RATHKEALE and fraud

The County Limerick village of Rathkeale made headlines recently after the image of the Virgin Mary was seen in the stump of a felled tree. It is a bit of good news for the little village in rural Ireland which is also the spiritual home to some of Ireland's most prolific fraudsters. This time last year members of the 'Bishop' O'Brien clan from Rathkeale were selling dodgy generators all over Australia (read it here). Fair trade officials there called it one the biggest and well-organised scams of its type. Another of Rathkeale's traveller-trader sons in Michael 'Levan' Slattery who is the subject of legal action by an antiques dealer in Baltimore, Maryland. Read the full story here about 'Levan'. Apparently the far-flung Irish traveller-traders and the fraudsters amongst them are promising to make a pilgrimage back home.