According to Peter Costello, writing in "The Magic Zoo", 1961 brought a run of mermaid sightings around the Isle of Man. One of the witnesses was said to be the Lady Mayor of Peel. In August 1961 the Manx tourist authorities apparently offered a prize to anyone who could catch the mermaid alive.
That is about all that can be firmly said. Other versions date the sightings to 1964 and describe the whole story as a fake, and it is not hard to see why a seaside resort in high season might welcome a mermaid. No photograph or catch is on record.
The island's older mermaid stories are a good deal stranger. Waldron was told of a mermaid netted in Cromwell's time who refused to eat for three days and was let go, and who mocked the islanders to her friends for throwing away the water they boiled eggs in. Sophia Morrison set a gentler tale on the east coast at Gob-ny-Ooyl.
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