Some Ghostly Tales From The Rushlight Archives.

Irish folklore is full of stories of ghosts, banshees and sightings of the devil, but probably the most mentioned is the case of the young baby who lay in the parents bed crying non stop for hours. The doctor came and said that he could find no reason for the child’s crying, but still the child cried in the most awful way. In the end the mother ran and fetched the priest, the priest sat on the edge of the bed for a few moments and studied the child as it rocked in convulsive crying. The priest put his hand under the pillow which rested the baby’s head and pulled out a deck of cards, no sooner had he done this than the baby stopped crying.

Such stories go to illustrate the old belief that cards are unlucky to have in the home. The father who had placed the deck of cards under the pillow is said to have never gambled again in his life.

The following is an account of one of those mysterious phenomena that we were told were not at all uncommon in “the good old days” the story starts at the Castle-Chester a huge house near Islandmagee and the events took place 170 years ago. One of the maids at the castle, a Beth Sinclair had unconsciously won the heart of a young man, a butler at the neighbouring mansion at Red Hall, Ballycarry. His advances awoke no response in the object of his affections, and as time wore on he began to realise that his suit was hopeless so he made up his mind to make one last desperate attempt at winning the girls heart. .and his decision led to a gruesome sequel, However, he went along to the Castle and when afforded a chance he approached Beth, he asked the beautiful girl to marry him or be prepared to see him lying dead at her feet, Not taking him serious she gave him an off hand but firm refusal, whereupon he immediately took a small glass container from his pocket and drank the poison he had in it, before the poor girl could scream for assistance the poor fellow at fallen, literally, at her feet in the violent agonies of death. After the burial of the body strange things began to happen about the house at Castle—Chester. One of the women on going to the well on the following evening as it was growing dark, saw the dead man standing at the side of the path; as she approached, the apparition disappeared, as she said, like a flash of fire. The men folk saw a shadow moving about the yard one evening as they were feeding the beasts before retiring for the night, the dogs barked viciously as at an intruder, yet when the men approached with stable lights they could see nothing. That night the slumbering inmates were awakened by the most unusual sounds throughout the house. It seemed as if every door in the house was being hastily opened and slammed again, The crockery-ware sounded as though it was being thrown about and smashed and the furniture sounded as if falling and being smashed to pieces.

Every member of the family and the servants were aroused in terror, one brave fellow lead the rest by candle—light towards the rooms were the noises came from, the men, some who carried weapons, and the women and. children followed closely behind the candle bearer, out all of a sudden a strange wind whisked up and blew out the light, and thin brought confusion and utter panic into the group, who thundered about in the darkness screaming in fright, For the next few nights these terrible events repeated themselves, each tine more frightening, so it was then that they decided to seek the advice of a local Gospel Minister who told them that the only way in which they could get peace was to dig up the body of the young man and re-bury it in the bed of a river, this at that tine was commonly believed to be an effective way ‘to lay a ghost. Well this was done and peace returned to Castle-Chester, for a time that was, just two weeks later a servant returning from the local village on Pony and trap came galloping into the yard, he slumped from the cart and lay a frightened heap on the ground, the horse was sweating and. covered in foam, it was not until the following day that the man was recovered enough to be able to tell what had taken place along the road by the river where the body had been re—buried, He said that as he reached the stream which crossed the road the dead man arose from the waters alongside the cart, and lay a hand on the side of the cart and leaped up beside the driver, who thereupon fainted and the horse brought him safely home. The Gospel Minister was once again approached by the frightened people and this tine he gave them a new method to get rid of the ghost, and it was this, ’Dig up the body from the river bed,. .,then take it to the shore when the tide is out, after laying the corpse drive a large wooden stake through the heart then cover the body with large rocks,’

Well.. this seemed to have ‘laid’ the troublesome ghost for there after no mention was ever recorded of any unusual sightings and the folk of Castle - Chester got peace in their sleep.

MOTHER HAS COME FOR ME!. well known version of the appearance of a ghost with a message, or an omen of death, is when an old lady living with her daughters family in Herbert Street, Ardoyne, some years ago was lying in her bed dangerously ill and close to death for many days the family had expected the old lady to die and noticing their anxiety she told them she had been talking to her mother, Who had had died many years earlier, and her mother told her she would come and take her with her soon, she described how her mother was dressed and spoke of how she wasn’t afraid to die now she knew she would be with her mother. The family just put all this clown to her I ever. Three nights later the old lady lay very ill with all her family around her, her face suddenly brightened up and her eyes shone with the innocence of a child’s, and almost in a child’s Voice she said, “oh I have to go now, my mother has come for me, she has came a very long way and I don’t want to keep her waiting.” Her eyes flickered sleepily and she peacefully - passed away. The family saw nothing of a ghost like nature but to this day they are convinced that the old Lady did indeed receive a visit from her mother, and let those smart Alec people who would treat folklore lightly prove otherwise, one thing is for sure, the peaceful way the old lady left this world helped the family in their grief.

There are many stories of the ghost of habit, for instance, the old Gas street Lamplighter who for many years dutifully patrolled the streets of the old Pound Loney area lighting and turning of f the street lights at the appropriate times. He was such a familiar sight that most people just took him for granted .that is, until he died and his ghost took to trudging round the lamp posts of f the area and the lamps began lighting and switching of f on their own, it seems the spirit of the poor old man just wasn’t ready to quit the thing he obviously enjoyed doing for so many years and it wasn’t until the new electric street lights were installed that the sightings of the Lamplighter ceased.THE PHANTOM HITCHHIKERS, These type of ghosts are now quite common throughout the world and Belfast has a fair splattering of stories concerning Phantom Hitchhikers. Probably the most famous of these type of local ghosts is that of the young nurse who for 30 years now has been reported to have thumbed lifts on the M.1,near the old Bog Meadows, as far1960’s and as recent as 1988,that I have heard of, this ghost of a young nurse in uniform takes a lift of a motorist only to frightened the poor person near to death by simply disappearing while seated in the car. In August,1977, one motorist claimed the nurse actually spoke to him about the terrible deaths that people suffered in road accidents, she spoke in a most distressed and very depressing tone of voice. . .and suddenly she just disappeared before his very eyes. Surely the most frightening account was the man, who just 5 years ago gave her a lift and nearly jumped out of his skin when she disappeared from the seat beside him but imagine his horror when three miles down the road there she was again thumbing him down for a lift. .did he stop?. ,did he.. ,would you.? The horse Shoe Bend on the main Crumlin Road to Belfast has a well reported Phantom Hitchhiker, indeed, from the many descriptions it would appear there are two different ghosts on that stretch of road, One is an older lady of about 6O years of age dressed in a plaid skirt. and heavy tweed coat whilst the other is aged about 25 to 30, dressed in a flowery summer dress that women who seen. her describe as a dress of the 1950’s era. These two ladies never got into a car that slowed down to offer them a lift, apparently when a motorist would stop they would just stare hauntingly into the face of the motorist, strangely they have never been spotted together.. .what did the motorists do?, they bolted!TIME SLIP GHOSTS AND PLACES. A Time Slip phenomenon is when a person comes on a building that belonged to an early age and in fact is long gone but would suddenly appear and just as suddenly disappear. The old witch’s Cottage at Islandmagee is a perfect example, strangers to the area spoke of having seen a little whitewashed cottage at the turn of the road near Whitéhead and to their disbelief when they passed the same spot only hours later nothing stood there but the hedge row. Apparently in local folklore the cottage had been the home of a famous witch who had been burned at the stake there. .one of the last witches to die in such a way in Ireland, the locals then in their fear and anger burned her cottage to wipe out all memories of her but for many years she taunted them by a spell she had cast making her cottage appear and reappear through the centuries. At Glenwherry, Co. Antrim, a fierce battle took place many centuries ago on the hillside overlooking the river and people holidaying there claimed they saw the battle “Replay” itself and at first they thought it was just a local pageant they were watching but stood in amazement when the soldiers just disappeared into thin air.

Where the college of art is in York Street, Belfast a terrific battle took place on that site many years ago in the Royalists days, and for many, many years locals described hearing the battle noises of clashing swords and thundering horse hooves all mingled with cannon fire and pitiful screams and shouted military commands.

POLTERGEISTS Most hauntings refer to haunted places; Poltergeists have been described as haunted people. The violent and often destructive actions of the poltergeists usually centre around one person whom it would “lock unto” or focus on, the person may be an innocent child or a feeble old lady through whom it would act, The poltergeist is a world wide phenomenon yet is quite rare in Ireland. In the main a Poltergeist is a very angry ghost, usually protesting about human presence in its domain, as it would see it, so to scare off or to voice its disapproval it will use many frightening antics, such as.., A mattress being threw off a bed while a witness is still on it.

A strong smell of beautiful heavy perfume. Bedclothes being pulled off a bed. Drawers moving in and out off furniture. Deafening drumming and other deafening noises. Loud breathing noises at various times. Heavy pieces of furniture flung across a room.

Wallpaper just falling off the wall strips. Doors and windows opening at closing at will. Doors and windows violently banging. Yes, maybe it is as well we don’t have to many poltergeists in Ireland.!

“The Brown Lady of GIenavy” is a story that has been told much in that area. Apparently near a huge tree by the village Catholic chapel a figure of a lady clad in brown clothing can be seen at certain times of the year. but oddly there are long gaps between the sightings as long as ten years go by before someone reports seeing the ghost. One story is that a local man emigrated to Australia and this man had some time earlier saw what he described as a misty figure. However, he was not convinced that it was a ghost, until one night in a local bar in Sydney where he later immigrated to, he fell into conversation with a local man who had once visited Glenavy. This man told him of seeing a ghostly figure clad in brown near the chapel, needless to say, the immigrant changed his mind about ghosts.

Just recently I visited the site of a ruined haunted cottage,  which would be hardly two miles from Crumlin, only I knew where it was I would hardly have found it again, the hedge rows along the lane had completely covered it. The cottage has been lying empty now over 50 years. But there are still people who recall strange sounds there . One story I was told was that concerning some lads, from the Whiterock, back in the 1950’s who were out camping for the night. Now in those days kids didn’t have all the camping gear kids would have today probably an old blanket would be the lot, a Billie can to boil tea and maybe a couple of boiled eggs and some bread and butter. So it was important when bedding down for the night that they found a good sheltered spot and when looking for such they came on the derelict old cottage. In they go and after a while got down to sleeping . Only to be woke up by a low murmuring sound, they accused each other of ‘fooling’ about , making the scaring sound, and each time they were awoken again by an even louder sound until eventually a series of screams set them falling over each other to get out of the derelict house. They heard the screams as they ran down the laneway as fast as they could run, until it died down, But still the boys didn’t stop running till they got well down the road towards home. One of the boys in later life made himself busy as to the story behind the screams and discovered that a young girl had been murdered in the cottage many years before.

Back in my childhood there were many ghost stories, and perhaps many of them were made up for pure entertainment but the teller would always finish by saying, in case anyone doubted him or her, “And that is the Gods Honest Truth,” And sure who would want to challenge the seanachie , only a fool or non Irish person. There is a story that was once spoke of a lot. It goes that an old lady was praying in St Patrick’s chapel one evening and she fell asleep. When she awoke the chapel was locked up for the night and, and she had no doubt she had slept through till the early hours of the morning. Suddenly a priest in full mass vestments was to be seen standing in front of the altar. His expression was most sad, and she heard him say ‘Who will help me say mass?’ Then, just as suddenly, he disappeared. The old woman later told a priest of St Patrick’s what she had seen, and she was told by him that some years before a priest had come out to serve mass one morning and suddenly fell dead at the altar, “and this is probably he returning to fulfil his last business on earth”. The story has it that a priest stayed in the chapel until the ghost appeared again and he helped it say the Mass, and on completion the ghost just vanished and was never seen again. Then an old story an aunt told me the years ago was interesting. She says that her mother told her of an incident that took place in the dockland parish of St Joseph’s. Apparently there lived alone in a little house in Sailorstown a very kindly old spinster. This old lady was forever praying and out about helping her less fortunate neighbours ... a saintly character. On the wall in her kitchen she had a beautiful picture of the Virgin Mary and the old story goes that this picture was seen to cry ... the tears trickled from Our Lady’s eyes, many people came from all over Belfast to see the weeping virgin, and priests were very annoyed about what they saw as silly superstition. However, when a certain priest came to inspect the picture he saw what appeared to be tears coming from the eyes. He touched the wet substance and all in the room were amazed to see the wetness on his finger turn to blood. It is said that the picture was later sent to Rome and it is supposed to be there to this day. Then there is the story of the haunted house in Hawthorn Street. Here, some forty years ago, a woman was said to be lying ill, her husband went off to get the midwife. As he walked along the pavement he says he heard what he described as ‘panting, like that of a huge dog, and the rattling of chains”. This noise followed him the whole way from the sick room to the midwife’s house. As he and the nurse walked back he heard the noise, but he wouldn’t dare mention it to her in case it was just his imagination. However, after the nurse had attended to the sick woman she said to the man “Would you mind walking me home”. She told him of hearing the strange noises; both in the house and along the street. Well, this was too much for the man, he says he got a house elsewhere within a few weeks and moved, I can’t find any origin of the ghostly noises and indeed I have never heard any follow up story since the man left the house but he insists that it happened... And from one strange thing to another ..

DID YOU KNOW. - that Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Presidency in 1860; John. F. Kennedy in 1960.. Both their wives lost children whilst at the White House. BOTH Presidents were shot on a Friday in the presence of their wives, and both were shot in the head from behind. Their successors were both named JOHNSON, were Southern Democrats an& both were in the Senate. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808 and Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908,John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln’s killer was born in 1839,Lee Harvey Oswald Kennedy’s killer was born in l939Both murderers were Southerners favouring unpopular ideas and both were assassinated before their trials. Lincolns secretary whose name was Kennedy advised him not to go to the theatre in which he was killed, Kennedy’s secretary whose name was Lincoln advised him not to go to Dallas where he was killed. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and ran into a warehouse, Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and ran into a Theatre.. Funny old world .. isn’t it.? THE MAN WHO SOLD_THE EIFFEL TOWER Of all criminals Conmen receive a sneaky admiration from most people for their crime usually only affects the rich and most often the greedy rich at that. for example Andre Poisson,a rich French scrap iron dealer who bought the Eiffel Tower from French Government Minister Count Victor Lustig having been told that the Tower had become dangerous and would need to be demolished. The scrap man paid a huge amount of money in cash thinking he was going to make a fortune. .it was learned that the man who got the money and fled the country was not a Government man but the biggest Conman in Europe and poor Mr Poisson was left with egg on his face when he and his squad arrived to dismantle the Power.