Its been a while since I`ve held one of these Man of wars.
A few have been washing up along Lahinch , I found this one after surfing at Cregg.
It brings back memories of being entwined in one at Snapper rocks.
The stings are like being in a bucket full of wasps charged up with electricity particles, the lengths of tentacles/stingers scar you for months like a whiplash and for hours after various sensitive body parts swell and contract.

Anyone unfamiliar with the biology of the venomous Portuguese Man-of-War would likely mistake it for a jellyfish. Not only is it not a jellyfish, it’s not even an “it,” but a “they.” The Portuguese Man-of-War is a siphonophore, an animal made up of a colony of organisms working together.
That said, if you see one floating up near to a fellow surfer yelling ‘jellyfish!’ is probably your best course of action.
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Grace handling the bubble of stingless Man of War |