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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi,

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Speaker 1: my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Monster Fact,

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Speaker 1: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,

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Speaker 1: focusing in on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.

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Speaker 1: Irish folklore and mythology is a rich well of wonder,

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Speaker 1: from the ancient wars of the Duapha Dadanan to the

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Speaker 1: blood cirdling Banshee and the cunning LEPrecon. But today I'd

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Speaker 1: like to talk about the Cluricon. The Cluricon has a

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Speaker 1: bit in common with its more well known kin. Both

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Speaker 1: it and the LEPrecon are a diminutive fairy folk with

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Speaker 1: a love of strong drink, magical powers, and a malicious

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Speaker 1: streak you want no part of. In some traditions, they

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Speaker 1: are both also tied to shoemaking and hidden treasure. Carol

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Speaker 1: Rose points out in Spirits, Fairies, Leprecons and Goblins, the

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Speaker 1: Cludcon looks like a little old man in a red

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Speaker 1: pointed cap, a red coat with silver buckles, blue stockings,

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Speaker 1: and buckled shoes. But accounts of this magical creature tend

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Speaker 1: to have more in common with traditions of the cellar

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Speaker 1: demon entities in medieval English monastic folklore who would guard

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Speaker 1: the provisions and wines in the cellars of wealthy houses

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Speaker 1: and monastic orders. So likewise, Rose explains that the Cludcon

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Speaker 1: makes its home in Irish wine cellars, tending to the

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Speaker 1: casts and making sure there are no leaks. Now, this

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Speaker 1: alone sounds like a pretty good deal, right, But the

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Speaker 1: added wrinkle is that the Cludcon staggers about in an

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Speaker 1: apparent drunken stupor all the time, frightening any household servants

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Speaker 1: who come near the wine casks at all in order

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Speaker 1: to prevent anyone from stealing the precious stuff. So at

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Speaker 1: the very least, the creature is over zeus and disruptive

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Speaker 1: in its protection of a household's libations. And sometimes it's

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Speaker 1: even worse. In the folk tale The Haunted Cellar, recorded

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Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty five by Irish author Thomas Crofton Croker,

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Speaker 1: the McCarthy household has a legendary wine cellar. It's stocked

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Speaker 1: with an enviable selection of fine wines and Irish whiskies,

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Speaker 1: if only anyone could fetch them. The vaults beneath the

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Speaker 1: mansion are old, dating back to a time when there

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Speaker 1: were places of refuge carved from the stone beneath an

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Speaker 1: ancient castle that once stood on these very grounds. A

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Speaker 1: cluracon haunts these depths, and while it respects the master

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Speaker 1: of the house and permits him to fetch wine and

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Speaker 1: whiskey on his own, all others are greeted with haunting effects,

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Speaker 1: such as trembling bottles and the sensation of things crawling

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Speaker 1: in the dark. In various other accounts as well, the

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Speaker 1: master of a curacon wine cellar cannot simply move away either.

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Speaker 1: For starters, moving the wines and whiskies might be difficult

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Speaker 1: if you had to do it yourself, and you don't

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Speaker 1: want to leave all of that stuff. And secondly, the

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Speaker 1: cluricon might just come with you, just as the one

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Speaker 1: in the Haunted cellar threatens to do. In other tales,

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Speaker 1: a household moves only to discover that the troublesome clucon

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Speaker 1: has stowed away in one of the wine casts they

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Speaker 1: took with them. Now, I want to point out that

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Speaker 1: to this day, the LEPrecon film franchise has eight movies

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Speaker 1: in it. Isn't it time that the Cluricon had to

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Speaker 1: go at it? Both legitimate Irish horror cinema and animated

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Speaker 1: Irish fantasy have risen strongly in recent years, and I

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Speaker 1: can imagine a dark or light hearted treatment of the

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Speaker 1: myth going over quite well. I'll leave you with this.

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Speaker 1: If you happen to visit any great Irish houses anytime soon,

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Speaker 1: maybe don't be too insistent on helping the host fetch

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Speaker 1: that next bottle unless you want to have a run

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Speaker 1: in with a clue racon to yourself. Tune in for

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Speaker 1: additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always,

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Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

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Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

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Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.