Viewers were surprised to see This Morning hosts Dermot O'Leary and Alison Hammond talking to a 'leprechaun whisperer' on the ITV sofa.

Video transcript

ALISON HAMMOND: Tell us about the first time you actually met a leprechaun.

KEVIN WOODS: Well, I live in-- I live in the land-- you're laughing before I start. You don't take me seriously.

DERMONT O'LEARY: I'm in.

ALISON HAMMOND: I do take you seriously.

KEVIN WOODS: I need you to take it seriously.

ALISON HAMMOND: All right.

KEVIN WOODS: I live in the land of legends-- of myths and legends and little people in County Louth in Ireland. And my first occasion-- you want to hear the story or you want me to tell you when I first saw them?

ALISON HAMMOND: Yeah, when you first-- was it back in 1989?

KEVIN WOODS: No, 1989 was when I didn't believe in them.

DERMONT O'LEARY: Yeah.

ALISON HAMMOND: Yeah.

KEVIN WOODS: A guy found a leprechaun suit and some bones up in the Cooley mountains above Carlingford in County Louth, and he told me he thought that leprechauns lived up there. And he brought down the suit, and he found some bones. And there was some gold in the pocket of it, and he told me he believed leprechauns were there. And I said I didn't believe in them. It was a load of rubbish.

I heard you saying this morning you didn't believe in them.

DERMONT O'LEARY: I'm open. I'm always open.

KEVIN WOODS: Anyway, she's open as well. They know that. But anyway, I wanted to know for myself so I got as many people on the mountain as I could 36 years ago. And I hid 4,000 punds, ponce the ware in Ireland at the time, along the top of the mountain, and I sold leprechaun hunting licenses for a tenner. To search the mountain, they came in their thousands with leprechaun traps, and when they came off the mountain the caught nothing except the 4,000 pounds and the four toy leprechauns. And I made 8,000 for me day.

But he died subsequently. God rest him, PJ and--

[LAUGHING]

That's sad.

ALISON HAMMOND: I'm sorry.

KEVIN WOODS: Like, that's not to be laughed at.

DERMONT O'LEARY: She wasn't laughing at PJ.

KEVIN WOODS: All right.

DERMONT O'LEARY: The leprechaun.

KEVIN WOODS: Right.

ALISON HAMMOND: So what's in that bag then? What's going on in that bag?

KEVIN WOODS: I brought him over.

ALISON HAMMOND: That's a actual leprechaun.

DERMONT O'LEARY: How many are that now?

KEVIN WOODS: There's 236 of them left in the whole of Ireland, including this one, and they're protected by the European Union since 2009.