation is closed - the bronze age people who wore the jewelery were innocent.