Irish Ghost Stories E-Book

Patrick Byrne

• Herausgeber: Mercier Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 1999

Seitenzahl: 218

Beschreibung

Irish Ghost Stories contains stories that tell of spooky goings-on in almost every part of the country. They include the tales of the Wizard Earl of Kildare, the Scanlan Lights of Limerick, Buttoncap of Antrim, Maynooth College's haunted room, Loftus Hall in Wexford, and an account of how the poet Francis Ledwidge appeared to an old friend in County Meath. The country of Ireland is full of old castles with secret rooms, and while some of the stories are obvious figments of lively imaginations, there are other tales that cannot be easily explained away.

Leseprobe

Irish Ghost Stories

Patrick F. Byrne

MERCIER PRESS

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Blackrock, Cork, Ireland.

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© Patrick F. Byrne

Originally published as Irish Ghost Stories (1965) and More Irish Ghost Stories (1971)

ISBN: 978 1 85635 285 7

Mobi ISBN: 9781856357647

Epub ISBN: 9781856357272

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Independent Newspapers Ltd and the Evening Herald, for permission to use material which has already appeared in the Evening Herald Ghosts column. Also, the following for allowing me to use their stories – Michael MacLiammoir, Dan Breen, Terry O’Sullivan, Noel Conway, Desmond Rushe, James Maher of Mullinahone, Co. Tipperary; Margaret O’Brien of Killakee House, Co. Dublin; Joseph Hammond, Philip de Burgh O’Brien, Thomas Doran, F. W. Gumley; S. O’F. of Dublin; Robert Brennan, Shane Leslie, Denis Brennan, Máire O’Donnell, E. M. Thompson, Dun Laoghaire; J. Hayes of Clontarf; K. Callery of Kilkenny; Violet Smyth of Roundwood; Patrick J. Donaghy; Garda Sergeant James Lowe, Liam Shine, David O. Watson of Belfast; S. Stevenson of Belfast, C. MacMullen Tivy of Adambeg, Midleton, Co. Cork; H. M. B. of Rochfortbridge, Co. Westmeath; J. S. B. of Lanesboro, Co. Longford; Patrick Stewart of Patrickswell, Limerick; Noel Smith, Limerick, M. E. Thompson Castlegarde and Teddy Aherne, Herne Hill, London.

In addition, I wish to acknowledge the permission to quote from the following books: Scholars and Gypsies by Walter Starkie, (‘Don Gypsy and his Blood Brother’) by permission of Messrs. John Murray, Publishers, Ltd and the author; Crowned Harp by Nora Robertson by permission of the author and the publishers, Messrs. Allen Figgis, Gentle Places and Simple Things by Kevin Danaher, by permission of the author and the Mercier Press; The Silent Years by John Francis Byrne (‘Cranly and the Haunted House on Cork Hill’) by permission of the publishers, Farrar, Straus & Company, Inc., copyright 1953 by J. F. Byrne; True Irish Ghost Stories compiled by St John D. Seymour and Harry L. Neligan by permission of Messrs. Hodges Figgis & Co. Ltd; Malachy Horan Remembers by George A. Little – extracts reprinted by permission of the author and the publishers; Myself and Others by Annie M. P. Smithson – extracts by permission of the Talbot Press; Window on Maynooth by Dennis Meehan – extract by permission of the author and Messrs. Clonmore and Reynolds.

I would also like to thank my wife for her excellent co-operation and patience in doing most of the typing and helping to put the book together.

1 – In History’s Pages

On the first day of May (Bealtaine) the Tuatha de Danaan landed in north-west Connacht, legend has it, and the Firbolgs who were in Ireland before them, did not see them landing as the hills and coast were covered by a fairy mist. In Ireland the fairy mist they brought with them seems to have stayed, if one is to judge by the strange happenings recorded over the centuries. Ghosts, in the modern sense were unknown to pre-Christian Ireland. In those days it was the old pagan gods that were reported as appearing to people.

Their headquarters were at Brugh na Boinne on the banks of the Boyne, where the Dagda, the ‘Red Man of all Knowledge’, had his home; in the Boyne itself lived the Dagda’s son, the handsome Angus, who guarded young lovers, and who was seen by many of the kings at Tara, including the great Cormac Mac Art.

Near Tara also lived that terrifying Goddess of Battles, the Morrigu. Her appearance always signified the horror of things to come – the screams of men dying in battle, homes burned to the ground, the wailing of women. She appeared to Cuchulain and spoke to him just before his heroic death at the Pillar Stone in Louth.

And, of course, there was Midhir and Etain, the immortal lovers who died, were born again and met in the Great Hall of the King’s Palace at Tara. They recognised one another and flew away together as swans – a story which has been beautifully woven into a play in a modern setting by Michael MacLiammoir.

Lastly, there was Manannan Mac Lir, the proud and angry Ocean God, as the poem tells us ... ‘whose angry lips, in their white foam full often did inter, whole fleets of ships.’

In the Fianna Cycle there are tales of the appearance of beautiful men and women from Tír-na-nÓg; palaces that appear and disappear (the Fairy Palace of the Quicken Trees, for example) and in one story Fionn MacCumhaill meets a handsome young man who turns out to be himself when young.

With the coming of St Patrick the supernatural events recorded generally involved demons and the spirits of evil who troubled the hermits in their solitude and the monks in their monasteries. In pre-Christian days when hero battled with hero, now it became a wrestling match between good and evil, the holy men and the devils. The beautiful young woman from Tír-na-nÓg became the Bean Sidhe, or Fairy Woman, and her arrival was to announce the death of a member of some ancient clan.

Fionn MacCumhaill and the leaders of the Fianna were said to be sleeping, with their weapons by their side, under the Hill of Allen waiting to hear the shrill of the trumpet, the Dord Fiann calling them to defend their country from the invader, and this brings us to the story of Garrett Óg Fitzgerald, the Eleventh Earl of Kildare.

The Wizard Earl

Garrett Óg died in London on 16 November 1585, and his body was brought back to Ireland and interred in St Brigid’s Cathedral, Kildare. He was known as ‘The Wizard Earl’ because he was said to practice the black art. He was able to change himself into other shapes, such as bird or beast, and as a result of this became a terror to the countryside.

His wife, the countess, had never seen him practice these strange things as he used to retire to a secret room in the castle. She frequently begged him to transform himself before her, but this he refused to do. He said that if he did, and she became afraid, he would be taken from her, and never be seen again.

She kept on asking, however, until in the end he agreed to do as she wished, but first she must undergo three trials to test her courage. In the first trial the River Grees, which flowed past the castle walls, overflowed its banks at a sign from the earl and flooded the banqueting hall where they were standing. The countess remained undisturbed.

At the earl’s command the waters receded, and the second test began. A huge eel-like monster appeared at one of the windows, slid through, crawled about among the furniture, and finally coiled itself around the body of the countess. Still she showed no fear, and at a nod from the earl the creature uncoiled itself and disappeared.

In the third test an intimate friend of hers long since dead entered the room and passing slowly by went out at the other end. The countess showed not the slightest fear, and the earl was satisfied that he could trust her, but again warned her of the danger if she became afraid when he changed his shape.

He then turned himself into a large black bird, flew about the room and perching on the countess’ shoulder began to sing. Suddenly a black cat appeared and made a spring at the bird; the countess forgot the warning and fearing for the bird’s safety, threw up her arms and fainted. When she came to she was alone, the bird and the cat had disappeared, and she never saw the earl again!

It was said that the earl and his knights lie in an enchanted sleep, their horses beside them, in a cave under the Rath of Mullaghmast, about five miles north of Kilkea Castle. Once in seven years they come out, gallop around the Curragh and then across the country to Kilkea Castle where they enter the haunted wing, and then return to the Rath of Mullaghmast.

The earl was said to be mounted on a white charger shod with silver shoes, and when those shoes were worn out the enchantment would be broken, and he would come out, drive the English from Ireland, and reign again over the vast estates of his ancestors. Shortly before 1798 he was said to have been seen by a blacksmith who was crossing the Curragh in a cart from Athgarvan to Kildare. He was asked to examine the horse’s shoes but they were not yet worn out.

***

Another legend said that late one evening a farmer was returning from a fair in Athy. He was going in the direction of Ballytore and when passing near the Rath of Mullaghmast was astonished to see a bright light coming from it. On going closer he noticed that the light came from a cave in which several men in armour were asleep with their horses beside them.

Cautiously he crept up to the entrance, and seeing that neither man nor beast stirred he grew bolder and entered the cave; he examined the saddlery on the horses, and the men’s armour and plucking up courage slowly began to draw a sword from its sheath, as he did so the owner’s head began to arise and he heard a voice say in Irish – ‘Has the time come?’

In terror, as he let go of the sword, the farmer replied ‘No, sir’ and fled from the place.

It was said that if the farmer had completely unsheathed the sword the enchantment would have been broken and the earl would have come into his own again.

Lord Tyrone and Lady Beresford

One of the most famous of Irish ghost stories is that concerning Lord Tyrone (John Le Poer) and Lady Beresford (Nichola Sophia Hamilton). They were orphans and were reared by an atheistic guardian who tried to enforce his views upon them. As a result of this the two young people made a vow that the first to die should appear to the other if there was a life beyond the grave.

In the course of time Nichola Hamilton married Sir Tristram Beresford. One night she awoke in terror to find her foster-brother standing beside the bed. He bade her be quiet, and told her he had just died and reminded her of the vow made years before. He told her of many future things including the death of her husband. He also said that she would marry again, have four more children and that soon after the birth of her last one, on the day of her forty-seventh birthday her own death would take place.

Having heard all this Lady Beresford asked how would she know that it was not all a dream. At this Lord Tyrone took her wrist in his icy clasp, and it immediately shrank and withered. For the remainder of her life she always wore a black silk ribbon over the deformity.

All the predictions came to pass up to the birth of her fourth child by her second marriage. Despite this she reached her forty-eighth birthday, and decided to celebrate the occasion with a few friends. One of those invited was a clergyman, an old friend of her family.

‘I am 48 today,’ she told him with delight. To her dismay the clergyman said – ’No, you are mistaken. You are only 47.’

Shaking and pale, Lady Beresford asked – ‘Are you sure?’

The clergyman said he was positive, as he had been looking at the register only a few days before.

‘Then you have signed my death warrant,’ she said. She retired to her room made her will and died later that night. The house in which the ghostly pact was made was said to have been Gill Hall, Co. Down, an 367-acre estate.

Marshal Browne

Clongowes Wood near Clane, Co. Kildare, was once the home of the Eustace family, who forfeited it for their part in the Insurrection of 1641. It then passed into the hands of Richard Reynel, who in 1667 sold it to the Brownes. One of this family later became a marshal in the Austrian army, and while he was serving in the wars the house was occupied by his two sisters.

One afternoon the ladies were engaged with their needlework in a room off the hall when to their amazement they saw their brother come in in his full regimental uniform. He held his hands against his breast and there were red stains on his tunic. The ladies followed him up the stairs but on reaching one of the bedrooms the figure vanished.

Convinced that the apparition foretold the death of the marshall the good ladies immediately went into mourning and had Masses offered for his soul. They even held a ‘wake’ which was attended by the local gentry. Several weeks later an official letter arrived at the house telling of the marshal’s death at the Battle of Prague.

Charles Fort

Charles Fort, a former British military station near Kinsale, which was erected in 1667 by the Duke of Ormonde was said to be haunted by the ghost of the ‘White Lady’. The story behind this is as follows:

Shortly after the fort was built Colonel Warrender, a strict disciplinarian, was appointed its governor. He had a daughter named ‘Wilful’ who fell in love with and married Sir Trevor Ashurst. On the evening of their wedding day, as the happy couple were walking along the battlements of the fort, the bride saw some flowers growing on the rocks beneath. She expressed a wish for them, and a sentry posted close by volunteered to climb down to get them if Sir Trevor took his place during his absence.

Sir Trevor agreed, and took the soldier’s greatcoat and musket while the latter went in search of a rope, and began his descent. Meantime, Sir Trevor, overcome by the excitement of the day, fell asleep. Along came the governor, making his customary rounds of the sentries and challenged the sleeping man. Receiving no answer, and realising the sentry was asleep on duty, the angry governor drew his pistol and shot him through the heart!

It was only on inspecting the body that he realised his mistake. When the young bride learned what had happened she rushed distractedly from the house and flung herself over the battlements. In despair at the double tragedy her father shot himself during the night.

The ‘White Lady’ is the ghost of the young bride. Major Black who was attached to the fort, and served in the Peninsular War reported seeing the wraith in the early years of the nineteenth century. He used see the figure passing up and down the stairs. In 1880 Captain Marvell Hull and Lieut Hartland were going from room to room in the fort when on a landing they were confronted by a woman in a white dress. She turned and looked towards them showing a beautiful, but colourless face, and then passed on through a locked door.

On once occasion in the same fort some officers found themselves flung down the stairs by an invisible force.

Wallstown Castle

A rather curious apparition was said to haunt Wallstown Castle in Co. Cork, the seat of the Wall family. The castle was burned down by the Cromwellian troops in 1642 and Colonel Wall, the head of the family, was captured, and imprisoned in Cork Jail where he died. One of the defenders during the siege was a man named Henry Bennett, who was killed while fighting. His ghost was said to be seen around the ruins.

He wore the Cavalier dress of the period with a white hat and in his hand he carried a pole which he used to place across the road near the castle to stop travellers; on being asked to withdraw it, he would do so and laugh heartily. A man who lived in a cottage in the vicinity used to report that the apparition often came to his window and pushed the pole through. When asked to withdraw it he would do so with an accompanying hollow laugh.

2 – In old Dublin

Marsh’s Library

In a quiet corner of old Dublin, beside St Patrick’s Cathedral stands Marsh’s Library, the first public library in Ireland. Originally the private library of Archbishop Narcissus Marsh (1638– 1713) whose palace is now the garda depot in Kevin Street, it still retains its old-world atmosphere.

About 50 years ago the library was said to be haunted by the ghost of its founder. He was reported to frequent the inner gallery which contained his favourite books. It was said that he moved in and out among the bookcases taking down some of the volumes from the shelves and occasionally throwing them down on the reader’s desk as if in anger. In the morning things were always found to be in order.

The story behind this was that the archbishop reared one of his nieces from childhood and loved her like his own daughter. The niece fell in love and eloped with a foreign sea captain whose boat was moored at the end of Winetavern Street. Before doing so, however, she wrote a note to her uncle asking his forgiveness, and placed it in one of his favourite books. The archbishop never found it in his lifetime, and so his ghost is said to be still seeking it.

When the library was first opened to the public the books were chained to the shelves and readers were searched on the way out to see if they had a precious volume under their great-coat. The chains and locks may still be seen. Those were the days before one could bring a book home from the library to read in comfort before a blazing fire.

Dean Swift was a frequent visitor to the library and his caustic comments may be read in the margins of some of the books, so perhaps it might be that the ghost is that of the great satirist trying to obliterate some of his uncharitable scribblings.

The connecting door between the library and the palace may still be seen. When the latter first became a police barracks in the last century many of the then Dublin Metropolitan Police reported strange happenings, such as noises and figures been seen in the dormitories. Nothing has been reported in recent years, but the courtyard is still a rather spooky place on a dark winter’s evening.

Marshalsea Barracks

The Marshalsea Barracks in Bridgefoot Street, Dublin was originally built about 230 years ago as a Debtors’ Prison, but in 1798 was taken over by the military during the Rising. A large number of captured insurgents were taken there and tortured before execution.

One of them, Pat Doyle, a Wexfordman, made a desperate effort to escape. A powerfully built fellow, he overpowered three of the guards, and managed to scale the thirty-foot wall. When he had reached the top, however, he lost his footing, and tumbled to his death in the backyard of a house in Bridgefoot Street. For years afterwards many people claimed to have seen his ghost prowling along the top of the wall, seeking a way to escape.

The Marshalsea was taken over by the corporation in 1932 and converted into flats. A vast new scheme of flats is now beside it.

Lord Norbury

John Toler, better known as Lord Norbury, the Hanging Judge, who presided at the trial of Robert Emmet and many of the 1798 leaders lived in a big house in Cabra, Dublin. Until the house was pulled down just before the war there were all sorts of ghost stories told about it. One of these was that the bloodthirsty judge on his death was changed into a phantom black dog whose fate was for eternity to prowl around the area at night, dragging a large chain behind him.

Another story about Norbury was that he once wrongfully convicted a young married man from Blanchardstown, Co. Dublin of sheep-stealing, a capital crime in those days, and the man was later hanged. His widow went into a decline, and died soon after him. On her death-bed she cursed the judge and vowed that whether she came back from Heaven or Hell she would never let Norbury have an unbroken night’s sleep in his own house. As a result he was said to suffer from chronic insomnia.

The house was demolished just before the war to make way for the new housing estates in Cabra West.

Rathfarnham

In the winter of 1840–41 a skating party was enjoying itself on the pond in the grounds of the castle near Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin. Among the skaters was a man who had with him a very fine curly-coated retriever dog.

The pond was thronged with people enjoying themselves, when suddenly the ice gave way beneath him, and the man fell into the water; the dog went to his rescue, and both were drowned. A monument was later erected to perpetuate the memory of the dog’s heroic self-sacrifice. The ghost of the dog was said to have haunted the grounds and the public road between the castle gate and the Dodder Bridge. Many people were said to have seen the dog, and the story is well known locally.

The ghost of a boy who was murdered by a Romany was said to have haunted one of the lodge gates of the castle demesne. The castle has been in the possession of the Jesuit Fathers and there has been no sign of a ghost there for a long time now.

Law Case

A law case about a haunted house took place in Dublin in 1885. A Mr Waldron, a solicitor’s clerk, sued his next-door neighbour, one Mr Kiernan, a mate in the merchant service, to recover £500 for damages done to his house. Kiernan denied the charges, but asserted that Waldron’s house was haunted. Witnesses proved that every night, from August 1884 to January 1885, stones were thrown at the windows and doors, and extraordinary and inexplicable occurrences constantly took place.

Mrs Waldron, wife of the plaintiff, swore that one night she saw one of the panes of glass of a certain window cut through with a diamond, and a white hand inserted through the hole. She at once caught up a bill-hook and aimed a blow at the hand, cutting off one of the fingers. This finger could not be found, nor were any traces of blood seen.

A servant of hers, she said, was persecuted by noises and the sound of footsteps. Mr Waldron, with the aid of detectives and policemen, endeavoured to find out the cause, but with no success. The witnesses in the case were closely cross-examined, but without shaking their testimony. The facts appeared to be proved, so the jury found for Kiernan, the defendant. At least twenty people had testified on oath to the fact that the house had been known to have been haunted.

Dublin Cathedral

About 60 years ago the following report appeared in the Dublin Evening Herald: ‘An extraordinary story is going the rounds of the Dublin clergy. It is stated that a lady who is in the habit of attending one of our cathedrals has lately seen the figure of a deceased member of the chapter sitting in his place in the choir. To add to the mystery, one of the members of the staff of the cathedral has asserted that a similar appearance of the same person has occurred to her. The story is told by a dignitary of the city who himself is regarded as no mean authority on such mysteries.’

The Widow Gammon

Near Monkstown, Co. Dublin is the Widow Gammon’s Hill which is said to be haunted by the ‘Widow’s’ ghost. The story behind it is as follows: A monastery stood in the area, as local placenames indicate, in pre-Reformation days. By the time of Cromwell the monks were still hiding out in local farmhouses. The Widow Gammon is said to have informed on them to the soldiers and they were caught and put to death.

When the widow herself died, her spirit was said to be seen on occasions afterwards at the place where the monks had been caught. One local man claimed he had seen her, and that she had placed her hand on his neck and burned him, leaving a scar for life.

‘An old friend of mine living in the Monkstown area for over 80 years, told us never to go near the Widow’s Hill after midnight as he and several of his friends had seen her there,’ writes Mrs E. M. Thompson, Dun Laoghaire. ‘There is a very old graveyard nearby. My friend tells me that years ago, he and a brother were driving home long after midnight and when passing this graveyard they saw the widow come out. She locked the iron gate and then turned, flashed a great iron key at them and disappeared.

‘About three years after this the same two men saw her again coming out of an old ruined castle. She held a shining article in the shape of an axe in one hand and the key in the other. She crossed the road swiftly from the old castle and unlocked the graveyard gate and passed through.

‘Years later my friends saw the widow once more, this time walking slowly up and down the graveyard path again with the axe shining in her hand.’

Oldbawn

In the seventeenth century Archdeacon Bulkeley lived in Oldbawn House outside Tallaght, Co. Dublin. A story current in the area until recent years was that his ghost was to be seen in a coach drawn by six headless horses from his house to other parts of his vast estate.