The lizard's predators include kestrels, stoats and minks. If the predator grasps the lizard by the tail, the lizard divests itself of the tail piece leaving the aggressor with a stump. The lizard then grows back its tail.

In the pre-antibiotic era in Ireland, folk medicine was widely practised across the country. The medicine was a mix of the natural (cures from herbs, plants, minerals and animal substances of nature) and the magico-religious. The latter consisted of magic, religious/holy wells and healers (Barron Soverino 2018, 1)

One of the folk beliefs was that if a person licked a lizard, he/she could cure a person of a burn by licking it. There are a number of references to this cure in the Schools Collection for schools in North Clare (SC Vol 0614, 321, Killinaboy ; Vol 0615, 307, Rathbaun ; Vol 0616, 049, Aill Bhéil an Tulaigh/ Ballyvaughan (Drumcreehy)). The Schools Collection is a collection of folklore compiled by schoolchildren in Ireland in the 1930s.

The accompanying photo was taken in Ballyryan in the south-west of the Burren.

According to propaganda, Saint Patrick is credited with banishing snakes from Ireland. Tellingly, Patrick himself never made such a claim in his epistles. Snakes never reached Ireland. The snakes in the Patrick legend are a symbol of paganism.

Finally, there is actually one other reptile in Ireland. However, it is not native. It is the slow worm (Anguis fragilis). It is a legless lizard. Its range is confined to County Clare. The worm was introduced from another jurisdiction by misguided folk a couple of decades ago. As they say in Yorkshire - there's nowt as queer as folk.

Bí slán, sabháilte - Be safe and sound.

REFERENCES
Barron, C. and T. Soverino 2018. Put a frog in your mouth ; toothache 'cures' from Nineteenth- and Twentieth -century Ireland. Journal of the History of Dentistry Vol 66, No.1.
National Folklore Collection 1937/38. The Schools Collection.