The news last week that thieves got away with rhino heads and horns worth €500,000 from the National Museum in Dublin reminded me that there has been little or no mention of Waterford’s foxy cockles in recent years. Rhino horns are much sought after by certain practitioners of Chinese medicine who believe them to hold curative and aphrodisiac properties.
Many people believe the same is true of the foxy cockles that are found only on the beaches of County Waterford. In every jar of cockles collected there may be only one that is ‘foxy’ but they drive men and women crazy with lust and they make greyhounds and racehorses go like the blazes.
Compared to the ordinary cockles they have a slight, reddish hue and nobody really knows what gives them their ‘get up and go’. Mind you, one has to be careful because a feed of foxy cockles is a nuclear bomb compared to the box of fireworks that is Viagra.