HORSE MEAT ON sale in Phibsboro, a UFO spotted in Tipperary, and the seventh son of a seventh son in Galway.

These are just some of the wacky and wonderful stories captured by RTÉ throughout the years since it first started broadcasting.

Some of the more stand out, offbeat reports from its various current affairs programmes over the past number of decades have been compiled in the RTÉ Archives.

A special curated selection of reports and clips detailing some of Ireland’s more eccentric goings on has been compiled in the archives to mark the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage today.

The special Weird and Wonderful collection of 15 videos details various different events and happenings throughout Ireland during the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Among them, the reports include:

• Two dogs that sing the opera in Phibsboro (1971)
• Investigating reports of monsters in Connemara lakes (1969)
• A ‘magic’ priest balancing his niece on a sword in Achill Island (1971)
• A man travelling to Dublin from Longford by steamroller for unknown reasons (1965)

Liam Wylie, curator at RTÉ Archive, said the videos showed the importance of preserving audiovisual content for the future.

The magician priest in Achill.

The RTÉ Archives has over 650,000 thousand hours of moving image and sound recordings as well as significant collections of photographs, manuscripts and administrative documents.

As much as 27% of weekly RTÉ News programming is made up of archive content.

Read: 11 wonderful Christmas memories from the RTÉ Archives

Read: Watch Richard Nixon get egged as he travelled through Dublin

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