Pics: Irish lads in Australia learn the hard and terribly painful way about the dangers of firewalking

Firewalking might be a practise common amongst many cultures and something that has gone on for thousands of years, but a few Irish lads in Australia learned recently that it's best left to people who know what they're doing.

According to the anonymous JOE reader who sent this into us, whose brother was one of the victims in this case and who he appeared to have precious little brotherly sympathy for, a couple of lads from Mayo decided to give it a go while out camping near Perth having heard about Tibetan monks who walked on hot coals without getting burnt.

Unfortunately for the lads in question, they experienced a sensation far different to the Tibetan monks, that sensation being severe pain after the fire had the inevitable effect on their poor feet and resulted in fairly horrible third degree burns, although thankfully they avoided the need for skin grafts.

Well, you know what they say, play with fire and... you're going to get pretty horrific burns that mean you won't be able to walk right for a couple of weeks, but lesson learned and all that.