• • The Strange Powers of Frank Kane and Vincent Curran by W. Crea.
I have been told many times that these two boys could find old unseen building foundations by using a piece of copper wire. As they both live locally; Frank at the back of the Wall and Vincent on the Pea Hill at the Scadden, Brian Fitzsimons agreed to set up a demonstration one evening in a field at Tullyratty where I knew there had been old buildings forty years ago but now no trace remained for the field had been cropped many times since. I knew that neither Frank nor Vincent was aware that any foundations existed. So an evening was arranged to meet at the site at seven thirty up the dead end road opposite Banaghan road. Colly Holland was building a wall along this wee road and the three cars passed him waving recognition. I was the last on the scene and seeing the puzzled look on Collie’s face, I stopped and wound down my window. “What’s on up there this evening anyway”?, enquired Colly,“is there a disco or a wake”? I said I wasn’t sure but if he heard any music to come on up. I motored on to the demonstration. Frank produced his instrument, a piece of L shaped copper wire; one leg was about Vincent Curran twenty-four inches long and the other about six inches. He grasped the short side in both hands with the long piece sticking out in front horizontally. I showed him the ground where the foundations might be (giving nothing away). After walking about fifteen feet the long section of the wire turned at right angles. “That’s a corner”, said Frank. He turned a right angle and the wire turned straight in front of him again. He walked on about ten feet and it turned again. He followed the direction of the wire again and completed a rectangle pinpointing a doorway on his journey. I watched in astonishment whilst Brian measured the foundations. The building had been nineteen feet by seventeen with a room inside eight feet by seventeen. I asked Frank how he knew he could do this. He said he discovered it from Paddy Fitzsimons, Brian’s father. I have seen Paddy divining an underground water source with a hazel forked stick and also with a silver watch. Brian didn’t know how his father came to realise his abilities and the mystery remained. Now,Vincent Curran, not to be outdone, took the wire and set out on a different direction and by the same method found another set of foundations, measuring twenty one feet by fourteen and containing four doorways and four rooms. All this mystery set off much discussion and Brian was asked to try his hand. He followed the instructions with great care. He walked and he walked, he turned and he turned, but no response whatsoever. There was now much discussion as to why Brian was a failure. After much deliberation it was concluded that Brian must have been programmed to a much higher plane than the rest of us and that foundation finding was unworthy of inclusion. We were preparing to go home when 43