Irish Ghost Tales (2 page)

The banshee at Duckett's Grove is said to have been a woman who William Duckett had an affair with. She was the daughter of a local farmer who died while riding her horse. After her death, her mother put the ‘Widow's Curse' on William and thus the Duckett banshee was born. It has been suggested that the banshee was heard wailing before a number of deaths on the estate. Witnesses claimed to have heard continuous wailing coming from the castle towers and this was said to have resulted in the sudden death of a woman who was walking along one of the paths. On another occasion a housekeeper saw the banshee several times in the castle and, fearing for her life, she abandoned her post, never to return. A man saw and heard the banshee as he walked within the walled garden of the property, then his mother died the following day. Coincidence or not?

There are other stories told about Duckett's Grove. One story concerns a man on horseback who was riding by when his horse suddenly stopped and stared at the gate. The horse refused to move until the man placed his rosary beads on the horse's neck. It then resumed its journey. How do you explain that? Could it be another coincidence?

In 1933 a fire broke out at the castle. Some people said that they had seen smoke coming from the castle a week earlier and their swift action at the time saved the castle. However, one week later they were not so lucky. The cause of the second fire was never determined.

The banshee is not the only spirit that is said to haunt Duckett's Grove. Past members of the Duckett family, and even their servants, have been seen and heard on the property. There have been eyewitness accounts of mysterious lights, noises, voices, shadows, and ghostly figures appearing. On several occasions the sounds of servants working in the kitchens downstairs were heard, yet upon investigation nothing has been found. A phantom horse and carriage has also been seen in front of the castle. Could this carriage have been the Death Coach, on which the banshee is said to accompany the newly deceased on their final journey?

H
ungry Hall is an old place name in the townland of Barreen and is situated approximately 150 yards south of Balraheen crossroads and one mile north of Rathcoffey. The name originates from a tragic series of events that took place in the 1800s. The gruesome story involves the disappearance of a number of young boys in the Rathcoffey area. Despite intensive searches and thorough investigations no trace of the missing children was ever found.

One day a man travelling in the Balraheen area close to Rathcoffey was passing by a house and needed to light his clay pipe. The house, in which an old woman and her son dwelled, was a thatched house with a half door. One record suggests that her son was away from the house at the time as he was a soldier in the British Army. The traveller was in the habit of getting a light for his pipe from the woman in the house. On this occasion he called the woman's name, but he got no reply. As the door was open he decided to enter the house and light the pipe himself. There was a large pot over the fire. The traveller bent down to the fire to light his pipe. As he did so, he saw the foot of a young boy projecting from the pot. The unfortunate man got such a shock he immediately ran out from the house screaming.

The woman was arrested and eventually brought before the local magistrate, Thomas Wogan Browne from Castlebrown, now Clongowes Wood. The incident can be dated to the period when Wogan Browne served as magistrate: firstly, for some years before 1797 and secondly, for a four-year period between 1806 and 1810. At her trial she was accused of cannibalism. She pleaded guilty to the charge. Apparently she enticed the children into her house by offering them food. Wogan Browne was a landlord in the area. He informed her that he had many fine bullocks on his property and asked why she hadn't just stolen one of his cattle if she was that hungry. To this she replied, ‘Your lordship, if only you tasted the flesh of young boys,' which she described as being tastier than veal, ‘you would never eat another scrap of animal meat.' This remark horrified the court and she was sentenced to death.

Executions during the period would usually take place at the scene of the crime. For instance, many highwaymen that were apprehended and convicted of robbery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were brought back to the scene of their crime and hanged there. The execution of this woman took place close to her house at Barreen. There was a large tree beside the house, next to which there was a gate that led to the fields behind the house. A rope was attached to a branch of the tree and she was hanged.

One problem that arose was how to dispose of her remains. As one convicted of eating human flesh, she could not be interred in consecrated ground. This problem was solved by placing a barrel of tar under her body and setting it alight. Her body soon fell into the barrel and was consumed by the flames. She was regarded in the area as a witch and it has been suggested that her execution is the last recorded burning of a witch in the locality.

The house where she lived was never again occupied and soon became a ruin. The house and the adjoining division of land came to be known as ‘Hungry Hall'. In later years a black dog thought to be the witch in disguise was often seen running from Hungry Hall to the roads nearby.

The story of the horrific events at Hungry Hall was often told to children in order to get them to bed early, which is one of the reasons why the story survived in folklore. I must admit, it wouldn't get me off to a good night's sleep.

O
ne of the most famous ghost stories in Ireland is the story of Haddock's ghost. It is a tale about a ghost who returns to right a wrong. James Haddock was a farmer who lived just outside Belfast. He died in 1657 but his spirit returned in order to demand justice be done and the rightful heir to his property recompensed. This story has added interest as the ghost of James Haddock was acknowledged by the celebrated bishop of the time, Dr Jeremy Taylor.

James Haddock had made a will in which he stipulated that his wife Arminell should receive his manor house and the land surrounding it. His young son John Haddock was to receive the rest of his property when he reached the age of 21. The executor of the will was a Mr Davis. Several years after James Haddock died Davis married Arminell and they had a son. Davis then altered Haddock's will and named his own son as the beneficiary of James Haddock's property instead of John Haddock, the rightful heir.

Davis might have succeeded with his deception except for a number of unusual events. Late one night at the end of September, Francis Taverner, a good friend of the late James Haddock, was on his way home to Hillsborough when his horse suddenly stopped on the Drum Bridge near Brumbeg. Taverner climbed down from his horse and attempted to lead it across the bridge when suddenly a figure in a white coat appeared. Taverner was shocked to see that this figure bore an uncanny resemblance to his old friend James Haddock, who had died five years previous. The ghostly figure begged Francis Taverner to help his son get his rightful inheritance but the stunned Taverner refused, jumped on his horse and galloped away.

Taverner was to claim later that a great wind rose up and he heard the sound of hideous screeches.

When he arrived home, Taverner fell to his knees and asked God for his protection. The following night, just after midnight, Taverner was sitting by the fire with his wife when James Haddock appeared again. Taverner's wife didn't see the ghost of Haddock as it appealed to her husband for help. Haddock pleaded with Taverner to go to his widow and tell her that justice must be done for their son John. Once again Taverner refused so the ghost visited him every night for the next month.

Shaken and afraid, Taverner left his home and fled to Belfast to take refuge with a friend, but it did him no good. Haddock's ghost simply followed him. The ghost then demanded that Taverner go to Arminell and scold her in the harshest possible terms for her treatment of their young son. If Taverner continued to refuse then the ghost warned him that there would be severe consequences.

Taverner became desperate and went to his chaplain, John South. He confided in him all that had happened and begged him for guidance. The chaplain went to see the vicar of Belfast, Dr Lewis Downes, and the three men went to see Davis to share the ghost's message with him. Davis laughed at them and refused point-blank to surrender the land.

The ghost of John Haddock told Taverner to take the matter to court. Taverner explained to the ghost the futility of such an action; he had no witness.

‘Never mind,' said the ghost, ‘I'll be there and I'll appear when called upon.'

The court case to return the estate to John Haddock was held in Carrickfergus. The opposing council abused Taverner and challenged him to call upon his ghostly witness if he could. He even went as far as mocking Taverner and shouting, ‘James Haddock, James Haddock'. His tone became even more insulting as he uttered his third summons, to which he received a rather unexpected response.

It was reported that a loud clap of thunder shook the courthouse and a ghostly hand draped in a shroud slowly appeared from the witness box and a spectral voice sounded, ‘Is this enough?'

The courtroom erupted into chaos and, needless to say, the case was settled very quickly afterwards. Davis left the courthouse, heckled by the jeers and catcalls of onlookers. But Davis never made it home. As he was riding back to his house, he was thrown from his horse and broke his neck. After this, Haddock's ghost never bothered Francis Taverner again. The tale of Haddock's ghost was the talk of the countryside, so Bishop Jeremy Taylor held an inquiry and, after hearing all the evidence and listening to the accounts of all the witnesses, he deemed the story of James Haddock's ghost to be true.

It was, he said, ‘the only ghost who ever answered a summons in a court of law'.

But there's one final twist in the story. James Haddock was buried in Drumbeg parish church graveyard in the seventeenth century but it is said that his tombstone will not stand upright. Even after repeated attempts to place it in an upright position, it continues to fall over. It still lies flat on the ground of the family plot to this day, surrounded by moss and grass.

T
here are two things that scare me: clowns and dolls. Don't ask me why. I know they are irrational fears but there you have it. We're all afraid of something, whether it's the supernatural or something as simple as a knock on the door. I'd hate to be locked into a doll museum late at night with those evil-looking little glass eyes following me everywhere. Now, as a reasonably sane person (depending on your point of view), I realise that ghost dolls or haunted dolls aren't real, but the irrational side of me wonders whether they might be …

A few years ago a woman I'll call Mary bought an old doll she saw in a charity shop window. It was worn and a little sorry-looking but it had a certain attraction that she couldn't explain.

When Mary returned home she put the doll on a chair in her bedroom. All went well for a couple of weeks until, one night, Mary had difficulty sleeping. She kept waking up from a nightmare. This was to happen night after night. Mary said that in her dream she was starving and her clothes hung loose and ragged from her thin body.

‘I remember looking out through a small window into the yard and seeing other people. They had the appearance of skeletons covered with yellow-looking skin. They didn't walk; it was more of a shuffle. It was then that I would wake up with a terrible thirst.'