spooky curse

Griffin1983 · 22-09-2007 6:15pm #1

I was at the mature students Orientation thingy this week, all tours and lectures about going back to college. was also nice to meet other mature students who just as excited and terrified as i was.
during our tour of the campus the guide lady mentioned the supposed curse on the bell tower thing in parliment square. that if you walk under it before you graduate some unspoken evil will surely befall you.:eek:
tried to get more info but she hushed up like it was some taboo subject. can anybody enlighten me about this curse, was looking online but came up short.

Cheers

Chuchu · 22-09-2007 6:27pm

Oh don't worry about it... its not all that spooky and is just rumor... it goes like this: if you walk under the bell tower before your exams and the bell chimes you'll fail!! Just weave around it come final term if you're over suspicious!!

the flananator · 22-09-2007 6:43pm

I'm pretty sure I've already walked under that and I appear to be ok. I think most colleges have something like that, I heard something similar about a bridge in NUI Maynooth

Dubliniensis · 22-09-2007 7:15pm

You can undo the curse by rubbing Lecky's foot

prothalamium · 23-09-2007 9:06am

I can say 100% honestly that I walked under the campanile in first year to dispell the rumour, and lo and behold I failed my exams AND other **** happened. I'm a skeptic but it did happen, dunno if the two events were connected, but there it is.

23-09-2007 11:14am

Its a pile of ****e. I've walked under it and never failed an exam in three years.. and the proper myth is that if you walk under it in first year, you will fail first year. I, eh, never walked under it in first year..

23-09-2007 11:20am

Ignore me, I'm hungover.

Time Magazine · 23-09-2007 3:27pm

I haven't risked it. I just walk around the side. Why bother risking it?

But then again, I did go on the Ghost Bus last night.

shay_562 · 23-09-2007 3:35pm

Last year's FW boards beers, when some people suggested sheltering from rain under the campanile wrote:

"It's dry!"
"It's also CURSED!!"

Ibid, I'm surprised - shouldn't you be explaining to us in nauseating detail exactly where the legend originates and any historical basis that may suggest truth behind it? Since you normally seem to know everything there is and more about TCD.

I've always thought this legend was thought up by someone who heard the other legend (if a virgin walks under the tower, the bell will ring) as an excuse to avoid walking under the tower. But I'm still not willing to risk waking under it...

ApeXaviour · 23-09-2007 4:19pm

Dubliniensis wrote:

You can undo the curse by rubbing Lecky's foot

By the lecherous look on Salmon´s face I reckon he'd prefer the rubbing

notjim · 23-09-2007 4:28pm

It is a UCC thing: they parade under their clock thing when the graduate, hence it is bad luck to go under it before then, for some reason the belief has spread to other universities and other clock/bell things.

Agent Smith · 23-09-2007 4:30pm

Deleted User wrote:

Its a pile of ****e. I've walked under it and never failed an exam in three years.. and the proper myth is that if you walk under it in first year, you will fail first year. I, eh, never walked under it in first year..

its a load of crap, i walked under it and......

oh wait

Fallen Seraph · 23-09-2007 6:41pm

I walked under it in first year thinking everything would be fine, that it's just a silly superstition. But then I failed my exams! And was murdered!!!

Honestly...

EGaffney · 23-09-2007 10:00pm

If you were to stand under it while it rang, and the bell became dislocated and fell through the campanile, that would be very unlucky indeed.

As far as I'm aware, the rules are different for first years... more lethal if I recall...

I have watched Ibid circumnavigating the campanile on occasion. It never ceases to amuse!

low · 23-09-2007 10:05pm

I've walked underneath it many a time, but i've also failed many an exam. It's nonsense, but it's spooky nonsense...

lost_soul · 25-09-2007 12:18am

there used to be a monastery there, the altar was in that spot. when some king (whose name i can't remember) banished the monastery from trinity the monks put a curse on that spot... bla bla bla bla

(At least that's what Joe tells the tourists:p )

low · 25-09-2007 12:36am

surely there is no truth to that what so ever?

Pet · 25-09-2007 2:29pm

shay_562 wrote:

Ibid, [...] shouldn't you be explaining to us in nauseating detail [...]

Hee.

Time Magazine · 25-09-2007 3:04pm

low wrote:

surely there is no truth to that what so ever?

Of course not. Trinity is built on the grounds of All Shallows, which had been seized by the crown during the previous monarch. There's no way of knowing that the altar was exactly where the Campanile is now. The Campanile was built because Trinity needed something cheap to complete Parliament Square after the removal of Rotten Row. Trinity is almost certainly built on a graveyard though. Careful down the tunnels

.

EGaffney wrote:

I have watched Ibid circumnavigating the campanile on occasion. It never ceases to amuse!

If you try push me through it again, you will hang.

Pet wrote:

Hee.

There's not much to be said about the Campanile as all the legends were made up by the tour guides in the 1970s. Yes, there is an elitist organisation known as the Knights of the Campanile; yes, it is against the unwritten rules for undergrads to walk through it; yes, it is a good story and a nice little community tale; but, as far as I know, it's nothing more than a nice bell-tower.

25-09-2007 3:14pm

Trivia:

The Climbing club have climbed the campanile twice during Freshers week. They even managed to have it graded as a climb.

This was done on two subsequent years shortly after the formation of the club, and a bowler hat was left on the top as a memento!

(My flatmate last year was the captain of the club!)

EGaffney · 25-09-2007 3:38pm

Further trivia: The Campanile is an incomplete architectural feature. The original plan was to have palisades running left and right from the base of the Campanile towards the Dining Hall and the Old Library.

shay_562 · 25-09-2007 8:22pm

Deleted User wrote:

The Climbing club have climbed the campanile twice during Freshers week.

Please, please tell me Heggo took a potshot at one of them with a crossbow! In fact, it doesn't even matter if he did or not, I now have the image in my head and it's brightened my day right up!

cianclarke · 28-09-2007 10:07pm

Deleted User wrote:

Its a pile of ****e. I've walked under it and never failed an exam in three years.. and the proper myth is that if you walk under it in first year, you will fail first year. I, eh, never walked under it in first year..

Rumour has it it doesn't apply to BESS-heads.