Proposal at Cork City Council for a statue to commemorate the mosquito that bit Oliver Cromwell…

At Belfast City Council they are no strangers to daft proposals but this one from the third biggest city in Ireland is kind of genius.

STATUE TO THE MOSQUITO OR MIDGE THAT BIT OLIVER CROMWELL

‘That Cork City Council will erect a statue to the mosquito or midge that bit Oliver Cromwell during his siege of the city, later causing his death through ‘Cork fever’ (malaria); and that this statue shall be the ‘world’s smallest public statue’.’

(Proposer: Cllr. O. Moran 26/266)

This is a pretty clever idea as it would be low cost, will get acres of publicity and it will become a good tourist attraction. Well done to the imaginative Cllr O. Moran.

I don’t see any evidence in his Wikipedia entry that he actually was bitten as a result of his stay in Cork but sure why let the truth get in the way of a good story? The Siege of Cork was 1649, Cromwell did not die until 1658, nearly nine years later.


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