True Irish Ghost Stories

Abstract

THE original collection of true Irish ghost stories appeared in 1914, and elicited a large number of additional examples which warranted a second and enlarged edition; but publication was delayed owing to the War. The re-issue is justified by the additions. The collection covers a wide range of phenomena. The three chapters which are devoted to haunted houses include some remarkable experiences, many of which are off the familiar track. One quoted from the Occult Review describes the apparition of what was clearly an elemental with characteristic hairless face and unpleasant stench. The poltergeist stories, as compared with some which have appeared recently in. the Press in England, are, on the whole, disappointing as psychic manifestations, and indeed, except in the cases recorded by the late Sir W. Barrett, resemble folk-tales relating to these appearances rather than genuine experiences. Of the ancestral ghosts, some are already familiar to students of folklore, among them being the Gormanstown foxes, real foxes which on one occasion appeared in Dublin itself. There are several cases of invisible ghosts. One, if invisible, was ponderable, for when it jumped on the handle bar of a bicycle the rider was compelled to. pedal down a steep hill. Of apparitions before, at, and after death, and of the banshee, there are, as might be expected, numerous examples. The compilers present the stories without comment, and of course do not guarantee their genuineness.

True Irish Ghost Stories.

Compiled by Dr. St. John D. Seymour and Harry L. Neligan. Second edition, enlarged. Pp. lxvii + 299. (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis and Co., London: Oxford University Press, 1926.) 7s. 6d. net.