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  • 2018-10-25 (xsd:date)
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  • Did the 'Shawshank Husband' Dig a Tunnel from His Bedroom to a Pub? (en)
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  • Internet legend has it that an Irish plumber spent 15 years digging a tunnel from his house to a local pub so that he could enjoy a drink at his leisure without his wife's permission. This story has appeared on several web sites over the years, and despite its rather ludicrous premise it has repeatedly taken in some gullible social media users. This rumor started with a September 2014 post on the web site Tyrone Tribulations entitled Omagh’s ‘Shawshank Husband’ Dug Tunnel from Bedroom to Pub Over 15 Years: The story was picked up by viral web sites such as Boing Boing and BuzzFeed (both of which later admitted that they had been fooled) before it spread to less reputable sites such as 8shit.net. As of October 2018, web sites such as mens-corner.net were still presenting this story as if it were a genuine piece of news. This tale, however, is just a humorous bit of fiction. Tyrone Tribulations did not specifically mark this story as satire, but it was replete with sufficient ridiculous details to clearly indicate that it was a work of fiction. The most telling aspect is likely found in the closing paragraph, which depicts a wife who simply shrugged off the fact that her husband routinely smelled of sewage: Gombeen, the author of the article, also provided some humorous explanations when readers questioned the authenticity of his reporting. When asked how this Irish plumber could have seen the Shawshank Redemption in 1994 when the film wasn't released in Ireland until 1995, Gombeen remarked that years work strangely in the Emerald Isle. And when queried why this man would bother digging a tunnel when he could have just walked out of the front door given that his wife was such a sound sleeper (she apparently wasn't bothered by the noise of his power tools), Gombeen averred that the floorboards in Omagh are extra squeaky: Tyrone Tribulations frequently publishes humorous material that pokes fun at life in Ireland. Although the site does not carry a disclaimer explicitly labeling its content as satire, they do state that the accuracy of their stories cannot be guaranteed. We reached out to the site to confirm that this was a bit of fiction and asked the proprietor, Paudge McGaudge, what it was like to unwittingly fool thousands of people: (en)
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