Ireland's Lore and Tales

The “Dar-Daol” – (pronounced: Darr-Deel).

“Daol” is the generic term for beetle in Irish and the “Dar-Daol” refers to a species of beetle belonging to the large family of the ‘Rove’ beetles, and is known in the English language as the “Devil’s Coach-horse Beetle.” It has earned for itself this name and a reputation in the countryside for evil because of its black appearance, and because it adopts an attitude of defiance when it is confronted in the open. Defiantly it turns its tail upwards as if preparing to sting in its defence and, at the same time, raises its head to reveal fierce looking mandibles. Much of the folklore that surrounds this strange insect comes from the counties in the south-east of Ireland.

One such tale reports – “On the day before he was betrayed by Judas, Jesus came across a group of people who were sowing in a field and blessed their work. As a result of this blessing the crop grew miraculously fast and when temple guards came to the spot the next day, seeking Jesus, they found a full field of wheat. When they asked if Jesus had passed that way, they were told that he had done so on the day when the field was sowed. The guards, deciding that this was too long ago, turned to go back, but the Devil in the form of a ‘Dar-Daol’ put up his head and said, “Yesterday, it was yesterday!” With these words the ‘evil one’ set the temple guards on the track of Jesus.

“It is because of this that the ‘Dar-Daol’ should be immediately killed as soon as a person come upon one. Tradition, however, says that there is only one safe means of disposing of the creature, for if you kill it with your hand or with a stick, or a boot, the slightest touch from any of these can bring about mortal injury to man or beast. The safe way is to first lift the ‘Dar-Daol’ with a shovel and then burned on a fire, and no harm will come to you or anyone else.“

In these more ecologically sensitive days there are many rural people who believe that it is a great pity that the ‘Dar-Daol’ should have been persecuted in such a way, for they consider them to be a beneficial insect to farmers, because the beetle preys upon ‘wire-worms’ and other insects that can cause great damage to the crops.