tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35478003158110633762024-03-13T15:57:16.977-07:00Fortean Irelanda miscellany of the unusualFortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-530270131767028662020-07-26T09:36:00.001-07:002020-07-26T09:36:17.605-07:00The Beastie in the Walls<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Fortean Ireland is, inherently, incredibly parochial. So, in an effort to break away from this – and, hopefully, help me deal with my lockdown cabin fever – I've decided to take us on a virtual trip in time and space. </i></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYziPkGHY2ZtYc7oiOSX-sHOBG_2_N5NlZYbpSPR7pBP9vl37ggeeBJsNdYQKHzaiIze24SM0wRM6H_aA_4DAICVaGstOoWdUfiTIjDtXuKegdegJRftCI5JFyG6QgDAdtPffXpGaRKKf/s1600/Tarves+Ghost+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="342" height="367" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYziPkGHY2ZtYc7oiOSX-sHOBG_2_N5NlZYbpSPR7pBP9vl37ggeeBJsNdYQKHzaiIze24SM0wRM6H_aA_4DAICVaGstOoWdUfiTIjDtXuKegdegJRftCI5JFyG6QgDAdtPffXpGaRKKf/s400/Tarves+Ghost+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>This week we’re in March 1934, in Tarves, a small village in Aberdeenshire, in north east Scotland, where Mr & Mrs Wilkie, a couple in their 80s, along with their nine-year-old granddaughter, Bunty Ross, have been living since November 1933 ... </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Shortly after moving into Gateside Croft, the Wilkies began to hear a voice coming from the walls. At first, they were alarmed, but soon they were on conversational terms with their unexpected lodger. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The following exchange between Mr Wilkie and the “beastie” - as it became known - was reported in Dundee’s <i>The Courier and Advertiser</i>: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mr Wilkie: “What are you? Have you four legs?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Voice: “Aye.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mr Wilkie: “Have you a tail?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Voice: “No, but I have a beak.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In addition to answering the Wilkies’ questions, the “beastie,” which spoke in a “broad Buchan dialect,” could repeat the alphabet, count to 90, say the Lord’s Prayer, and would sing “A Bicycle Made for Two” and the hymn “Jesus Loves Me.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When news of the Wilkies’ strange and talented ghost - for that’s how it was being reported - reached the village and beyond, it brought a steady stream of visitors to their home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The “beastie” wasn’t shy, and it seems no one left the croft without having heard it speak. It could be quite direct and would often call out anyone it felt was asking “too much about its identity.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For the most part, though, the “beastie” had a wicked sense of humour, as illustrated by this exchange with a local curiosity seeker: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Woman: “I’ll need to be going down the road now.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Voice: “And I’ll come hame wi’ ye.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Woman: “Deed, ye will no’ do that.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At that, she grabbed her hat and coat and ran out of the house. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While the newspapers t were reporting this as a haunting, and it seems that the Wilkies believed that something supernatural was going on, according to <i>The Courier and Advertiser</i>, “the general opinion is that a trick is being played on the old folks.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But who would play such a mean - but convincing and entertaining - trick on an elderly couple? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_2xS0YWn-V25QXD4d5sY1Gc9qGBGSWPQtJfN8Xeh0vGNG6PB2zlEcpVH_0oNcjAXHF-yN9bDCyaWUk_lu48DKLTp7KzpElzajc9V3mzIWUuHf36eJhzBvhjzr-SWADHlxi8oYDiN0YRoL/s1600/Tarves+Ghost+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_2xS0YWn-V25QXD4d5sY1Gc9qGBGSWPQtJfN8Xeh0vGNG6PB2zlEcpVH_0oNcjAXHF-yN9bDCyaWUk_lu48DKLTp7KzpElzajc9V3mzIWUuHf36eJhzBvhjzr-SWADHlxi8oYDiN0YRoL/s1600/Tarves+Ghost+2.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Within a few days of the “beastie” making the news it suddenly stopped talking. <i>The Evening Telegraph</i> of 26 March reported: “The voice died on Tuesday night, and the family here are at a loss to explain the reason.” It would be another two days before it was revealed that the voice had stopped because the mystery had been solved. The “voice” belonged to Bunty, the Wilkies’ granddaughter. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Exactly how this was discovered is not clear. There are at least three accounts. And while each account credits one of Bunty’s teachers with solving the mystery, they vary in how the teacher made the discovery. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to <i>The Evening Telegraph</i>, the teacher became suspicious during a reading lesson after Bunty “lapsed unconsciously” into the “voice.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“The teacher noticed something unusual about her voice and became convinced that the little girl was a ventriloquist,” explained the <i>Telegraph</i>. “When questioned, Bunty, a bright youngster, admitted that she was the voice.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Another newspaper (for which I failed to note any details), claimed that the “voice” had “followed” Bunty to school. And while the class was being entertained by the “beastie” - one of the teachers was closely watching Bunty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The account that appeared in the <i>Aberdeen Press and Journal </i>on 29 March seemed to suggest that something more troubling than a practical joke was going on: a child in genuine distress, perhaps? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“When she first attended Barthel-Chapel School some months ago she was a fluent speaker and reader. Last week, however, she developed a serious stammer, some of her words being entirely incoherent. In consequence of inquiries then made, it was found that she possessed a ventriloquial voice.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Following Bunty’s confession, other details began to emerge that appeared to confirm her “guilt.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The <i>Aberdeen Press and Journal</i> reported on a separate incident that happened one day when Bunty and a classmate were walking home from school. Seemingly, a voice began to talk to them from the ditch at the side of the road. When the classmate became frightened, Bunty told her “it was just a trick.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And it seems that the locals – well, most of them, were now claiming that they’d never been fooled by Bunty’s antics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Two of those locals were Mrs Bonnar and Mrs Sinclair, both of whom had made multiple visits to the croft to hear the “voice.” According to Bonnar and Sinclair, the “beastie” never spoke until Bunty was in bed. And when it spoke, Bunty always had her face covered - with a book, a newspaper or a knitting pattern. And her head could be seen to move as the “beastie” spoke. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Anybody wis have kent it wis her,” said Mrs Sinclair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, was Bunty responsible for the “voice”? If so, why did she do it? How did she do it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Unfortunately, Bunty’s willingness to talk about the “voice” ended with her confession. She never spoke of it again. On trying to get her to talk about it, a reporter from the <i>Aberdeen Press and Journal</i> wrote: “She simply smiled, but would not speak a word. She would not even reveal how she came to use her unnatural voice, but it is almost certain that she never saw a professional ventriloquist on the stage.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Eleanor Castel, also of the <i>Aberdeen Press and Journal</i>, got the same response from Bunty. And though the girl was happy to spend time with the journalist, she would not talk about the “voice.” </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVgpsv7LLph8e8f1mBwAe9q_Bf-2bhETWoHx7AsY0hxFLT2x0cj489eUzQWEOUgnPJ_8ySMqOy2wr2skkxTPyIunvceXuareTCrpihgz5CDWTLB-u54EPkhkm89_eVh352pB0XhSZCSqon/s1600/Tarves+Ghost+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="515" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVgpsv7LLph8e8f1mBwAe9q_Bf-2bhETWoHx7AsY0hxFLT2x0cj489eUzQWEOUgnPJ_8ySMqOy2wr2skkxTPyIunvceXuareTCrpihgz5CDWTLB-u54EPkhkm89_eVh352pB0XhSZCSqon/s400/Tarves+Ghost+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">However, spending time with Bunty did give Castel some valuable insight into the girl’s incredibly lonely life. “She told me she had a cat, a black one, and its name was Topsy, but this was her only playmate. There was no schoolfellow who came to share her romps. She spent all her spare time with the old couple.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Despite having made a full confession to “responsible persons,” there were some – including her grandparents – who refused to believe that Bunty had been behind the “voice.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Bunty hid naething tae dee wi’t,” Mr Wilkie told Castel. “I tell ye it wis a beastie thit wis ahin the wa’.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lizzie Stott, who worked on a neighbouring farm, also firmly believed that Bunty was innocent. In fact, Castel noted that “nothing would shake her [Stott] from her conviction that a supernatural agency had been at work.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, why were the Wilkies and Miss Stott so confident that Bunty was innocent? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It seems that they all had encounters with the “beastie” at the croft while Bunty was away at school. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And that, to the best of my knowledge, was the end of the Tarves “beastie” story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>I love this story. I pieced it together from newspaper coverage; but if you know of any other resources, please get in touch (leave a comment or email me at forteanireland@gmail.com). </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Aberdeen Press and Journal, 29 March & 2 April 1934 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Courier and Advertiser (Dundee), 26 March 1934 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Evening Telegraph (Dundee), 28 March 1934 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Weekly Telegraph (Larne), 7 April 1934</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-91007434322699360012020-07-02T09:14:00.000-07:002020-07-02T09:14:03.376-07:00The Boyle Incident<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Happy World UFO Day! To celebrate, I thought I’d have a <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjoweWatXQKRFU94d-sNzZLrqKdTonIV10-MxOERnGUHPlgcUHlfZC7WLGzVohcQlHjVEori7eN3r5L6Vabfgu8KnOVVFpHFlygGHPfmRKg54IsfVJ0di6QM2rOcdo7aLockjciCr5jPmB/s1600/Boyle+UFO+Headline+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="358" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjoweWatXQKRFU94d-sNzZLrqKdTonIV10-MxOERnGUHPlgcUHlfZC7WLGzVohcQlHjVEori7eN3r5L6Vabfgu8KnOVVFpHFlygGHPfmRKg54IsfVJ0di6QM2rOcdo7aLockjciCr5jPmB/s320/Boyle+UFO+Headline+image.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunday World 21 September 1997</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
look at the closest thing Ireland has had to a “Roswell Incident.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At about 3:40 am on 7 May 1996, the Gardai, via RTE in Dublin, received a report that a helicopter had crashed in the Curlew Mountains, near Boyle, in County Roscommon. Rescue teams – aided by a military helicopter from Finner Camp – were deployed. They found nothing, and the Gardai later declared the incident a hoax.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">However, a little digging by the <i>Sunday World</i> newspaper uncovered a very different story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to one unnamed camper: “There was a huge flash of light which streaked in front of me and it was the aircraft coming over the mountain. I don’t know if it was a helicopter or something else but the strangest thing was that it was making very little noise for something that was out of control.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Local man Brian O’Flaherty was asleep when the alleged crash occurred, but he was woken by the rescue helicopters. “They were hovering so close to the house the windows were rattling and we had no idea what was going on because we had slept through the whole thing,” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“What I thought was strange was the length of time they stayed searching. They were looking for days even after it was declared a hoax.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Another local, Frank Shanley, didn’t actually see the crash, but claims to have seen evidence that there had actually been one. “I saw the scorched ground and trees exactly where the crash happened and know something came down in the mountains.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Shanley also claims that a road to the crash site was closed, and guarded at night, for six months after the incident. “I tried several times to get onto the road at night and there was no way they were letting me pass. Somebody is trying to hide something and I think it’s do to with aliens or the military.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Amidst all this, two mysterious huts, bristling with aerials, appeared in the area. While the local council acknowledged the presence of one of the huts, claiming it was being used to improve radio communications for a road building project, they denied all knowledge of the second hut.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There was also a story that a Wicklow couple, who’d been camping in the area, had captured the crash on video.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje6H-qDIRdvoQtDKSG2vllK-yvC7emjLgGhh3ShGTIbQgzexnh6ZbR1JNDwbIF0MtFvf7n05rUE8Qpm90AuiLApTwwbI8DdRwlDXnczZxy75a1mfC_zls-tw4sx1hKqc-y-rsPsxVjq82N/s1600/Conspiracy+of+Silence+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="261" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje6H-qDIRdvoQtDKSG2vllK-yvC7emjLgGhh3ShGTIbQgzexnh6ZbR1JNDwbIF0MtFvf7n05rUE8Qpm90AuiLApTwwbI8DdRwlDXnczZxy75a1mfC_zls-tw4sx1hKqc-y-rsPsxVjq82N/s320/Conspiracy+of+Silence+image.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Sunday World</i> journalists weren’t the only people looking for witnesses, though. In their book, <i>Conspiracy of Silence: UFOs in Ireland</i>, Dermot Butler and Carl Nally claim that Belfast based UFO investigator Rena Maguire spoke to a senior military officer whose unit was deployed to the crash scene. According to this officer, in addition to the Irish soldiers and gardai at the crash site, there were a number of men with American accents – and they appeared to be in charge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It’s all very intriguing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">However, on 22 July 2004, in response to a query from Butler and Nally, Superintendent T Commons issued a statement setting out the official position on the Boyle incident. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He confirmed that at 3:35am on 7 May 1996 a report was received that a helicopter may have crashed on the Curlew Mountains. Local gardai – aided by a military helicopter from Finner Camp - had searched the area. But nothing was found and there were no reports of missing aircraft. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was all a hoax, Commons concluded. And while the identity of the hoaxer was known to the Gardai, no action was taken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And that’s that – until the Boyle autopsy video is discovered, of course.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sunday World, 21 September 1997<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Butler, D. and Nally, C. (2006) Conspiracy of Silence: UFOs in Ireland, Mercier Press, Cork</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-65882868535892893812020-05-17T06:35:00.000-07:002020-05-17T06:35:23.706-07:00An Exorcism at the Grotto?<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Baz-qnO_lYXRFxAyWeDNxzNQc6Z40Ow0S8kIgLl1aPZvVj63ZY5HdshkSi3NjCg9maD-j0eG1szFtwefd768219ZKvHM4L6eeWMkgc4Xe26D7ALbxIvdZ8714tmKYbjMnO-jrYSMVw7g/s1600/Grotto+Ex+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="519" data-original-width="255" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Baz-qnO_lYXRFxAyWeDNxzNQc6Z40Ow0S8kIgLl1aPZvVj63ZY5HdshkSi3NjCg9maD-j0eG1szFtwefd768219ZKvHM4L6eeWMkgc4Xe26D7ALbxIvdZ8714tmKYbjMnO-jrYSMVw7g/s400/Grotto+Ex+1.jpg" width="196" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Sunday Independent 31 Aug 1986</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On 23 August 1986, the <i>Evening Herald</i> reported that an exorcism had been performed at a Marian shrine in Inchigeelagh, County Cork,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Seemingly, two priests had performed the rite after a young girl became distressed when she saw "the devil in the form of a huge black shadow" appear over the grotto.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to the Herald, the Bishop of Cork, Dr Michael Murphy, "thoroughly disapproved" of the priests' actions and would be "requesting a complete report on the incident."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The grotto, which had been built in 1969 by John and Kitty McCarthy after their daughter, Mary, died aged 17, [1] had become a place of pilgrimage in 1986 after two local children and a woman claimed to have had a number of sightings of the Blessed Virgin Mary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The woman, identified by the <i>Sunday Independent</i> as Mary Casey, had her first sighting on 25 June 1985. She said that the statue of the Blessed Virgin disappeared - and a girl of about 17 years of age "with shorter length brown hair and blue eyes" appeared in its place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"She smiled and had dimples on either side of her mouth," said Casey. "I fainted and when I came around and looked again about five minutes later she was still there."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The young girl spoke to Casey on 27 July 1985. "I am the Queen of Peace," she said, before requesting that people pray more, say the Rosary, go to Mass, and fast.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The younger witnesses were identified as Mary Vaughan, aged 10, and Rosemary Sullivan, aged 11.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On Monday, 25 August 1986, the <i>Irish Independent</i> reported that the bishop, Dr Michael Murphy, was now claiming that there had been no exorcism at the grotto. What had actually happened was that "two priests comforted and prayed with a girl who was deeply distraught."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Apparently, both priests had spoken directly to the bishop and had "clarified" what had taken place. Seemingly, they had been visiting the shrine and saw the girl become distressed. </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;">"They did what any priest might do, they said some prayers and tried to comfort her," explained the bishop.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"I am satisfied there was no Exorcism."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And that was that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">However, the <i>Sunday Independent</i> returned to the story on 31 August 1986, uncovering a number of interesting details. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Firstly: according to the article, Inchigeelah had two grottos: one built by the McCarthys; and another one described as the "parish grotto."</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKz4TxLXkfWa7NJd4cF6L6GVdGstwtLJuNoS2_vtGv8RDVtQ651RnC_T_CcKMvjfj32F66N3jZy1E6p1itJuVONfgUyLqSTynzn5cbpCcUWQ4Qyb9YZWvqqyWKzf3xpZDCcTsEepo_tykx/s1600/Grotto+Ex+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="117" data-original-width="388" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKz4TxLXkfWa7NJd4cF6L6GVdGstwtLJuNoS2_vtGv8RDVtQ651RnC_T_CcKMvjfj32F66N3jZy1E6p1itJuVONfgUyLqSTynzn5cbpCcUWQ4Qyb9YZWvqqyWKzf3xpZDCcTsEepo_tykx/s400/Grotto+Ex+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For about 12 months, the Blessed Virgin had been appearing to the two young girls, Mary Vaughan and Rosemary Sullivan, at the McCarthy grotto. However, two week before the "exorcism" incident, the girls were told to go to the "parish grotto." [2]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It was at this "parish grotto" that the "devil in the form of a black shadow" appeared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Secondly: while the bishop may have been "satisfied" that there had been no exorcism and that the two priests had confined themselves to comforting the distressed girl and praying with her, witnesses reported seeing the priests blessing the site with holy water. And while this is not evidence of an exorcism, it certainly casts some doubt on the version of events given by the priests - or the version related via their bishop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Whatever happened in Inchigeelagh, it didn't deter the pilgrims. According to the <i>Sunday Independent</i>, even in the wake of the “exorcism” story about 3,000 of them were still coming to see the shrine every week. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It remains a place of pilgrimage today.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Notes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1 According to the McCarthys, building the grotto had been Mary's "last wish," and she'd had chosen the site in Inchigeelagh shortly before her death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2 While the Sunday Independent doesn't spell it out, it's implied that the Blessed Virgin gave them this instruction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Evening Herald, 23 August 1986<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sunday Independent, 24 & 31 August 1986<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Irish Independent, 25 August 1986</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-8778853573012030092020-03-16T00:48:00.000-07:002020-03-16T00:48:16.804-07:00Killhill Volume 1<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLI93f2bEXGAkjYcXXk5QWCriSnYIPQDEaeMSfY7-cTUQgidssmkbhWcgOVtquQKBWO7Xole82KyaiIgTGMFgGxYrq2gUo6upoBhY32Xh3U6detHlemEMU9ZgN17QfYRSW47LPxQUaDyd7/s1600/BL_0001123_19341130_208_0012.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="55" data-original-width="180" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLI93f2bEXGAkjYcXXk5QWCriSnYIPQDEaeMSfY7-cTUQgidssmkbhWcgOVtquQKBWO7Xole82KyaiIgTGMFgGxYrq2gUo6upoBhY32Xh3U6detHlemEMU9ZgN17QfYRSW47LPxQUaDyd7/s400/BL_0001123_19341130_208_0012.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In November 1934, after news reached <i>The Derry Journal</i> of a mystery light that had been appearing with alarming frequency over Killhill, a townland near Letterkenny in County Donegal, they sent a man to investigate. A lone reporter? Standing on a lonely hillside waiting for a strange light to appear? You could be forgiven for thinking it was Keel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The story of the regular nightly appearance of a dazzling light has aroused a good deal of interest and excitement in the Letterkenny neighbourhood. The district to which the mysterious illumination appears to be the visitant is Killhill, in the lonely countryside connecting the town with Trenta.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>On hearing the remarkable story, our representative this week set out to try and obtain some first-hand information for himself. He was reliably told of a particular spot in the vicinity of Glencar waterworks from which the light could be clearly seen almost nightly, at frequent intervals immediately after night-fall. He went to the spot, and, whilst awaiting eventualities, discussed the matter with a youth whom he casually met. What he heard fully bore out the story of a seemingly unearthly visitation, which, it appeared, began to manifest itself as far back as two years ago. The light had become such a common spectacle in that district, he said, that people had now practically ceased to comment on it! This place is two miles from the spot where the light is claimed to be located.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Our representative waited for almost twenty minutes, by which time he got a little impatient, as well as a trifle sceptical of the awesome tale he had heard of the light. The youth assured him that the light had been brilliantly visible the night before and he seemed genuinely surprised that up to that hour – 9.20 – it had not yet shone forth! In the meantime the youth was called away, and our reporter was on the point of abandoning the quest for the light – at least until some other occasion. He had actually proceeded some hundred yards in the homeward direction when, with dramatic suddenness, a brilliant light revealed itself at the precise spot that had been indicated to him! It seemed to be a highly powerful light, casting an extensive reflection, and remaining for the most part stationary. At times, it became partially obscured: then disappeared; then reappeared: then moved fitfully to either side; then again became lost in the darkness of the night.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Residents of the Killhill district, questioned on the subject, conveyed the impression of belief in the mysterious nature of the light. It was stated that certain parties on the road become confronted with it, and that eventually after pursuing a rapid and devious course, and assuming various proportions, it promptly vanished from sight. Others acknowledged having walked the particular road at all hours of the night, but never seeing anything unusual. A few people chose to ridicule the idea of there being anything unnatural in the light, for which they assigned explanations, most of which, however, seemed to be unreasonable and far-fetched.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>It is only within the last week that the story of the Killhill illumination has become generally known in the town, and now it is a frequent and animated subject of discussion and controversy. Numbers of people have expressed a determination to try and establish definitely the authenticity or otherwise of the story by going to the actual spot at midnight and other hours of the night.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>As it is the mystery is, well, still a mystery.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Derry Journal, 30 November 1934</span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-915345582566527932020-02-02T05:16:00.000-08:002020-02-02T05:16:43.179-08:00The Sheep Stealer's Screaming Spectre<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">Work and other commitments have kept me busy – so it’s been quiet here. But to keep us ticking over, here’s a short – but good – <i>Belfast Telegraph</i> story from 1963.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i><b>TYRONE SEARCH FOR A GHOST</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>A midnight search party was organised last might to try to lay the wild-eyed ghost of Gallows Lane in Dungannon.</i></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_P-JE-4T2WeKuaaXau7TOJ5OpIhQopsvc9ZexdG4_oSf4UrtaoMvl1cZLTnpN64opkzQMD9dBHYHReSqhxZZemBq93EpL9rGZfMD3mP6QHyuIhI7cqHQ0jo5xA1jowdqKyu5HWZ7pk9VF/s1600/BL_0002318_19630420_004_0001.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="147" data-original-width="125" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_P-JE-4T2WeKuaaXau7TOJ5OpIhQopsvc9ZexdG4_oSf4UrtaoMvl1cZLTnpN64opkzQMD9dBHYHReSqhxZZemBq93EpL9rGZfMD3mP6QHyuIhI7cqHQ0jo5xA1jowdqKyu5HWZ7pk9VF/s400/BL_0002318_19630420_004_0001.png" width="340" /></a></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>While ghostly screams and yells echoed through the darkness, the party, armed with torches, moved cautiously along the quiet laneway off Donaghmore Road.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>But though they believe they caught sight of the ghost – “a tall man with castor hat and staring eyes” – they failed to solve the mystery.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>Terrified women in the nearby housing estate have stayed indoors at night and locked their doors early since the apparition was first seen and heard on Thursday night.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>Mr Ronnie McKee, a motor engineer, saw the figure as he was turning into his avenue in Donaghmore Road.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>He flashed the lights as he turned the car, but the staring man, uttering ear-splitting yells, did not move.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>Mrs. M. Morgan and a neighbour heard the screams at the laneway when returning from the cinema.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i><b>Troubled spirit?<o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>Older residents believe the troubled spirit of some 18<sup>th</sup> century sheep stealer has returned to haunt the lane, along which he was dragged to the gallows 200 years ago.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>Tradition has it that people sentenced to death at the Assizes House at Market Square were forcibly led along the laneway and hanged on a tree on Gallows Hill.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i>And the opinion of the police? According to Head Constable R. Hyndman they have no law authorising them to arrest ghosts. “And anyway we have no cell to put him in.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Belfast Telegraph, 20 April 1963</span><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-14405839936229238292020-01-05T05:15:00.000-08:002020-01-05T05:15:05.353-08:00The Athy in Telepathy<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In January 1947, a very strange postcard arrived in the </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd_EeXmoT3xqMlIF0p4d6w1X-4TlRzIqkcAbR7v8lVFluF3GYJoWq9naKmbqPHjzkxiWvPH8R1Eqdeaklu1MOSgqk-XLuMvPrmmCttIeEiV11COzWtF7nu1mnE1pVArLPK6kJ3XtgWoslp/s1600/Cartas_Zener.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="512" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd_EeXmoT3xqMlIF0p4d6w1X-4TlRzIqkcAbR7v8lVFluF3GYJoWq9naKmbqPHjzkxiWvPH8R1Eqdeaklu1MOSgqk-XLuMvPrmmCttIeEiV11COzWtF7nu1mnE1pVArLPK6kJ3XtgWoslp/s320/Cartas_Zener.png" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">market town of Athy, County Kildare. The unsigned card, which had been posted in Rochester, New York, on 26 December 1946, was addressed to “Athy, town of, and its employees and people present and future on the River Barrow, Irish Free State.” It bore the following cryptic message:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>I depend on correct, honest supplementation of this card by telepathy as a thing which will make clear the meaning of this card. There exists a Playing of the Great Things, the correct, the constructive, world or universe politics, out-in-the-open telepathy, etc. According to The Great Things this playing is the most feasible thing of all; but it is held from newspaper advertising and correct, honest public world recognition, its next step, by telepathic forces (it seems), physical dangers and lack of money. Over 10,000 cards and letters on the subject, have been sent to prominent groups and persons all over the world.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Important: A public literature on this playing. Copying the known, out-in-the-open world. The line of thought, talk, etc., rule. The plain and frank. Strangers. The Great Things and opposites idea.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>References: In the telepathic world the correct playings. Please save this card for a history record since it is rare and important for history.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Leinster Leader didn’t know what to make of it:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“The object of the card is difficult to understand, unless it is that if the more startling phenomena of telepathy are what they profess to be then they involve, for instance, a thought transference from an agent to a percipient say, 3,000 miles away. If there should be such a thought transference, it might be interesting to record the extraneous thoughts occupying the minds of ‘its employees and people present and future on the River Barrow.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Can anyone shed any light on this? In addition to finding out who might have been behind this, I’d also like to know if any other towns received similarly cryptic postcards from Rochester, New York.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Happy New Year!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Leinster Leader, 11 January 1947</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-38415003243482224792019-12-30T09:19:00.001-08:002019-12-30T09:19:07.650-08:00I SAW MY (LURGAN) LADY WEEP<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaitDSJG8yaQuY9Sz0sxobnYewCMQriepytbCveIZJNeF-BCZc4adTmQ4TK_9_nYIsPJ_dSpCevQDfjzVCWKzVGIMgOhTAYPd6syAmV_UeTjpWA5uEZR7rND0gsxwQG6hyphenhyphen53t5wlRxXQ5A/s1600/Rosa-mistica.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="304" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaitDSJG8yaQuY9Sz0sxobnYewCMQriepytbCveIZJNeF-BCZc4adTmQ4TK_9_nYIsPJ_dSpCevQDfjzVCWKzVGIMgOhTAYPd6syAmV_UeTjpWA5uEZR7rND0gsxwQG6hyphenhyphen53t5wlRxXQ5A/s400/Rosa-mistica.jpg" width="327" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rosa Mystica (not the Lurgan one, mind!)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The release of previously <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-50919054" target="_blank">confidential state papers</a> has put the “Drumcree crisis” back in the news. I’m not even going to try to explain Drumcree (if you must know, try <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumcree_conflict" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>). It’s enough to say that in 1995 and 1996, it was responsible for some of the ugliest moments in Northern Ireland’s history - and Fort knows we’ve had a few.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In 1997, however, in addition to the violence, Drumcree was believed to have been responsible for a very unusual - and very Fortean - event.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On 5 July 1997, the Sunday Life newspaper reported that in a house on Lurgan’s Kilwilkee estate, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary had begun weeping tears of blood.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to one witness: “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Our Lady is crying tears of blood and people are saying it’s because of Drumcree.”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Another witness said: “It’s a miracle. The blood is clear to be seen coming from her eyes. People have been coming from all over. They can’t believe what they are seeing. It can be no coincidence that this has happened just as everybody is worrying about what is going to take place over Drumcree.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Our Lady is expressing sadness at the trouble there could be.”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Unfortunately, the woman who had the statue - interestingly, she didn’t actually own it; she had just borrowed it - was reluctant to talk to the press. So we had to wait until 27 September to hear her story. By this time, in addition to tears of blood, the statue was producing rose petals, miniature roses and beams of light; its hair had turned grey; and on one occasion, the statue’s face had been replaced with a “real” one - which then smiled.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I got the loan of the statue of the Rose of Mystica on June 21 to do a nine-day Novena,” explained the borrower, who didn’t want her name published. “It is a pilgrim statue and has been in 103 homes before it came here.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“It was on the ninth day at about five to six when a friend had just left the house after doing the rosary that I noticed two trickles of blood coming out of her eyes. I wiped them away with my fingers and there was nothing on my fingers or on the statue.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I went to the kitchen to tell my husband and my daughter called us in to the living room because it was coming out again, this time really thick.”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">She called the priest and her friends, some of whom asked if they could hold an overnight vigil.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I came down the next morning and they said there was oil coming out of her feet. I had some scented oil sitting on the hearth and I thought they had done it to try to scare me.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“But there was no scent on the oil on the statue and when I went to look there were two rose petals on her feet.”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In that three month period, it’s believed that 10,000 people had visited the house to see the statue - some coming from as far away as Australia and the USA. </span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Some people are sceptical and I have taken some stick, but as far as I’m concerned a miracle has happened in my home.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I believe it is a sign from Our Lady for prayer, penance and sacrifice, you’ve just got to look at the state of the world today.”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sunday Life, 5 July & 21 September 1997</span></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-85948288331029759542019-11-26T11:09:00.000-08:002019-11-26T11:09:22.158-08:00Sentimental Mottos and Aphorisms<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">If you read last week’s post, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Chinese seals in Ireland mystery had been solved long before <i>The Book of the Damned</i> was published. Not so, according to this 1925 piece from <i>The Irish Monthly</i>.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5vohQ3Kwnw9qmAZqAospqrL7CrvG1LWv2qoz5nj4f8ou5r_Y8W5xLsdTVc4-SKHuqBtfavMlhKSzBeamSe_uF1hFc7vfLmJTnmccCWCWSC35Cf0lcgklgBQ5Jzprtvs8KXJWXdMcm341H/s1600/seal1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="991" data-original-width="677" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5vohQ3Kwnw9qmAZqAospqrL7CrvG1LWv2qoz5nj4f8ou5r_Y8W5xLsdTVc4-SKHuqBtfavMlhKSzBeamSe_uF1hFc7vfLmJTnmccCWCWSC35Cf0lcgklgBQ5Jzprtvs8KXJWXdMcm341H/s640/seal1.jpg" width="435" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1836-1869), vol. 10, 1866</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>THE MYSTERY OF IRELAND’S CHINESE SEALS</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>IRELAND, as becomes the island of Celtic Romance, has many intriguing mysteries, mysteries in the real sense of the word deriving from “myo,” “to close,” “shut impenetrably.” And few of them are more unfathomable than that concerning the retrieving of ancient porcelain seals bearing the ancient Chinese characters in different parts of Ireland. Many of them were found towards the mid-years of last century in places which wholly negative the supposition of a well contrived hoax.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>These seals have been discovered at various times, and in localities very far from each other. One, for instance, was found early last century among the roots of an old pear-tree in a garden in County Down, and, judging by the depth of soil at which it was retrieved, and the age of the tree, it must have lain there for many generations before its discovery. Another was picked up in 1841 immediately outside Cahir Castle. Lying with it, at a little distance from the surface of the ground, were the remains of a skeleton, the bones of which soon crumbled to dust on exposure to the atmosphere. Another was found by a turf-cutter in a bog in Queen’s County, and another in a ploughed field in Borrisokane, County Tipperary. In only one instance have seals been discovered in localities near to each other. In County Down, a second one was accidentally lit upon in the parish of Killyleagh, close to the surface in a piece of ground overgrown with whins beyond the memory of tradition. Among other sites where such seals have been recovered was that of an old disused road leading to the Catholic burying-ground hard by Carlow, while in 1805 a fine specimen was picked up in a small cave near the mouth of Cork Harbour.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzKvy6EYPooaG8mwcmGSImgGODKOCkq5tWbw-WlAvJyKW77Bc1QBfDQKhVUvh5uPIQQGM3yFyoEQg9rTrlT7sF5QIS1mYos8sFnBq-Ksal-qZz-q_n9Vz5gnFZHdoyLxGUdP5h-SDs6O-4/s1600/seal2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="1018" data-original-width="653" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzKvy6EYPooaG8mwcmGSImgGODKOCkq5tWbw-WlAvJyKW77Bc1QBfDQKhVUvh5uPIQQGM3yFyoEQg9rTrlT7sF5QIS1mYos8sFnBq-Ksal-qZz-q_n9Vz5gnFZHdoyLxGUdP5h-SDs6O-4/s640/seal2.jpg" width="410" /></i></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: small; text-align: start;">Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1836-1869), vol. 10, 1866</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>For many centuries now the seals in common use throughout China have been of long rectangular shape, with an animal at one end, and either with or without inscriptions, and such seals are common enough among us to-day, many curio dealers selling them. All the mystery seals, however, are each of them, of a perfect cube of porcelain, which is quite as indestructible by the process of time and nature as the fine ware of the Pharaohs or the glazed tiles of the Mayas in their ruined cities of Yucatan. Each seal has the same ornamentation - the figure of a monkey surmounting the cube - and all are identical in size, form and appearance. Only the inscriptions differ; although all of them are in the “Chuentze” or ancient-seal character of China, which, it has been stated, dates from the sixth century before the Christian era. The matter of the inscription varies. Sometimes it consists of sentimental motto, and sometimes appears to be merely a proper name, or, again, it deals with an aphorism, in one instance, “Yuy ke keih jin (put one’s self in another place).”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>How came these seals to Ireland, and when? And their wide dispersal?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>When the mystery of them was publicly discussed last mid-century it was advanced by some that the seals had been introduced by chance in tea chests; no similar ones, however, have been found elsewhere in Europe; and it is singular that only tea chests consigned to Ireland should have contained them. Several distinguished archaeologists declared them to be a hoax. On the other hand, however, the hoaxing would have required more than one generation to carry it through, after procuring the seals from China, and would have entailed much and arduous travelling about for the purpose of hiding them in peat bogs and other places, where only mere chance could lead to their discovery.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The most plausible explanation advanced was that someone connected with Lord Macartney’s ambassadorial visit to Pekin in 1792 brought the seals home. Against this, there is the discovery of them in most distant and scattered localities in Ireland, while elsewhere in Europe they appeared to be unknown.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>When the discussion was at its warmest, great interest was aroused in London by one of several energetic searchers finding in a curio-shop, not far from the docks, a seal identical with the porcelain “mysteries.” It, however, was ultimately traced as having been stolen out of a private collection in Dublin.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Ireland’s Chinese seals remain a mystery.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Yet, to-day, we know, that a thousand years and more before the Christian era, China carried on an overland trade with Asia Minor and Phoenicia. The vases of Chinese ware-makers have been found in the rock tombs of Egypt, and fragments of Chinese porcelain, identical with the “murrhine” cups mentioned by Pliny, have been found in pre-Christian graves in Spain and Sicily. After the Mithridatic War these cups became popular among the wealthy Roman nobles, who willingly gave immense sums for them and other articles coming out of the Far East.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrap7o8AZDhZk2ylIAOdIq3x7TIaS2_LOloyMS8epN6kgUiOWakbLOZx36OF2upCQJt0OU0ps2ScKO2CT8CI8zC2_1qO4qLdZgkRsDaGb-Lm8JId-KFv7jpjyUnB4EuZ216bUQMyN5YFo/s1600/seal3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="273" data-original-width="652" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrap7o8AZDhZk2ylIAOdIq3x7TIaS2_LOloyMS8epN6kgUiOWakbLOZx36OF2upCQJt0OU0ps2ScKO2CT8CI8zC2_1qO4qLdZgkRsDaGb-Lm8JId-KFv7jpjyUnB4EuZ216bUQMyN5YFo/s400/seal3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1836-1869), vol. 10, 1866</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>We know, too, that the Phoenicians traded with the coastal natives of Eire, even as they traded with the Gaels of Cornwall. Possibly, then, the mystery seals of Ireland came with them, having reached Phoenicia by the Mid-Asian route from China to the Euxine or Black Sea, or through the countries of Asia Minor in communication with it.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>That these singular cubes of porcelain did not find their way to our shores in modern times or for centuries past becomes certain if the conditions are considered in which most of them have been found. Nature and mother-earth have their own ways of marking the passage of the centuries over that which falls into their care. The human bones, found with the Chair Castle specimen, told, by falling away into dust, of their long measure of antiquity.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>N. TOURNEUR</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Frazer, W. “On Chinese Porcelain Seals Found in Ireland.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1836-1869), vol. 10, 1866, pp. 172–179. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Tourneur, N. “The Mystery of Ireland's Chinese Seals.” The Irish Monthly, vol. 53, no. 619, 1925, pp. 48–50.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-74780579002651371862019-11-19T14:17:00.000-08:002019-11-19T14:17:05.052-08:00The Chinese Seals of Ireland<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjietBDlyvlLIAnpZgMdULOCccvJUXPdMKkCa5op9UJeqmlTDF0_X5pf98QD0DOCvvLsblUEnDStwEGWIkHdBxPwfFle1bN2i7ZEHuppMui3VGeCX1pXic_xIAO6V3XcckuKhhLgpMhrkhz/s1600/Seal+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="378" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjietBDlyvlLIAnpZgMdULOCccvJUXPdMKkCa5op9UJeqmlTDF0_X5pf98QD0DOCvvLsblUEnDStwEGWIkHdBxPwfFle1bN2i7ZEHuppMui3VGeCX1pXic_xIAO6V3XcckuKhhLgpMhrkhz/s400/Seal+1.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Chinese seals of Ireland, Fort explains in <i>The Book of the Damned</i>, are “not the things with the big, wistful eyes that lie on ice, and that are taught to balance objects on their noses — but inscribed stamps, with which to make impressions.”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">These seals, which appeared to come from China’s ancient past, had been found - often in remarkable circumstances - scattered (or placed?) throughout the remotest parts of the island. About 61 were known of at the time <i>The Book of the Damned</i> was published - and they had long been the subject of much debate. </span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’m publishing a couple of extracts that give the flavour of that debate. The first comes from the <i>Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (Vol 1, 1836),</i> one of Fort’s main sources for this item; and the second comes from the <i>The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (Vol. 2, 1873)</i>.</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§</span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>A paper was read by Mr. J. Husband Smith, descriptive of certain porcelain seals, amounting to upwards of a dozen, found in Ireland within the last six or seven years, and in places very distant from each other. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>He exhibited to the Academy one of these seals, with impressions of several others in sealing-wax. He stated that they were all uniform, consisting of an exact cube, having, by way of handle, some animal (probably an ape) seated upon it; and that they were so precisely similar in size and general appearance as to be undistinguishable, except by the characters on the under surface. Little is known respecting these seals beyond the mere fact of their having been found in this country.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>An extract from the Chinese grammar of Abel-Rémusat showed that the inscriptions on these seals are those of a very ancient class of Chinese characters, ‘in use since the time of Confucius,’ who is supposed to have flourished ‘in the middle of the sixth century, before J. C.’ The remote period to which these characters are assigned, leaves open a wide field for conjecture as to the time in which these porcelain seals found their way into this country.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The situations in which some of them have been found are remarkable. One was discovered in ploughing a field near Burrisokane, county of Tipperary, in 1832; another was found last year at Killead, in the county of Down; another in the bed of the river Boyne, near Clonard, in the county of Meath, in raising gravel; and a fourth was discovered many years ago at a short distance from Dublin.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>From the extreme degree of heat to which they appear to have been subjected, and the consequent vitrification which has in some measure taken place, they are quite as capable of resisting the attacks of time as the glass and porcelain deities and ornaments found in the mummy cases of Egypt, and may have lain for an indefinite period beneath the surface of the earth. It is therefore, at least, possible that they may have arrived hither from the East, along with the weapons, ornaments, and other articles of commerce, which were brought to these islands by the ships of the great merchant-princes of antiquity, the Phoenicians, to who our ports and harbours were well known.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mr. Smith then called the attention of the Academy to the remarkable discovery, by Rosellini, Lord Prudhoe, and other recent travellers, of unquestionable Chineses vases in the tombs of Egypt. He read a passage from Davis’s China, in which some of them are described; and also an extract from Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, from which it appeared that the number of Chinese vases found at Captos, Thebes, and elsewhere, amounted to seven or eight, and that the inscriptions on them had been translated by Chinese scholars to mean, ‘The flower opens, and lo! another year,’ being a line from an ancient Chinese poem.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>From this the trade of China with different countries, at a period of the remotest antiquity, being clearly proved, Mr. Smith submitted to the Academy that a case of strong probability had been made out, that the porcelain seals found their way into Ireland at some very distant period. In fact, if they may be not of modern introduction into this country — a supposition which the situations in which several of them have been found seems utterly to preclude — their arrival here must of necessity have been most ancient.</i></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>§</i></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">However, according to Dr W. Lockhart, in a letter to <i>The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland</i>, in 1873, the seals “had no great antiquity.” </span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>CHINESE SEALS FOUND IN IRELAND — “I saw in the Phoenix a question regarding Mr. Getty’s book on Chinese seals found in Ireland. I met with the book in Shanghai about twenty years ago, and, by a little search in the shops of Shanghai, soon obtained a collection of the same seals identical with the figures in Mr. Getty’s work, bearing the same inscription, and having in some cases the monkey on them, and in other cases the prized handles, as well as some with other figures not in the book. I soon found that these seals had no great antiquity, being about two hundred years old for the most ancient, while others were more modern. Having occasion to go to Dublin some years ago, I took some of the seals with me, and, in conversation with Mr. Edward Chittam, of the Royal Irish Academy, asked him about the seals, and if he could give any reason why they had been found so often in Ireland, when he gave me the following account. Some years ago, a nobleman - I think the late Duke of Northumberland - was anxious to find out the history of these seals, and asked Mr. Chittam to offer a reward of from one to three or four guineas for every seal that might be brought to him. One or two seals were sent to him, for which he paid the offered price; but he could get no history of them. At last a respectable woman brought one or two seals, and offered them for the reward, which was paid her. She then said she thought she could get others, and she was told to do so, and that she should be paid as before. After she had thus received several guineas, Mr. Chittam said, ‘Now that you have been well paid, what is the story of these seals?’ Her reply was that an ancestor of hers, an Irishman, was in the China trade about a century ago, and he was in the habit of bringing home a quantity of China ware for friends, to whom he said that that the shopkeepers from whom he had made his purchases gave him many of the seals, to which he had taken a fancy, and that he used constantly to give them away to friends in Ireland, and that they were carried about in all directions, being curious and interesting little things. The woman said that what she had been paid for were the remains of the large quantities formerly brought by her ancestor. Mr. Chittam said that this was the true account of the diffusion of the seals through many parts of Ireland. I was also told that the accounts given of the finding of the seals in many places of undisturbed sepulture of great antiquity are simply untrue, and will not bear investigation. Such I believe to be the story of the seals. — W. LOCKHART, M.D.”</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources: </span></span></div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Clarke, et al. “December 9, 1839.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1836-1869), vol. 1, 1836, pp. 373–384.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Lockhart, W. “Chinese Seals Found in Ireland.” The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 2, 1873, pp. 135–136.</span>Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-64627868337931925422019-11-12T10:42:00.000-08:002019-11-12T10:42:31.946-08:00The Stone of Cashel<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In <i>The Book of the Damned</i>, Fort introduced us to The Stone of Cashel, an unusually shaped and strangely marked stone that had fallen out of the sky in Dundrum, near Cashel, in County Tipperary. And as a way to celebrate the upcoming anniversary of the publication of Fort’s first collection of oddities and anomalies, I thought I’d post some additional material from Fort’s source for this story, the <i>Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwPhWKxtAm3fiphVp2GI9a2iqOvWt71VTkM9vDglatCgw_Dbi9j5vf51hgb5kNeWfL16oN8VLqoDe-9_o3i1T22C4NLgmqoWpeQDf3VRBK0SqkBuNMpJ7h3k87Ahsh-OI_S_l1ITKBiEQQ/s1600/20488922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1157" data-original-width="762" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwPhWKxtAm3fiphVp2GI9a2iqOvWt71VTkM9vDglatCgw_Dbi9j5vf51hgb5kNeWfL16oN8VLqoDe-9_o3i1T22C4NLgmqoWpeQDf3VRBK0SqkBuNMpJ7h3k87Ahsh-OI_S_l1ITKBiEQQ/s640/20488922.jpg" width="417" /></a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let’s begin with the statement made by John Johnson, the man who found the stone:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I, John Johnson, of the parish of Clonoulty, near Cashel, county Tipperary, was walking across my potato garden, at the back of my house, in company with Michael Fahy and William Furlong, on the 12th of August, 1865, at seven P. M., when I heard a clap, like the shot out of a cannon, very quick, and nutlike thunder; this was followed by a buzzing noise, which continued for about a quarter of an hour, when it came over our heads; and on looking up, we saw an object falling down in a slanting direction. We were frightened at its speed, which was so great that we could scarcely notice it; but after it fell, we proceeded to look for it, and found it at a distance of forty yards, half buried in the ground, where it had struck the top of a potato drill. We were some time in looking for it (a longer time than that during which we had heard the noise). On taking up the stone, we found it warm, milk warm, but not hot enough to be inconvenient. The next day it was given up to Lord Hawarden.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A description of the stone, prepared by Dr. Haughton, appeared in the same issue:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“The stone weighed 4lbs. 14 ½ oz. It is rudely pyramidal in form; the triangular base being a freshly broken surface, and the faces of the pyramid being covered by the usual black vitrified glaze. It is evidently a portion of a much larger stone; and as it appears from the foregoing statement that its vertical velocity was not great, it is probable that other pieces of the larger mass may yet be found in the neighbourhood of Dundrum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“A singular feature is observable in this stone that I have never yet seen in any other:- the rounded edges of the pyramid are sharply marked by lines on the black crust, as perfect as if made by a ruler. This appearance is strictly confined to the surface, and seems to be a result of some peculiar tension of the fused crust in cooling; for no trace of any continuation of the lines can be found in the interior of the stone.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And this is what Fort had to say about Haughton’s interpretation of the markings:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Dr Haughton’s idea is that the marks may have been made by some ‘peculiar tension in the cooling.’ It must have been very peculiar, if in all aerolites not wedge-shaped, no such phenomenon had ever been observed. It merges away with one or two instances known, after Dr. Haughton’s time, of seeming stratification in meteorites. Stratification in meteorites, however, is denied by the faithful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I begin to suspect something else.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“A whopper is coming.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Later, it will be as reasonable, by familiarity, as anything else ever said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“If someone should study the stone of Cashel, as Champollion studied the Rosetta stone, he might — or, rather, would inevitably — find meaning in those lines, and translate them into English—"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Haughton, Samuel, and John Johnson. “On the Meteoric Stone That Fell at Dundrum, County of Tipperary, on the 12th August, 1865.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (1836-1869), vol. 9, 1864, pp. 336–343.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-13900047284646879742019-10-26T13:17:00.002-07:002019-10-26T13:17:44.845-07:00The Bog Meadows Thing<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Bog Meadows, in addition to being a great name for a band, is an area of wetlands and grassland in West Belfast. And according to the Ulster Wildlife Trust, it’s a place where you’ll find butterflies and buzzards, coots and cattle, swans and sticklebacks, and – in autumn – “feeding flocks of fieldfare.” <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRNK22DFvMbXDkVcXXxqSKAMt6GCAk-tmcqgjlAQKxy15UMt7_DdF3nPmvxDafIE2Qnep7mAtRUpyRH9rENy1B_lfDNdTbxotyEBnhNGo_WNN6n5rmI7R42nfznQulxenZVOZOcjLYpjn/s1600/The_Bog_Meadows_-_geograph.org.uk_-_444399.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="640" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRNK22DFvMbXDkVcXXxqSKAMt6GCAk-tmcqgjlAQKxy15UMt7_DdF3nPmvxDafIE2Qnep7mAtRUpyRH9rENy1B_lfDNdTbxotyEBnhNGo_WNN6n5rmI7R42nfznQulxenZVOZOcjLYpjn/s400/The_Bog_Meadows_-_geograph.org.uk_-_444399.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bog Meadows - Paul McIlroy<br />
CC-BY-SA-2.0</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In addition to all of these regular animals, Bog Meadows may also be home to at least one nightmare creature. The following letter appeared in <i>The Northern Whig</i> of 23 August 1890.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>SIR – I was enjoying a stroll in the Bog Meadows a few evenings ago, when the weather was for once exceptionally fine. I was alone. The seclusion and quiet that surrounded me were only broken by the occasional whistle of some passing engine on the adjoining railway, or the merry laugh from some distant group of youths at play. I slowly wended my way along the banks of a sluggish stream almost hidden by rank vegetation, and I closely observed the various forms of animate and inanimate nature around me. The water in the stream was bright and almost still. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Following the movements of aquatic creatures that like myself seem to enjoy the evening, I observed what appeared like an eel or serpent, and yet unlike either, because it seemed to contract and expand as worms do, but it was by no means a worm. It was rough and wrinkled on the surface even when it extended itself until it was twice the length of my body, and almost transparent. I became interested, and got on to a branch of a tree that extended over the water, which at this point was tolerably wide. I was thereby enabled to observe the creature more closely, as the branch bent quite close to the surface. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>I then saw clearly what appeared to be a nest or family of similar creatures, all of them becoming more active, as if disturbed by my presence and efforts to adjust myself to the awkward position I endeavoured to occupy. I soon observed that this nest of writhing, lithe, and now very active creatures was in reality only one animal, the several serpent-like coils being attached to one base very much stouter than the portion first seen, and as long as my body. It was powerfully contracted like the rest of the animal, and its end or base was made fast to the bank. To my absolute horror one of the arms shot out and coiled round me, and this was quickly followed by another and another until I was completely entangled and rendered almost powerless on the now swaying branch dipping in and out of the surface of the water. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>My desperate struggles to get free only caused the branch to sink the deeper, and this alternately plunged me in and out of the stream. I felt the strong pull of my formidable foe, and as it took a firmer hold I became benumbed all over and pierced as if by thorns. Gradually I lost all self-possession and can remember no more, until, like as if awaking from a horrid dream, I found myself completely prostrate and in great pain but surrounded by my friends at home. I subsequently ascertained that a gentleman who saw my struggles came to my aid, and, rescuing me, restored me to friends and home, where I shall have reason to remember my death struggle and my friend’s timely assistance. For obvious reasons I withhold his name, but enclose his printed card as a guarantee of good faith.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>PHRYGANEA<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Northern Whig, 23 August 1890</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.ulsterwildlife.org/nature-reserves/bog-meadows" target="_blank">Ulster Wildlife Trust</a> website (accessed 26 October 2019)</span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-51386753645272690372019-10-08T05:44:00.000-07:002019-10-08T05:44:06.971-07:00I Was a Poltergeist's Pin Cushion<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6y0-BCZ2d1O7r5KeEV1HNBekobh2sFPmPsj-ukOhcKfUjjGM4Fi5CErm3kiR0g41wvEtw_g2aKV6mcJQl8aSMA0md7zXvluL4_9y0EWNuQEbs651UfKvslamIm4-4NH2tODr0RsojNYB8/s1600/Art+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="51" data-original-width="168" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6y0-BCZ2d1O7r5KeEV1HNBekobh2sFPmPsj-ukOhcKfUjjGM4Fi5CErm3kiR0g41wvEtw_g2aKV6mcJQl8aSMA0md7zXvluL4_9y0EWNuQEbs651UfKvslamIm4-4NH2tODr0RsojNYB8/s400/Art+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On Saturday, 22 December 1934, <i>The Mid-Ulster Mail</i> published a story about “weird happenings” at a house near Articlave, a village in County Derry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The house belonged to a farming couple, Mr and Mrs Ross, who lived there with their three children. And one of those children, 11-year-old Jeannie, had become “the object of uncanny molestation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to Mr Ross: “When Jeannie goes to bed, she is jagged by pins and nipped until her arm is black and blue. She is badly run down as a consequence and is almost ready for the hospital.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I am sending her away in the hope of counteracting the influence.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Apparently, it had started six months earlier with the burning of hay and straw in the fields. Then strange things began to happen in the house.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“A lamp which was sitting on the table suddenly struck the ceiling with terrific force, splintering the globe and leaving a dent on the lamp,” explained Mr Ross. “On another occasion a tin of paint which was in the scullery flew across the kitchen, striking the opposite wall like a bullet, narrowly missing my head.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Also, items of clothing would be found slashed – as if by a knife.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The stories coming out of Articlave soon attracted the curiosity seekers. One of those curiosity seekers was a journalist from <i>The Londonderry Sentinel</i>. The following is his account of his visit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“HAUNTED” HOUSE IN ARTICLAVE<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>There are few things as enjoyable as a really good ghost story, but, unfortunately, the interest created means an unhappy time for the victims. This is the case at Articlave, near Castlerock, which I visited on Tuesday, writes our representative.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Here, for the last five months, according to the occupants of a house there, mysterious happenings have been going on, and visitors have come from all over Northern Ireland to get to close quarters with something which, they say, has never been accounted for, and the result has been that Mr. and Mrs. Ross, the tenants of the place, have had their house full almost every night for about a month.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Wildly – exaggerated stories of occurrences at the house have been spread abroad, and, while it is all very entertaining and amusing, the plight of the family has been forgotten by the public.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>To end this annoyance the family, who are of a highly-respectable class, have closed the door to all curiosity-mongers, and especially reports, who are taboo, and anybody who goes there in future will see or hear nothing, for they will not be admitted.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The family are tired of the unwelcome publicity given them, and effective measures have been taken to stop them.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>In fact, the door would not have been opened to me had the occupants known who I was, but, after explaining that my mission was to help and to draw attention to the position of the family, and after a lot of persuasion on the relatives I was admitted to the “haunted” house.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mrs. Ross explained to me that she had been greatly annoyed through reports appearing in the Press, gained under what amounted to absolutely false pretences.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>At any rate, I am able to state that I believe the affair is passing away now, and, as there has been little recurrence of the mysterious happenings since Christmas, there is little doubt that in a short time it will be forgotten. By the time I had reached the house I was ready to believe anything.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Seated comfortably before a roaring fire in the hospitable home of the Rosses, my first impression was that the family were coming through their painful ordeal, which would drive most people crazy, extremely well. They were perfectly calm, and went about their duties as if nothing had ever happened in the house, whereas stories as related by them were enough to raise the hair on the head of the most incredulous.</i></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjseWPyfEuhaHqZBMBxggutPZZU-Y6UCIwv4CCL1lctprbtJG3OtVNJ6ZxTCDZrCYG55SK2SSTerF1tQvTOB3erLpeopVA-ASB6L1HBVE_A07L2OTBSFgg8n6W-yqIIYaV3lpfQP0FzJ5K_/s1600/Art+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="184" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjseWPyfEuhaHqZBMBxggutPZZU-Y6UCIwv4CCL1lctprbtJG3OtVNJ6ZxTCDZrCYG55SK2SSTerF1tQvTOB3erLpeopVA-ASB6L1HBVE_A07L2OTBSFgg8n6W-yqIIYaV3lpfQP0FzJ5K_/s400/Art+2.jpg" width="245" /></a></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Apparently in September last there was a mysterious burning, quite explainable in itself, but not when followed by the happenings, such as the nightly pin-pricking of Jean, the little daughter of the house, with pins, moving of their own volition; utensils, such as cans, hurling themselves through space without any apparent propelling force, and the slashing of coats as if by knives.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>These are the whole facts, and I found on sifting and thoroughly investigating various accounts which I heard that as actually stated here they are correct.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>What amazed me and everybody who has been in the house is the astoundingly calm manner in which everything is discussed by this family, and this says much for their nerves.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Had I experienced one-tenth of what was related to me I might not have recovered from the shock to tell the tale.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>When I left the house on Tuesday evening after being there about three hours under its kindly roof I confess I was almost persuaded there was really “something in it,” and I felt sorry for the people concerned.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>But when one has slept on a thing like this and weighed up all the evidence, as I did yesterday, and consulted with highly respectable people in Londonderry who were present when tests were carried out, as I did last night, one begins to see that there is little that could not be rather easily explained, and the good people of the house need not be alarmed.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Sitting in that house on Tuesday for three hours, and although surrounded by friendly folk, one would expect something to happen if things were as stated, but there was not the least disturbance of any kind, and nothing appeared so remote. Nor was there any air of tension or expectancy on my part.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>During my stay the little girl came tripping in from school, and a brighter, more intelligent girl I have seldom seen. She seemed even above the average intelligence for eleven years.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>I questioned her, but never caught her out. It was strange, however, that the jagging with the pins never occurred when she was asleep, a natural time for any evilly-disposed opponent.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The pricking went on sometimes while the girl was sitting at the fire, and the pins are supposed to be different from those used by the household.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>It was explained to me that while a stranger was in the house there would be no pricking, and I promptly pointed out that at such a time the girl’s mind would be directed away from herself.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>There being no signs of pricking in the kitchen, I suggested that the girl should be put in bed as an experiment, but, unfortunately, the bed was not prepared then.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>I was then willing to wait until bedtime, but the girl was being taken away to another district that night.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Only sometimes was there pricking when the girl was away on her last holiday a short time ago, and nothing happened in the house she left behind her.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>What is the real explanation of the pricking is hard to say, but it is clear there is a mischievous spirit about, although not necessarily supernatural.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>A solution which is worth a trial, and which should help, would be a change of environment for the girl for a considerable period, and those in the house on Tuesday readily agreed with that suggestion, as the girl needs building up, they said.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Another most peculiar thing is that the pins appeared through the bed clothes and also the girl’s clothing point first. One cannot jag with the head of a pin. When I queried this statement the unsatisfactory answer was given that some of the pins were knitting needles. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>When I entered the house I was a little bit nervous, or rather, expectant, and it was certainly surprising and pleasing not to see the occupants starting at every sound or with nerves frayed. However, as nobody seemed to be worrying I, too, soon began to treat the matter as if it were a hundred miles away.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>When I left I was frankly puzzled, but I had one strong belief, and this was, fortunately, confirmed up to the hilt when by pure accident last night I met and discussed with people of standing in Londonderry, who had watched experiments on a number of occasions in the girl’s bedroom, the whole circumstances.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>These gentlemen, one of them really anxious to meet something supernatural or a spirit of some sort, paid several visits and watched and assisted in experiments, but, to say the least, the results were not only negative, but farcical. Tappings which were heard in the house were accounted for quite simply, and were apparently of human origin. “The answers,” “Yes” and “No” code, arranged by the spirit were only available for the most childish questions.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The slashing of the front of a coat, which I was shown, the “flying” of boots and shoes and caps into the fire are quite possibly, and probably, due to human agency, but there appears no evidence as to any person or persons having a motive for playing these tricks.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Members of the family have suffered a great deal of annoyance and pain over the affair, according to their statements, and whoever is responsible ought to feel ashamed of themselves at the mischief they are working.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Again, there has been mention of little fires in various parts of the house, but what an extraordinary thing it is that not one of these fires has gained much headway, and always they have been extinguished in a few minutes, before any great damage is done.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The pins which are doing night-pricking are different from those used in the house, but it is easily proved there is nothing devilish about them. Last night I met in Londonderry a man who had carried out several tests and seized two of the pins. He has had them in his house ever since, and two more inoffensive pins were never made. There they repose in a drawer without any ill towards anybody.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>However, the occurrences have not been bad since Christmas, and Mrs. Ross is hopeful that they will die away, never to return. A thorough test is what is wanted, but it seems clear the family themselves never tried that.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The purpose of this article is to help, not to amuse the curious, and if it has the effect of keeping away the plague of unwanted visitors and to aid in the solution it will have achieved its aim.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>These are the full facts, honestly stated and commented upon, and nothing remains but to thank Mrs. Ross and certain members of the household for their kindness and for an interesting afternoon.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The police are taking no interest in “the ghost” now, but they did go to the house on one occasion, and there is an amusing story, although it is probably on par with all the other silly yarns about cows riding on bicycles, pigs with tall hats, and smoking and playing banjos, which have been foolishly circulated. The story, which appeared in a Coleraine newspaper, is that a constable was left alone in the kitchen to keep a look-out. He was sitting gazing into the fire in his stockinged soles when a voice out of the shadows said – “There is only you and me here.” The constable said nothing, but thought his ears had deceived him. Again the voice, this time quite close, repeated – “There is only you and me here.” The constable was alarmed, and, making a grab for his boots, he replied – “Wait a second until I get my boots, and there will be only you here.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>There is nobody who has investigated the circumstances but would agree with the sentiments expressed in the letter from “Unbeliever” in last Saturday’s “Sentinel.” [1]<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Notes:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1 “Unbeliever” compared the goings-on at Articlave to stories of pipe-smoking horses and spats-wearing, football-playing pigs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Londonderry Sentinel, 5 & 10 January 1935<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Mid-Ulster Mail, 22 December 1934</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-71570905205127819532019-09-30T09:29:00.001-07:002019-09-30T09:29:19.096-07:00Hang a Left at the Fairy Tree<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRESLera7_Q455VFTu87NKnDqCUbo6STQitafi7eA61WBAssAi_UGQ1k5Cd9eNJbt8sPWGVhcJkpkOQwoXJh9-V3TSZyLOyINJT4bpRsXDLzLaNU_zXUgA9j6pU9VqrPnO_XIF5RCyos0/s1600/Fairy+Tree+Photo+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="407" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRESLera7_Q455VFTu87NKnDqCUbo6STQitafi7eA61WBAssAi_UGQ1k5Cd9eNJbt8sPWGVhcJkpkOQwoXJh9-V3TSZyLOyINJT4bpRsXDLzLaNU_zXUgA9j6pU9VqrPnO_XIF5RCyos0/s400/Fairy+Tree+Photo+1.jpg" width="245" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: Belfast Telegraph</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In 1968, a new road was being built between Rossnowlagh and Ballintra village. For most of the people in that part of County Donegal, the new road was a good thing – something that would help with the area’s growing tourist numbers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">But in Ballymagroarty Scotch they wanted it stopped. Why? Because right in the middle of the new road was a fairy tree. And though Daily Mirror journalist Michael Hellicar described it as a “gnarled, moss-covered whitethorn” that looked “no different from hundreds which are being hacked down to make way for the road,” the people of Bayymagroarty Scotch believed that the tree was special, and that to interfere with it was to court disaster – and even death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">For six months they protested to get the £100,000 (about £1.5m today, according to inflationtool.com) road diverted. But in October 1968, the problem resolved itself: the council could find no one to cut down the tree.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Roy Greene, the council’s “tree-felling contractor,” was the first to refuse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“I don’t believe in fairies,” he said. “But it was tempting fate to ignore all the stories and beliefs that I have known since I was a boy. After all, there might be a grain of truth in it somewhere, and I’ve a wife and two sons to protect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“The council were very understanding when I told them why I couldn’t cut the tree and that none of my men would do it either.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Bob Harrison was another contractor who refused to cut it down. “I’m not saying I believe in fairies,” he said, “but there is something uncanny about that tree.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">That October, the council announced that the new road was to be diverted around the fairy thorn. They were reluctant, however, to admit why they had taken this decision. According to “county engineer” Maurice O’Connell: “We changed our minds, that’s all. The landscape would have looked bare without the tree.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Whatever the reason for the decision, 65-year-old farmer Joe Walsh was delighted. “The fairies are good little folk who don’t normally cause trouble,” he said. “I was forced to sell the land for the road, but would they have understood that? I dread to think what might have happened to me if the tree had been cut.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“I’ve got another fairy tree behind my house. Once, after someone cut a branch to make way for a haystack, I lost thirty head of cattle, a sow and four horses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">“Call their deaths coincidence, if you like, but I couldn’t risk anything like that again.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Daily Mirror, 21 October 1968</span><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-3688431124300097222019-09-04T01:19:00.000-07:002019-09-04T01:19:19.148-07:00The Knockmore Apparitions<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One hundred and forty years ago, on 21 August 1879, images <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_o-xpzyuzowoQx3eag0N4PTPxhYiovdKUAvs-nUXiIjPVyFbBRNzhVEzkeB0zqK6h7ypleteMBohtBgRq1JB_xGVaC9Ve2LkihDU1g7-gSdTZwemV5oysDhE-sudC6sdLiRdJs-BRIshD/s1600/1024px-Apparition_Chapel_with_Stained_Window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="1024" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_o-xpzyuzowoQx3eag0N4PTPxhYiovdKUAvs-nUXiIjPVyFbBRNzhVEzkeB0zqK6h7ypleteMBohtBgRq1JB_xGVaC9Ve2LkihDU1g7-gSdTZwemV5oysDhE-sudC6sdLiRdJs-BRIshD/s400/1024px-Apparition_Chapel_with_Stained_Window.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Knock Shrine<br /> [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist appeared on the gable wall of the parish church in Knock, County Mayo. Behind the three figures was an altar flanked by angels, and on the altar were a cross and a lamb.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This apparition, in addition to establishing Knock as a place of pilgrimage, triggered a series of apparitions at other churches across Ireland (see <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_1329223445"></span>The Tree of Lights at the Bog Chapel<span id="goog_1329223446"></span></a>), including the church in Knockmore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The following is taken from <i>The Freeman’s Journal</i> of 11 September 1880.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>BALLINA FRIDAY – Since Sunday last people have been flocking in thousands to the chapel of Knockmore, within five miles of Ballina, where, it is alleged, the most wonderful spiritual manifestations have taken place and are nightly recurring. Seeing that a number of persons were leaving Ballina last evening, I proceeded there by car, arriving at about seven p.m. For the first time for more than a month very wetting rain began to fall, yet the road was everywhere crowded with people proceeding towards Knockmore Chapel to see the apparitions. I questioned several persons, all of whom attested to having seen or heard of the visions. One old woman named Mary Montgomery said she had seen the visions on three different occasions – Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights, and in various forms.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>It was stated that on Sunday, after the celebration of Holy Communion, the form of the Blessed Virgin, bearing in her arms the Holy Child Jesus, appeared against the front of the altar, where it remained for some minutes, and was witnessed by hundreds assembled in the chapel. Later on it appeared in another part of the chapel, over one of the Stations of the Cross, attended by two angels. The Virgin raised and waved her hands several times, as if blessing the people. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>On Tuesday evening, which was the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, the most wonderful sights are alleged to have been seen. It is attested by hundreds that while the priest was repeating the Rosary a man appeared palpably on the altar, who the people say was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He was a person of the most beautiful appearance, wearing a long beard, and having a profusion of curled hair over his forehead. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>It is said he went round the officiating clergyman, looking intently at him and bowing towards him on each side. Saints Joseph and John appeared in company with the first figure. The Virgin appeared several times after this, nearly always accompanied by angels.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>When I arrived at the chapel I met the Rev. John Conway, the pastor of the place, a most scholarly man, of the highest attainments, having held for many years the Professorship of St. Murdoch’s Seminary, Ballina, from which he was lately promoted to the living of Knockmore by his bishop, the Most Rev. Dr. Conway. He said that up to the present he had himself had no personal experience of the visions, but that very strong statements indeed had been made. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Proceeding to the chapel, I found it so thronged that some persons were unable to find standing-room. The greatest excitement and expectation prevailed among the people, and several times during the night there were strange manifestations, including a hand which appeared against the altar. A most respectable man who knelt at the altar rails, within six yards of where the hand appeared, attested in the strongest manner that he saw it as plainly as his own, and actually counted the fingers upon it.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>At one time a dim halo of light passed round the entire building, which is cruciform, and was followed by the shadow of two persons brought out in strange distinctness upon the wall, and which passed with a peculiar movement from the south aisle until they stood close by the altar, from the steps of which the priest was watching them intently, at the same time beseeching the people not to become unduly excited, but to pray to and thank God for this special manifestation. The people remained in the chapel till after midnight praying devoutly.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>As I am writing this the people are leaving in large numbers for Knockmore and several strangers have already arrived.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Freeman’s Journal, 11 September 1880</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-26893206287063953612019-08-25T04:19:00.000-07:002019-08-25T04:19:46.571-07:00A Curious Craft Over Carlingford<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On Saturday, 14 April 1990, between 4:30pm and 5:00pm, a UFO circled and hovered over the County Louth village of Carlingford. It was spherical and domed, was 30 to 40 feet in diameter, and according to the <i>Irish Independent</i>: “The object was lit up with orange lights that changed to blue as it went nearer the ground and then to red as it took off again.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Pharmacist John O’Callaghan had been taking photos of properties for sale for a friend in England when he encountered the UFO.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-pF1iONp04trf7zYcdpGJ0JMD86A82tih5lOA5iP-2D2lP-BnlCQqQMxIMmCiUmDo-vtPeox0-2ASDpqmkWdLw6AV28HnFxauNuBTopLtru5ybOPwtpzAtWrVPqiEt32qmf_knTrturzE/s1600/Carlingford+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="463" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-pF1iONp04trf7zYcdpGJ0JMD86A82tih5lOA5iP-2D2lP-BnlCQqQMxIMmCiUmDo-vtPeox0-2ASDpqmkWdLw6AV28HnFxauNuBTopLtru5ybOPwtpzAtWrVPqiEt32qmf_knTrturzE/s320/Carlingford+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunday Life headline</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I heard a terrible loud noise, my first reaction was to cover my ears with my hands. I then saw a dome-shaped object hanging and spinning in the sky and there was an orange colour all around it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“After a few minutes it descended down to the ground. There were three bulges at the base of it and it had turned a bluey/purply colour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I am not into UFOs at all and have always been very sceptical about such things but there was certainly a craft of some nature hovering in the sky.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Another witness was Kevin Woods, who lived on the southern shore of Carlingford Lough. Woods had heard a whistling noise and looked outside to see what it was.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“There was a red ball in the sky around the Rostrevor and Warrenpoint [two towns on the Northern Ireland side of Carlingford Lough] area. It was a sphere of some description. It stayed in the sky and moved at great speed. I then lost sight of it behind some houses.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Woods said that he knew a number of people who had seen the same object.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfLhTpFG45ni6N2DbKV2w6awd02SEGdtLZod1PRagQll6V8bLMFkgAzWjMWmro2asxUhdSo2VXdkD968LDWof5LkWreNZ2Ca5nCxVVr9o1WDqWBJ5WFZEICD7thysFYUUEsSsmUsrJ-aDJ/s1600/Carlingford+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="468" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfLhTpFG45ni6N2DbKV2w6awd02SEGdtLZod1PRagQll6V8bLMFkgAzWjMWmro2asxUhdSo2VXdkD968LDWof5LkWreNZ2Ca5nCxVVr9o1WDqWBJ5WFZEICD7thysFYUUEsSsmUsrJ-aDJ/s400/Carlingford+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John O'Callaghan's photo in the Sunday Life</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“We stood and talked about what we had seen for ages. I was glad to see the photographs afterwards because they confirmed what I had seen.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Like O’Callaghan, Woods was eager to convince journalists that he wasn’t some sort of UFO nut.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I am not into UFOs or moving statues or anything like that. I don’t believe in flying saucers and anyone who knows me in this area would know I am not a crank.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“But all I am saying is that it was a sphere and it moved very fast and I saw it and heard it. There was no smoke or blades. I didn’t find it frightening. It was just extraordinary.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This was a physically close encounter - according to the <i>Independent</i>, at one point the UFO was just 12 feet off the ground – as well as being a close encounter of the second kind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The object spooked a horse, which later required veterinary treatment, and it left a number of witnesses with a buzzing/whining noise in their ears. Eamon Thornton was one of them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“My ear drums hurt with the sound of a terrible whine,” he recalled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And the whine wasn’t confined to his ears. According to Thornton, while the object hovered over Carlingford, the radio in his truck whined loudly. The encounter also seemed to permanently damage the radio – as it didn’t work properly after the encounter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, what was this object that circled and hovered over Carlingford, changed colours, spooked horses and interfered with the ears and truck radios of the good people of Carlingford?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Was it a passing aircraft or a child’s Frisbee “swept up into the cloud by the wind,” as suggested by <i>The Argus </i>newspaper?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to John Flynn of the Armagh Planetarium, it was neither of these things. It was probably either a meteor, ball lightning or a rocket.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“If I had to guess I would go for a large meteor. It would travel faster than sound so you would get a sonic boom and the splash of colours,” explained Flynn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“You would get a lot of colours with ball lightning. The weather conditions over Easter would make that a possibility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“It could also be a flare or a rocket from either the British or Irish armies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“It is easier for us to say what it isn’t and it certainly isn’t a craft from another planet. Anything like that is immediately tracked down by the Russians or Americans.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Argus, 27 April 1990 & 4 January 1991<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Irish Independent, 19 April 1990<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sunday Life, 22 April 1990</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-67843197811475869672019-08-18T08:36:00.003-07:002019-08-18T08:36:46.867-07:00The Tamnadeese Terror<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On 29 March 1992, the <i>Sunday Life</i> newspaper reported on a ghost that had begun haunting a roundabout on the outskirts of Castledawson, a village in County Derry. Taking the form of a woman with “long flowing hair,” the ghost – which had been dubbed the “Tamnadeese Ghost” - would emerge from the centre of the roundabout and scream at the drivers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiXvQFH3jWUwr9ppNPFDbywlxHi4CxUu8AwVv05JCqjX7zmo5ZlkY9amFfjCOvA3Et9PoQP17hp3F56-B7EzkpZPiRuFowzQehg6FArHw7fZUmdxJHomZm58iY4W8ZsPloVzEJWM65EWkQ/s1600/Castledawson+Ghost+Headline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="898" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiXvQFH3jWUwr9ppNPFDbywlxHi4CxUu8AwVv05JCqjX7zmo5ZlkY9amFfjCOvA3Et9PoQP17hp3F56-B7EzkpZPiRuFowzQehg6FArHw7fZUmdxJHomZm58iY4W8ZsPloVzEJWM65EWkQ/s640/Castledawson+Ghost+Headline.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One of those who had encountered the ghost was Castledawson woman Harriet Hudson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“The most striking feature was her long straight blonde hair. As I was driving round, she walked from my right into my path. She was waving her arms and staggering. She looked to be drunk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I got alarmed because she came out on me so abruptly and I had to swerve violently to the left to avoid her.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When she lurched out at one motorist, he was so convinced that he had run someone over that he ran into a nearby takeaway and demanded that the staff call the police.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While only a handful of people actually saw the ghost, many heard its screams in the night, with one mother claiming that her children were too afraid to go out in the evenings because of the ghost’s “mysterious haunting cries.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Local man Neville Chambers, who believed “supernatural forces were at work, had first heard the screams a month before: “The hair stood on my head. I don’t know what it was but the screams I heard, I’ll take to my death.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to the Sunday Life, the locals believed that a local road-building project, which had just been completed and was due to open, had disturbed a grave. There was no evidence for this, but some locals were demanding that the opening of the new road be delayed, while others were lobbying for a team of “ghost-busters” to be called in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But, as the saying goes, one man’s scary roundabout is another man’s fun day out; and the initial <i>Sunday Life</i> story brought the curiosity seekers to Castledawson in their droves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to one local: “There have been big crowds here and the only thing missing from the roundabout these nights is a mobile chippie van. The chippie van would have done a roaring trade.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sunday Life, 29 March & 5 April 1992</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-86844217889338793472019-08-10T04:04:00.001-07:002019-08-10T04:04:42.894-07:00Do You Remember the First Time?<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsESXP6wU0c2EjrKAdOsW848mEvGiGlvAPgIV_rGvuJSo_TjwWWZo_IsLnsqfVF-s9czL8DGGpht-FpZAzDmtombDLTAqBqUKK_-ltMTnEkFhiRSh2UPTGIeHv2RV7ubbUnxnxQJXwFR5f/s1600/Bob+McFall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="386" data-original-width="130" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsESXP6wU0c2EjrKAdOsW848mEvGiGlvAPgIV_rGvuJSo_TjwWWZo_IsLnsqfVF-s9czL8DGGpht-FpZAzDmtombDLTAqBqUKK_-ltMTnEkFhiRSh2UPTGIeHv2RV7ubbUnxnxQJXwFR5f/s400/Bob+McFall.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The first stretch – seven miles from Belfast to Lisburn - of Northern Ireland’s M1 motorway was opened at 6 am on Tuesday, 10 July 1962. For the official opening, 14 cars, lorries and motorbikes were lined up – Grand Prix style – at the Donegall Road entrance in Belfast. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Though father and daughter William and Angela Lemon had arrived early to get on the front row, it was Belfast man Bob McFall who clinched pole position. And when the road was declared open, Bob McFall, on his 11-year-old motorbike, became the first person to drive/ride on the M1.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But we’re not here to talk about Bob McFall. We’re here to talk about William Nesbitt, the first man to pick up a ghost on the new motorway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Just before midnight on 31 December 1963, 42-year-old William Nesbitt, who was travelling to Belfast for a New Year’s Eve event, joined the motorway at Lisburn. He’d only travelled about one mile when he saw someone standing at the side of the road.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“A young woman was walking on the shoulder of the road in the direction of the City,” he said. “She did not ‘thumb’ but half turned as if to suggest: ‘Would you stop, but I’m not going to ask you.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“She got into the car and seemed quite grateful. She was of slight build, late teens or early twenties, and was wearing a grey-green suit with a dark coat.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to Nesbitt, things got weird quite quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“The car suddenly started to feel cold although I had the heater on.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And then<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I half glanced round, glanced round again and she was gone.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Nesbitt decided to skip his planned night out in the big smoke.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While some of Nesbitt’s friends and family struggled to believe his story, it seems that his encounter with the ghost – if that’s what it was – wasn’t an isolated incident. According to the Belfast Telegraph, there were stories circulating about a ghost on the M1, “but no definite reports [had been] made to the police.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to a police spokesperson: “We have heard the rumours. No one seems to know how they originated.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Belfast Telegraph, 10 July 1962 and 4 January 1964</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-23229379098485142892019-07-21T08:27:00.000-07:002019-07-21T08:27:34.020-07:00The Tullymoan Fake Farm Phantom<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For a few weeks in 1868, the people of Tyrone were entertained by the antics of the Tullymoan poltergeist. And while the whole thing was quite quickly uncovered to be an elaborate plan to scare a farmer off his land, the early reports seemed to indicate that this was a classic poltergeist case.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnH706ndKl1neEDfbOJprs2t33_oCtHyhablx9DIo6Cj3BdFLsPvfpGmfhbv7fL92yZkGgORwaJKrLwcSKGLqN9S5J1saADJSYsuCy3o_14vS69DbrGnvD4gjK_DkGaHFYuMXWoBlSIN9/s1600/county-tyrone-farmhouse-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="600" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHnH706ndKl1neEDfbOJprs2t33_oCtHyhablx9DIo6Cj3BdFLsPvfpGmfhbv7fL92yZkGgORwaJKrLwcSKGLqN9S5J1saADJSYsuCy3o_14vS69DbrGnvD4gjK_DkGaHFYuMXWoBlSIN9/s400/county-tyrone-farmhouse-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A random Tyrone farmhouse</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>EXTRAORDINARY AND MYSTERIOUS OCCURRENCE</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>In this age of common sense and disbelief in superstition, to find circumstances impossible to explain by ordinary criteria, awes and astonishes more than mere rustics. Such circumstances have been occurring in the village of Tullymoan, situated about a mile from Claudy, near Strabane. The house of a man named Speers has been the object of some mysterious destructive agency for weeks past. The owner was threshing oats in the barn, and in every sheaf he found two or three small stones — this went on so long that he found himself compelled to cease. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Then he was startled by a noise in the stable, and he went in there carrying his flail with him, which he dropped behind the horse, that he might fetch away a tub from the animal’s head — and lo! the flail disappeared and has not since been found. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Then the kitchen fire got scattered through the floor; the plates and dishes were were smashed off the dresser, and the pots and pans began to walk about through the apartments. Then stones began to fly in all directions, cutting everyone daring enough to approach the haunted dwelling. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The panes of glass next began to be smashed; so, for safety, the windows were taken out and locked up in a press; but the mysterious visitors were too wise, for soon press, windows, and chairs were smashed to pieces. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The turf stacks keep oscillating like a poplar tree, hammering constantly resounds from the chimney, and the stones keep flying in all directions, pelting and cutting and bleeding those venturous enough to risk visiting the place. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>On Friday evening week the crowds gathered, distinctly saw a pot come flying through the door, and fall in smashed pieces on the street. A religiously-inclined inhabitant of the locality volunteered to lay the Evil One, and so he repaired to the spot in vaunted hopes of success. Alas for human calculation! The stones rattled about his ears in the fated kitchen, they fell on his wrists, spraining them; and on his feet, hurting them. The combat was too unequal, his opponents were invisible, so he considered retreat justifiable. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Strange to say, the disturbances ceased on Sunday last, from 10 am, to 5 pm, when they began with renewed vigour. Not alone in the house, but through the owner’s lands - though no farther - do the stones pelt away the crowds. The circumstance is an extraordinary one, and is creating an extraordinary amount of excitement far and near. For miles round the people flock to see and certify regarding the unusual wonder. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The people have fled the house, and all about it and within are in fearful confusion. The event deserves notice and investigation from its many peculiarities.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source:</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Tyrone Constitution Omagh, 27 March 1868</span></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-36645094541922439662019-07-10T07:41:00.000-07:002019-07-13T05:21:48.607-07:00The Ballymoney Mystery Light<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Regular readers of this blog will know that the Irish often take a “route one” approach to paranormal investigations. The following case, which appeared in <i>The Northern Whig</i> of 26 April 1913, is no exception.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>MYSTERIOUS LIGHTS</i></b></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Marsh gas, which is well named “ignis fatuus,” may account in many cases for the lights which have been observed travelling over the surfaces of lakes and bogs during the past winter, and which have formed the subject of letters in our newspapers, but I think there is at least one such occurrence which cannot be accounted for in this way. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAX0ObtmXDx1ix2b95lqTMZ5a5IF54Oy7SBKdY3xx6KLVKvj4NiW-DWINp_M9GV5fp5OTwwDmWZJpItF_PdMwSA1KZQMlizYtQYlWyxniV0526VQzc8171zCleuz5sOYm6OxgnQSkgzn9B/s1600/Barn_Owl_in_Norfolk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1140" data-original-width="1600" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAX0ObtmXDx1ix2b95lqTMZ5a5IF54Oy7SBKdY3xx6KLVKvj4NiW-DWINp_M9GV5fp5OTwwDmWZJpItF_PdMwSA1KZQMlizYtQYlWyxniV0526VQzc8171zCleuz5sOYm6OxgnQSkgzn9B/s400/Barn_Owl_in_Norfolk.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Attribution: Edd Deane from Swaffham, England<br /> [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>For some years a light has been observed moving about in the neighbourhood of where the Portrush Road emerges from this town. When first spoken of many people went out to witness for themselves the curious phenomenon, but after a time interest in it waned. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Many were the conjectures formed as to the cause, and with some a superstitious view held sway. One observer gave his opinion that phosphorescent substance was disengaged from the peaty soil of the bog, which approaches near to the place, and that birds or other animals may have been the cause by loosening the material; but the light moved in too regular a manner for this theory to be accepted.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Another stated that he had seen the light disappear into trees which encircle a demesne close by, and this set one thinking that birds may have something to do it after all. A keen observer who knew that Owls were very much in evidence in that district gave his opinion that the light was caused by their luminous eyes, which glowed in the dark. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Certainly they do glow, but only for the benefit of the bird, not to give light to others. This would come to be almost as good as the opinion expressed elsewhere that “Waders” carried something analogous to an electrical battery, and which they emitted when swimming on the surface of the water. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The mystery was no further made clear to an inquiring mind until a young man, ever ready with his gun, stated that on a dark night, and when waiting for other quarry, he encountered the light, fired into it, and found that he had shot an Owl. <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Had the problem at last been solved? The experience of our gunner friend was believed to be reliable, but other means to verify it were wanting. Searching the best authorities revealed the following, which is so far encouraging. In Harmsworth “Natural History,” recently published, the writer states — “Barn owls are sometimes more or less distinctly luminous, owing probably to the presence in their plumage of phosphorescent bacteria, derived from the rotten wood of the trees forming their dwelling places.” — J. L. N. (Ballymoney).</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Northern Whig, 26 April 1913</span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-73418788358796695682019-07-03T06:40:00.000-07:002019-07-03T06:40:07.904-07:00Don't Call Me Babe!<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On 7 July 2003, the <i>Irish Independent</i> reported that a “vicious Vietnamese Pot-bellied pig” was “on the loose in Clare.” Seemingly it had been “on the loose” for a year. For the most part, it contented itself with frightening cattle, but it had also bitten a man.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqhqQvfWikD4earKZd5230jUULWmOkHryvueGFjszG24fZ8hyphenhyphenSnSZjs3hQe7Nh68gksYCvKnT4vtMJtfq7fbN_bilcP5ndVoa9ilxtJt3lIDnWB1yurHx2llWBRDOYR_eNZTIsn3BNWTs/s1600/Viet+Pig+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="76" data-original-width="353" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNqhqQvfWikD4earKZd5230jUULWmOkHryvueGFjszG24fZ8hyphenhyphenSnSZjs3hQe7Nh68gksYCvKnT4vtMJtfq7fbN_bilcP5ndVoa9ilxtJt3lIDnWB1yurHx2llWBRDOYR_eNZTIsn3BNWTs/s400/Viet+Pig+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had been trailing it for some months. “We know the animal originated in the Corrovorrin area and we are sure that it was probably a family pet which either escaped or was released by its owner,” said Frankie Coote, one of the charity’s wardens. </span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I am concerned that the pig will attack young children or an elderly person. No one should approach because it can cause harm or even kill,” he warned.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While Ireland may not be crawling with mystery beasts, it is a place where you will encounter exotic animals that - while they unquestionably do exist somewhere in the world - you really wouldn’t expect to find here. We had the wolf that tormented Cavan farmers in 1874; the bear that “excited the greatest interest” in and around Newry in 1895 [1]; and the panther(s) and or puma(s) that played hide-and-seek with the PSNI and the British Army in 2003.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There were multiple sightings of all of these creatures. And they all left behind physical evidence of their appearances. Yet each also left behind the impression that they weren’t entirely physical. None of these creatures were ever caught. And after causing a lot of excitement, they just disappeared again - much like poltergeists.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Was Clare’s Vietnamese Pot-bellied pig one of those creatures? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">One month later, the <i>Irish Independent</i> reported that the pig - who had been named Charlie by the locals [2] - had struck again on the outskirts of Ennis. This time he had chased a man walking his dog.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The <i>Independent</i> also reported that it still wasn’t clear where Charlie had “escaped from.” However, they gave some details of an incident that had happened the previous year - just before the Charlie sightings began.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Near the Corrovorrin housing estate in Ennis where the sightings began, there’s an abattoir. And in July 2002, a witness reported seeing two men in white coats chasing an “unusual looking” pig through the estate. It ran through a play area and escaped into some thick woodland.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A spokesperson for the abattoir said that, while they weren’t actually licensed to slaughter pigs, they had killed pigs before for “particular reasons.” However, the spokesperson would not confirm if they had lost a pig.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§</span></span></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The ISPCA admitted that it was struggling to find Charlie - “We just can’t pin him down.” And on 13 August, the <i>Irish Independent</i> reported that private investigator Sean McGovern had decided to get involved in the hunt. McGovern, seemingly, had experience in hunting wild boars, and he believed he was just the man for the job. But McGovern had no interest in capturing Charlie; he wanted to shoot him.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Frankie Coote was none too pleased with this turn of events. He told reporters that he believed Charlie could still be captured and that he had received an offer from a pet farm in County Kerry to take the animal.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXTWxZIgf51Ud9jhfmkWPNOQZhVqN2mC775zZ81LSxXyW2x0y4yqSiHwnzH5zLBUjJKbNBFFwAmBtdTjVFQEKDxjaQj7xeML3kgqjw5cDANnsKAf4rh2Sn7Awc0_OgkexRur-Wn8Xdfd1/s1600/Viet+Pig+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="72" data-original-width="367" height="77" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXTWxZIgf51Ud9jhfmkWPNOQZhVqN2mC775zZ81LSxXyW2x0y4yqSiHwnzH5zLBUjJKbNBFFwAmBtdTjVFQEKDxjaQj7xeML3kgqjw5cDANnsKAf4rh2Sn7Awc0_OgkexRur-Wn8Xdfd1/s400/Viet+Pig+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The gardaí weren’t too pleased, either. McGovern’s involvement in the hunt for Charlie prompted them to warn that “they will not tolerate illegal efforts” to track down and kill the pig.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“A person cannot just simply go on to lands and shoot this animal,” explained a Garda spokesperson. “The law is very specific about where a firearm can and can’t be discharged from, for example, a firearm cannot be discharged from a public roadway or within 60 yards of such a roadway.”</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The ISPCA repeated that was making its own efforts to capture the pig “humanely.” And, according to Mr Coote, the ISPCA now had three offers of sanctuary for Charlie.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">However, according to McGovern, because Vietnamese Pot-bellied pigs aren’t protected under the Wildlife Act, he had every right to hunt it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§</span></span></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Seemingly, however, Coote and McGovern weren’t the only hunters. </span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Each year for the Puck Fair, which is held on 10 - 12 August in Killorglin, County Kerry, a wild goat is caught in the mountains, brought to the town and crowned King Puck. Mick MacConnell, a columnist for <i>The Kerryman</i> newspaper, had heard that the “Killorglin lads who capture King Puck every year” had been approached to help capture Charlie.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This prompted MacConnell - who was calling Charlie “Porksteak” - to write: “So my column this week represents a heartfelt plea to the goat catchers of Killorglin to stay at home and have nothing to do with bringing an end to ‘Porksteak’s’ spell of freedom. Dammit, for some people, ‘Porksteak’ is nothing less than a national hero.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">§</span></span></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkviGaPMGf-556FbBrEa79MoEl118BmukFyg6QaDkOlXvmzIjpo4pzR3b-u3TT-Srp7Q4nSh-YfofwcooiDDcz9Edfu4Ykv22MFeibcVa5rqnuLRVtpsQ5No21F3zUNQm6flKIZLXIBdBu/s1600/Viet+Pig+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="145" data-original-width="105" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkviGaPMGf-556FbBrEa79MoEl118BmukFyg6QaDkOlXvmzIjpo4pzR3b-u3TT-Srp7Q4nSh-YfofwcooiDDcz9Edfu4Ykv22MFeibcVa5rqnuLRVtpsQ5No21F3zUNQm6flKIZLXIBdBu/s400/Viet+Pig+2.jpg" width="289" /></a></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">However, it didn’t really matter who was involved in the hunt: Charlie was evading all efforts to capture him. This became a growing concern for the ISPCA.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“Because he is finding it very easy to get food at the moment, he is not a threat to anyone,” explained Frankie Coote. “This will change in winter as the food supply dries up and he may start to move around and attack livestock and people.”</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The ISPCA’s solution, according to Coote, was to set up a sanctuary for the pig, close to where it was currently feeding, and supply it with food. A local veg shop had already promised to supply all the food needed, and the charity was looking to clear the scheme with the local farmers.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And that, as far as I can tell, is where the story ends. I don’t know if Charlie moved in to his sanctuary and lived happily ever after, if he was gunned down in a shoot out with the PI or if - like his intangible kin - he just simply disappeared.. </span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Charlie may just have been a real flesh and blood pig. But he shared a lot of characteristics with the Newry bear, the Cavan wolf and the Antrim pumas/panthers. They all appeared to have come from nowhere - and just as quickly returned there. All were said to have escaped from private ownership - but their owners were never discovered. They managed to elude all those who sought to capture or kill them (Coote claimed to have heard Charlie foraging for food in the darkness, but never actually saw him). And they all seemed to have been absorbed back into the few wild places left in Ireland.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Charlie, like the others, was there - but not there. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>I could be horribly wrong about all of this, of course. But even if I am - it’s a great story. And if you can add to it or - just as importantly - correct it, please get in touch.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Notes:</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1 Richard Muirhead includes some material on the Newry bear in his ‘Irish Snakes, Wild Cats and Other Mystery Animals’ chapter in Biofortean Notes Volume 2. It’s defiintely worth a look.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2 The Irish Independent was my main source for this post. And while the Irish Independent covered this story from the beginning, they never referred to the pig as Charlie. It wasn’t until I came across Mick MacConnell’s piece in The Kerryman that I discovered that the locals had given him this name.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> - The Evening Herald, 7 August 2003</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> - The Irish Independent, 7 July 2003 and 7, 13, 14 & 30 August 2003</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> - The Kerryman, 14 August 2003</span>Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-15519154254350259282019-05-13T06:55:00.000-07:002019-05-13T06:55:47.533-07:00Return to Gillhall Castle<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In my last post, I said that Sheila St Clair, the “investigator and lecturer in supernatural phenomena,” had accompanied the Ulster Tape Recording Society on one of their visits to Gillhall, and that she had - quite some years later - told the story of that night in her book, “The Step on the Stair.”</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Strangely, St Clair doesn’t mention in her book that a journalist and a photographer from the <i>Belfast Telegraph</i> were also there that night. The journalist’s account - which I’ve reproduced here - appeared in the <i>Belfast Telegraph</i> on 28 June 1960.</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3KnsZ8d1VuG-FBNUdGs-ZVnm1zq4wKcBSgiyziQqJwJM-a0KfTzzswwdOdnKG3oLa0-jjyfz622MFuld5GG7pNL_4IC6qBwxzv43GwAGA6xrE5CL-CoQFfSVfHqDnx52YkvWPWd-4OQe/s1600/Gillhall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="437" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb3KnsZ8d1VuG-FBNUdGs-ZVnm1zq4wKcBSgiyziQqJwJM-a0KfTzzswwdOdnKG3oLa0-jjyfz622MFuld5GG7pNL_4IC6qBwxzv43GwAGA6xrE5CL-CoQFfSVfHqDnx52YkvWPWd-4OQe/s400/Gillhall.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>SOCIETY TAPES SOUND PICTURE OF HAUNTED HOUSE</i></span></span></h3>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>I have just spent a night in a haunted house. I heard coughing in an empty room, dogs howling for no apparent reason, and inexplicable crashes.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The house is Gillhall, a 300-year-old mansion near Dromore, Co. Down. Cameraman Roy Smyth and I motored there with nine members of the Ulster Tape Recording Society.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Led by their honorary secretary, Mr. Wiliam Scott, they were making their second visit to capture mysterious sounds they had heard there a fortnight ago.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Also with the party were Miss Sheila St. Clair, investigator and lecturer in supernatural phenomena.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Though no one claims to have actually seen a ghost, local legend has it that Lord Tyrone visited his childhood friend there the night after he died more than 150 years ago [1].</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>On a pane of glass in the bay of a second-storey bed chamber is strange writing.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Stories differ on this, but it is said to have been scraped 200 years ago with a diamond engagement ring by a girl who was locked in the room after being either jilted by her sweetheart or forbidden by her parents to marry the man of her choice. Some say she was burned to death when the house went on fire.</i></span></span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>A VERSE</i></span></span></h3>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The writing takes the form of a verse. In old English style, it says:</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The beauty of holiness</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Is best understood</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>To him that beauty beheld</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>By the fair and the good</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Though the glass in many of the other windows of the 50-roomed house has long since disappeared, this pane has withstood the storms and explosions by troops who trained there during the war.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>We arrived shortly before 10 o’clock at the gaunt, grey house, once proud but now derelict, with weeds creeping up the steps of its impressive entrance and gaping holes in its floors and ceilings.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>To avoid the notice - and, perhaps, unwelcome “assistance” - of the locals, we approached by a back entrance, through a high, iron gateway, past the gamekeeper’s house and along a long, narrow drive overgrown with grass.</i></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>SOUND-PROOFED</i></span></span></h3>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Immediately the society members started to “sound-proof” the house. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>By 11-28 nothing could have moved without being heard over one of the many microphones installed throughout the house and linked to a monitoring loudspeaker and tape recorder in the main downstairs room which had been converted into a control centre.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Then I watched as Miss St. Clair placed a number of objects - a paint tin, the cowling off a stove pipe and a pot handle - in a cellar. Their positions were ringed with tar and around all of them Miss St. Clair made circles of flour to show up the footprints of anyone who might tamper with them.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>We had not long to wait before things started happening. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Ten minutes before midnight, as we sat having supper by candlelight in the only furnished room, some of the members thought they saw the door of the central room, which had been blocked by a stool, move. A few minutes later a metallic crash was heard from the cellar.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The night was still, without a breeze, yet one of the three candles flickered while others did not.</i></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>ANOTHER CRASH</i></span></span></h3>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Then the crash was heard again from the cellar.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Seven minutes later, on the stroke of midnight, a gong sounded from the same room. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>A quarter of an hour had barely passed when a floorboard in the hall creaked.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Shortly after 12-15 two distinct coughs were heard from the cellar and there were sounds of movement.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>This was the record of events - all heard from the basement - I noted after that:-</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>12-19: Regular squawking like that of a bird.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>12-22: Rumble like that of a distant motor-cycle.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>12-25: A scraping noise, a thud, and a cough.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>12-29: A sound like the latch of a door being lifted.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>12-40: A rumble from the microphone in the cellar, as though it had been moved.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>At 12-35 two gun dogs in an enclosure behind the house started to bark and howl [2].</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>It was then we decided to send out two reconnaissance parties with torches, one down to the cellar and the other round the outside of the house.</i></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>QUIET OUTSIDE</i></span></span></h3>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Nothing in the cellar had been moved and all was quiet outside.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>But immediately the outside party rounded the corner of the house the dogs started barking again. The main front door, left open by the last member of the party to enter the control room originally, was shut tight. No one had left that room before the parties went out [3].</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>At 12-55 a metallic tapping was heard from the cellar, and at one o’clock there was a tremendous crash, followed by a growling sound.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Five minutes later there was another crash, as if something had been thrown or dropped in the cellar.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Before dismantling the equipment we paid another visit to the cellar. All was as we had left it, but two wooden planks, which some members said had been leaning against the wall, were now lying on the ground … which could have accounted for the crashes.</i></span></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>LIGHTS</i></span></span></h3>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>As we left the house shortly before dawn down the main winding drive along which proud carriages and four had once driven, we paused to look back at the house. Almost all the members said they could see phantom lights flickering at the windows.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Miss St. Clair said later: “Apart from the explainable noises of an old house settling into the night and the flickering candles, I can find no reasonable explanation other than the supernatural for the coughs, the sound of the tapping and the two crashes, all of which appeared to come from the cellar.” [4]</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mr. Scott said the sounds recorded would be investigated and perhaps sent to an expert for analysis.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Notes:</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1 According to the account given in “The Step on the Stair,” Lord Tyrone appeared to Lady Beresford - who was holidaying in Gillhall - and made a number of predictions - all of them grim - about her life to come. In addition to the mental scarring, Lord Tyrone also scarred Lady Beresford physically when he grabbed her wrist. To be fair, she did ask him to leave her a sign that their strange encounter wasn’t just a dream. Until her death, or so the story goes, Lady Beresford wore a black ribbon on her wrist to cover the disfigurement. </span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2 St Clair adds: “After a time we timed the howls, and they appeared to precede paranormal activity in the house by about twenty seconds: it was as though the unhappy dogs had psychic stop-watches!”</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">3 According to St Clair, there was more to this incident: “The door, having shut itself, now proved unwilling to open; and two burly members of our group who struggled to re-open it found the task beyond them. I went back into the hall with them and turned the knob, and the door opened easily under my hand. I must confess I enjoyed the look of amazement on their faces!”</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">4 In “The Step on the Stair,” St Clair states: “There was an aspect of the visit to Gillhall that I had shared with no-one, and that was a strong suspicion that somewhere occult practice had intruded upon the paranormal. I had received several anonymous phone calls that hinted delicately at the ‘inadvisability’ of investigating Gillhall. In the house itself I found evidence of ritual practices in some of the rooms, and the curious atmosphere in the house itself had bothered me.”</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Belfast Telegraph, 28 June 1960</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sheila St Clair, The Step on the Stair, (The Glendale Press Ltd, Sandycove, 1989)</span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-38435008490288625922019-05-06T02:48:00.002-07:002019-05-06T02:49:38.179-07:00Taping the Tapping Ghost<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If there’s something weird<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">in your neighbourhood<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">who ya gonna call? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Ulster Tape Recording Society!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The following appeared in the <i>Belfast Telegraph</i> on 13 June 1960.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>THE TAPPING GHOST IN THE CASTLE IS TAPED<o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The ghost in a derelict Ulster castle has been taped … on a recorder. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrB_O1qtwh4WMxbPUSvhrV8Jr9LueGiUFayDd9l_IA2Io3OaNbNuvpoM4jPGCH1kHE1b3IFlR2GpNmnEiP1_y35kOKfc38e4AHooTbnJRvliI-_4WCJIVTgiYV6UKZRKjDM4mRs7_aGuL4/s1600/journal-1-34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="800" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrB_O1qtwh4WMxbPUSvhrV8Jr9LueGiUFayDd9l_IA2Io3OaNbNuvpoM4jPGCH1kHE1b3IFlR2GpNmnEiP1_y35kOKfc38e4AHooTbnJRvliI-_4WCJIVTgiYV6UKZRKjDM4mRs7_aGuL4/s400/journal-1-34.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>For a dozen members of the Ulster Tape Recording Society who spent Saturday night in the reputedly-haunted Gilhall Castle, near Dromore, County Down, heard strange noises and saw objects mysteriously moved.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The party, who had with them about £400 worth of recording and photographic equipment, spent from 10 o’clock till dawn in the castle, accompanied by Mr. Brian Hinchley, an expert in psychic phenomena.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>He supervised the drawing of chalk circles and symbols and the placing of iron pipes and other objects intended to attract the ghost.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>One room was used as a central control station and microphones were installed at strategic points throughout the building and wired to a recording unit.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>And as the members watched and listened in the stillness of the night inexplicable sounds were heard on the monitoring system and were immediately recorded.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The secretary of the society, Mr. William Scott, of 41 Haypark Avenue, Belfast, said to-day that the sounds were like a metallic tapping.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“But when we investigated them personally they ceased,” he said.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>KEY TURNS</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Three of the members also said that on two occasions they saw that objects in one room had been mysteriously moved.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The key in a door, left in a particular position, was turned, a pot handle moved some distance, an iron bar was turned at right angles to the position in which it had been left and, oddest of all, a paint pot and brushes was shifted two yards from a wall to a pipe, from which they fell as the witnesses approached.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>These were among the evidence photographed, as well as writing on a window of the castle. This is said to have been scraped with a diamond ring by a girl, forbidden to marry the man of her choice, who was burned to death in the castle 200 years ago.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mr. Scott said the negatives being developed to-day appeared to show no apparitions or anything other than the objects actually photographed.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“But we’re having them enlarged to get a closer look,” he said.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>He said the members had entered onto the investigation with an open mind, but now most were tempted to believe the castle legend.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“But just in case some of the locals were playing a prank we will return on a secret date,” he said.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The society is also to investigate a mysterious humming noise heard in the Malone Road area of Belfast in the early hours of the morning.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mr. Scott is also keen to hear of any other buildings said to be haunted.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“My telephone number is 648939 … and I will be glad to receive a call from anyone,” he said.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If you’re interested in reading more about the haunted history of Gilhall (aka Gillhall - aka Gill Hall) have a look at “The Step on the Stair” by Sheila St Clair. The Gillhall chapter includes details of a return visit to the castle by the Ulster Tape Recording Society, this time accompanied by Mrs St Clair herself. It was quite an eventful evening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Belfast Telegraph, 13 June 1960</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-84549705955627398712019-04-28T04:22:00.000-07:002019-04-28T04:22:03.124-07:00Mayobridge's Mystery Midnight Marauder<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I had a couple of happy research accidents this week. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While thumbing through a recently purchased second-hand copy of <i>The Roswell Incident</i>, I found a mint green envelope that the previous owner had been using as a bookmark. And inside the envelope was a crisp Bank of England £1 note (these notes have been out of circulation since 1988). Even though it’s probably only worth about £2 now, it was a nice find.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And later, while sorting through a mess of random notes, I found a scribbled reminder to myself. “Look into the Mayobridge Mystery Man – 1969,” it instructed. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So I did - and this is what I found. It appeared in the <i>Belfast Telegraph</i> of 12 December 1969.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<b><span style="line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mayobridge Search for a Midnight Marauder<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Despite several midnight hunts by police and local farmers, a mystery figure who had been frightening residents in Mayobridge, near Newry, is still at large. With rumours of ghosts, spirits and weird creatures circulating throughout the area several people have refused to go outside their houses at night.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>One of them is Mrs. Mary McManus of Benagh, Mayobridge, whose son, Seamus, first saw the figure two weeks ago. Now she won’t even open the front door at night.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Since then police and neighbours have made several searches in an area called “The Rocks” where the figure has been seen on a number of occasions.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The figure, described as being six feet tall, who sometimes wears a carnival mask always seems to give them the slip.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>It was on a Sunday evening that 21-year-old Seamus, who has just left college, saw the figure while out for a walk.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Chest in Field<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“The following night,” said Seamus, “we went out to see if we could see anything and I found that a chest which should have been in the garden was lying in the field.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“When I got near it, a figure wearing what looked like a skeleton mask jumped up and ran away.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Someone else who has seen the figure is 18-year-old barman Patsy Rooney, from School Road, Rathfriland.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“On the second evening that the figure appeared I went out with Seamus to see if we could find anything. We split up, and I hadn’t gone far when I heard Seamus calling me to come quickly. As I made my way over to where he was I saw a figure running towards some trees,” said Patsy.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“On Tuesday evening a big search was organised and the police sent a sergeant and two constables to see if the figure could be found. There were also several men armed with sticks.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“The figure was spotted and appeared to pull off his mask before he vanished. Another search was made on Wednesday evening but although he was again spotted he gave us the slip.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“Whoever he is,” said Patsy, “he is very agile for he keeps giving us the slip.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Jumped wall<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Also concerned about the figure is Mrs. Bridie Sands, who lives at Ryan, Mayobridge, who said: “I haven’t seen the figure, but my daughter saw a strange man walking along the road with a suitcase. When he saw her coming he jumped over a wall and ran towards ‘The Rocks’ where the figure has been seen at night.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“I am rather concerned about my daughter walking home from school when there is someone like this about.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mrs. Sands’ son Thomas (23), is one of the many neighbours who have been out on patrol and he said: “I went first of all because I was interested in folklore, but there is no doubt that this figure is real enough.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“The night I joined the hunt I stayed with a policeman to guard the McManus house while the ground round the farm was searched. This is the first time that anything like this has happened in the area.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>It was thought that the figure was hiding out in a disused house in the area but when this was surrounded there was no one there.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>A police spokesman at Newry said: “We have been out at night on several occasions searching but have been unable to find anyone. We believe that it is probably the work of a practical joker and we shall be keeping a look out.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The spokesman added: “As soon as the dark nights come we quite often get a ‘wag’ somewhere in the area.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Belfast Telegraph, 12 December 1969</span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-87824862625591830082019-04-22T07:20:00.000-07:002019-04-22T07:20:57.242-07:00One Crazy Summer<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Last Monday night I watched RTE’s “Moving Statues – The Summer of 1985.” I’m sure there’ll be plenty who will find fault with it, but I thought RTE did a really good job of capturing the atmosphere that surrounded the events. And I thoroughly enjoyed it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If you can – watch it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">If you can’t – here’s a story (originally published across two articles) from the end of that summer, which appeared in the <i>Wicklow People</i> on Friday, 13 September 1985.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Many claim having seen Rathdangan statue move<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Life progressed at its usual pace in Rathdangan up to Thursday afternoon of last week. But a chance meeting of two local ladies and a visit to the local Grotto for a silent prayer was to change the entire atmosphere of the village.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mrs. Haddie Doyle is in the habit of putting flowers on the Grotto. It is something she has done for many years since her husband, Martin, and other local people erected the statue in 1954.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitunJmYWvkuEzIvmW28x7hZzBiHuojNq0Dm1t8x-62VKTdyQOYU1qs7kVZ0CLVOjo5PSIis8wEy8XuMkp9jzr57w9gHPZiLSpM3xBoO7pHo5YVFFWexHpxVJAUv5uUKbfJv4owGp5vw00n/s1600/Rathdangan+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="547" height="353" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitunJmYWvkuEzIvmW28x7hZzBiHuojNq0Dm1t8x-62VKTdyQOYU1qs7kVZ0CLVOjo5PSIis8wEy8XuMkp9jzr57w9gHPZiLSpM3xBoO7pHo5YVFFWexHpxVJAUv5uUKbfJv4owGp5vw00n/s400/Rathdangan+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Wicklow People of 20 September 1985</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Thursday was no exception and on her way back to her home she met with another local lady, Mrs. Breda Kearney, who was upset. Her mother had seen the face of Our Lord on a statue of the Blessed Virgin in Myshall, Co Carlow, the day before and the incident had frightened her.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>So they both walked back to the Grotto to say a prayer and Mrs. Doyle takes up the story of what they saw as they knelt on the first step.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“I saw Our Lady smile and open her eyes while Mrs. Kearney saw the halo lights going on and off and the face of Our Lord, complete with the Crown of Thorns, appeared.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“I wasn’t frightened but Mrs. Kearney got a terrible shock so we contacted some neighbours and recited a decade of the Rosary back at the statue.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“By this time word had spread very quickly and villagers gathered. We continued with the Rosary and as we did, people raised their hands as they saw various images appear on the statue.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“I saw the face of Padre Pio which then changed to the face of St. Theresa and then the vision of a former Pope appeared,” she said.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mrs. Doyle said that many of the hundreds of people who have visited the Grotto since have all witnessed different images appearing.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>I questioned her closely about the whole affair but there was absolutely no doubt in her mind about what she saw. The visions had appeared and she was very happy about it.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“There are prayers going on all the time now and people are coming from everywhere. It is absolutely amazing and I have no explanation for the events of the past week,” she added.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The entire area is intrigued and the Rathdangan sightings have become a major talking point in every town and village in the county.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>In Arklow this week, for instance, conversations were going on in shops, doctors’ surgeries and almost anywhere that groups of people come together.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>If it continues, Rathdangan could well become another Ballinspittle, although there are so many sightings now around the country that visitations will be divided up among them all.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Crowds pour into tiny village as news spreads<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Streams of people have been pouring into the tiny village of Rathdangan for the past week following mysterious sightings at a local statue of Our Lady.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The silence of this peaceful village has been broken by screams and gasps of astonishment as various visions appear on the life size statue at the local Grotto, just yards from the village.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAst7Z86ZdcZzOwu1B0Bv3mSHZ9CwLFF4CM5rGW6zSCaUkZPbBfDReflBEpELFX1uzIq_00QJqsPsFsgtvltZ-gdXWGqb4E4Q8n31ZwKVIUF-I3bhXPcscWQVvhPUDIGFvIRCsEseGijhe/s1600/Rathdangan+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="540" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAst7Z86ZdcZzOwu1B0Bv3mSHZ9CwLFF4CM5rGW6zSCaUkZPbBfDReflBEpELFX1uzIq_00QJqsPsFsgtvltZ-gdXWGqb4E4Q8n31ZwKVIUF-I3bhXPcscWQVvhPUDIGFvIRCsEseGijhe/s400/Rathdangan+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Wicklow People of 20 September 1985</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>As word spread about the mystery, hundreds of people have been gathering around the statue each night in search of that one movement or vision which is rapidly becoming a phenomenal part of Irish life.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Already there are claims that the statue has opened and closed its eyes, smiled and shed tears while some people maintain that visions of the Sacred Heart, Padre Pio, Pope Pius XII and various Saints have appeared over the face of Our Lady.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Word has spread like wildfire right across Co. Wicklow and scores of people have even come from as far away as Kildare, Carlow and Wexford to visit the Grotto.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>The statue itself was erected in 1954, the Marian year and, apart from being well looked after by the local people, it was never a favourite place of solitude for prayer worshippers.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>But suddenly now it has become a focal point for a large portion of Leinster and as publicity increases, the village is likely to be swamped by strangers for quite some time.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Some people to who I spoke this week were totally convinced that various images came up before their eyes while there are others claiming they saw nothing after staring at the statue for some time.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>It does seem clear that the visions are in the eyes of the beholder and that it works for some and not for others.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>However, it has frightened a few people and I heard of one particular case this week where a man had to spend a day in bed to recover while women at the Grotto have fainted.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Sergeant Benny Farrell of Hacketstown, who is in charge of that area, confirmed that crowds have gathered around the Grotto up to 3 o’clock in the mornings.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>“There are people there all the time but the crowds increase after p.m. each night. There is a lot of praying and singing of hymns and the situation is generally very peaceful,” he added.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>Sergeant Farrell explained that with the four roads adjacent to the Grotto there is little problem in parking at the moment although he felt there could be difficulties if the numbers continued to increase.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">“I would not like to comment to deeply but I think it is fantastic the way the statue is attracting young people and bringing them back to prayer,” said Sergeant Farrell.</span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Wicklow People, 13 & 20 September 1985<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<br /></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3547800315811063376.post-81222635573773795832019-04-10T03:29:00.003-07:002019-04-10T03:29:28.639-07:00A Sligo Saucer Story<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-118816073-1"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'UA-118816073-1');
</script>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the evening of 31 January 1978, just as the good people of Sligo were about to party like it’s 1979, a UFO appeared in the sky. It caused quite a reaction, according to <i>The Sligo Champion</i> of 5 January 1979.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-gNGq-3ShTMYO3RdK-IioRBsYiogL5Y5mCrqSL309xJhNYn1X8Ouhosb6ufGMvFxTejIgYyvk7X6OyFUNQae6D1cNMYi9wmMliX2AYG5I8v-jnT13kWv2QDeKUFxZc-y4Urxp4qKM9N7/s1600/A_McDonald+Pic+1979.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="205" data-original-width="276" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy-gNGq-3ShTMYO3RdK-IioRBsYiogL5Y5mCrqSL309xJhNYn1X8Ouhosb6ufGMvFxTejIgYyvk7X6OyFUNQae6D1cNMYi9wmMliX2AYG5I8v-jnT13kWv2QDeKUFxZc-y4Urxp4qKM9N7/s400/A_McDonald+Pic+1979.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the Daily Mirror of 2 January 1979</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>New Year UFO Mystery<o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>No trace of strange flying object after search by Gardai</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Gardai and an Army helicopter took part in a search on New Year’s Day for a UFO sighted the previous night over counties Roscommon and Sligo.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Three people in the Riverstown area of County Sligo sighted the mysterious flying object at about 7.30 p.m. on Sunday night and Mr. Dave Ryan and his family of Cartron Heights made a similar sighting around the same time two miles from Boyle, Co. Roscommon.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>A number of other people from Roscommon, including a Garda, also saw the UFO.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mr. Ryan was travelling back from Tipperary with his wife, Margaret and their five children, when his attention was drawn to what he though was a falling star.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Tail of fire</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“About two miles on the far side of Boyle I noticed what appeared to be a star travelling horizontally in front of us.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“It was moving at about the same speed as an aeroplane and was about the same distance from the ground as one would expect an aircraft to be,” he recalled yesterday.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“I stopped the car and got out to watch the object, which seemed to be getting longer all the time. Then a tail of fire appeared on it and moved off in the direction of Carrick-on-Shannon.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“It was very much like a firework and my children weren’t in any way frightened by it,” he recalled.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Struck hill</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mr. Eugene Taheny of Knockbreenagher, Riverstown, and his son, James, were on their way to Sligo when they sighted the strange object. It seemed to them that the UFO struck a hill at Drumsooey, near Gleann.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Mr. Patrick Torsney of Riverstown, was another person from the area who spotted the UFO.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Within minutes, the sighting was reported to Gardai at Riverstown who searched the area for about two hours on Sunday night. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The following day an Army helicopter from Finner Camp took part in the search but no trace of the mysterious object was found.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>A Garda stationed at Boyle, Co. Roscommon, saw the object for about two minutes on Sunday night. He described it as the strangest thing he ever saw in his life.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><b>Very fast</b><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>“It was moving very fast in a north-easterly direction. It was like a big flame in the sky – very bright with a tail of light. It definitely was not an aircraft. I watched it for a few minutes until it disappeared from view. It did not appear to fall to earth,” he said.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The new reports of UFOs in the area follow closely similar sightings by a number of people in the Hazelwood area a few weeks ago.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Over the past couple of weeks, a number of sightings have been reported from all over the country, notably in Donegal where a large number of people have seen mysterious flying objects.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVF-_Ps6H3B0FNsCbfw3MtTNfbiC7V1gHVNV-18ZEZU1wOF9AKKSAjZRBM-Lyz_0wSCAarLXs-_mYFXCROGuvO0F0jMpu353p55gpeorpeqK1LxXPk2Q2En9gwYgVJ2jRTBoa6Ps0Zfa5/s1600/BL_0002318_19790126_628_0011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="132" data-original-width="125" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVF-_Ps6H3B0FNsCbfw3MtTNfbiC7V1gHVNV-18ZEZU1wOF9AKKSAjZRBM-Lyz_0wSCAarLXs-_mYFXCROGuvO0F0jMpu353p55gpeorpeqK1LxXPk2Q2En9gwYgVJ2jRTBoa6Ps0Zfa5/s320/BL_0002318_19790126_628_0011.jpg" width="302" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the Belfast Telegraph of 26 January 1979</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">New Year’s Eve of 1978 was quite a big night for UFOs, with many sightings reported across Ireland and the UK. Possibly the most interesting report came from Runcorn, in Cheshire, where 13-year-old Andy McDonald was riding his bike near his home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to Andy, after the UFO dropped to just 600 feet from the ground, it shone a light on him. Then:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“I felt I was being lifted off the ground,” he recalled. “I didn’t feel frightened – I was switched off, in a way.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Andy’s experience lasted about 10 seconds. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">According to the <i>Daily Mirror</i>, experts believed “it was either a meteor or a satellite breaking up” that was behind the sightings and Andy's strange experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Not so, said the Armagh Planetarium. They had been inundated that night with reports of a UFO that had crossed Northern Ireland at 7 pm. And by doing whatever it is they do – maths and stuff, probably - astronomers at the facility were able to conclude that the object that had caused the sightings in Ireland - North and South - and across the UK was part of a rocket that had launched the Russian satellite Cosmos 1068 into orbit on 26 December 1978.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So, mystery solved, then?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Not quite. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For me, the timings don’t really work out. According to the Planetarium’s calculations, the rocket part was already in the North Sea by the time the Sligo sightings began. We would have to assume that everyone in Sligo is an eejit and mistook 7 pm for 7:30 pm. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And according to Ken Rogers, who was chair of the British UFO Society at the time, there were more sightings at about 9pm and 11 pm – though mostly in London - that night. These sightings involved stationary objects: one was cigar shaped, the other looked like a bright star.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Also, the Sligo sightings came during a period of Irish UFO activity, activity which didn’t end on New Year’s Eve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But what do I know!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Anyway, as always, if you have anything to add, please get in touch.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sources:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Belfast Telegraph, 26 January 1979</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Birmingham Post, 2 January 1979</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Daily Mirror, 2 January 1979</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Sligo Champion, 5 January 1979</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 24px; margin: 6pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
Fortean Irelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02727239853681380382noreply@blogger.com0