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Haunted In Dublin

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  • 23-03-2010 7:53pm
    #1
    MrMojoRisin
    Registered Users Posts: 1,433 ✭✭✭


    I decided it was time to add a thread on Dublin's haunted places. I'll try to add some more as time goes on, but people should feel free to add more allegedly haunted places to this as well. Here is what I have so far. I know some other places as well but I don't have time to write up the whole lot at the mo'...

    1. The Hell Fire Club, on top of the Dublin Mountains (altitude – 1264ft.) near Rathfarnham.
    Almost everybody has heard about this place, and its history has been touched upon frequently on here. However, for those who are unaware of its backstory, the so-called Hell Fire Club was built by Mr Speaker Connolly, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, in 1720 as a shooting lodge. It was said that the foundation stones came from an ancient cairn (a mound of stones erected as a memorial or marker) in the area.
    In 1735, Richard Parsons, first Earl of Ross, and his companion, the artist James Worsdale, bought the building and installed the group that made up the membership of the Hell Fire Club. It was modelled on the notorious English version in West Wycombe, whose chief interests were occult practice and extreme debauchery. The Irish branch’s members were mostly young lads from a high social background who thought they could get away with lewd, outlandish behaviour and were able to buy themselves out of any sticky situation.

    Local inhabitants were terrified of the nightly happenings at the club; there were sounds of screams and animal-like roars, and this was accompanied by reports of victims forced to take part in all kinds of obscene rituals. People believe that the Devil himself manifested at the club and that murdered victims haunted the spot.

    Satanic rites were reported to have taken place within the walls of the club. Whether it was true, or not, the black magic element was something which the club liked to project about themselves. Some of the reported satanic acts include one of a strayed priest who stumbled upon the club during a macabre satanic act and was forced to watch. The focus of attention was a huge black cat. When the cat broke free from its captors, the cleric grabbed it and uttered an exorcism which tore the cat apart. Supposedly a demon ascended at speed from its corpse and, whilst hurtling through the roof, it brought down the ceiling and forced those assembled beneath it to scatter.

    One of the better-known stories about the Devil’s alleged appearance in the building goes as so... A mysterious stranger seeks shelter on a stormy night and a card game ensues. A member of the household drops a card and sees it underneath the table.

    Bending down to retrieve the fallen card, they glance across the under-side of the table but, to their horror, the otherwise affable and charming visitor has a cloven hoof; the mark of the Devil. The ensuing screams made the Devil aware of this discovery and he at once vanished in a thunder-clap, leaving a brimstone smell behind him.

    Another time the club is said to have encountered the Devil was in the form of a ‘black man’ in the lodge’s dining room.

    After the death of its founder in 1741, the club became inactive but the cult continued, with the 2nd Earl of Rosse as its leader.

    While it was in use, most God-fearing people shunned it and its occupants, but in later times, in the 1960s, there was renewed activity from a contemporary coven of witches which reawakened old fears. The coven was said to contain a number of well-known people, and it was common belief that to betray the secrets of the coven was to court disaster and death.

    2. Killakee House, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.

    Not far from the notorious Hell Fire Club lies Killakee House. This house was noted for the fact that, amongst other things, it was haunted by a monstrous cat. It was thought that the apparition was that of a cat which had been used in occult practices at the club and had subsequently met its death by being dowsed in spirits (the liquid kind) and set on fire by members of the coven. The cat was seen by numerous witnesses both around the house and grounds and was described as “black and as large as an Airdale dog”. Eventually, an artist who encountered it on canvas, and in the 1960s the portrait hung in the hall of the house.
    Another apparition associated with the house was that of a crippled boy who almost always accompanied the cat, and this was said to be the spirit of a crippled child who had been incancerated and murdered in the house. He was believed to have been buried somewhere in the vicinity of the house itself. The two apparitions seen together constituted a terrifying sight. Other daytime apparitions seen by witnesses included two nuns and a “Spanish-looking man” who manifested in the courtyard.

    An upstairs room and corridor were haunted by a man in a bloodstained shirt, his clothe reminicent of the 1920s and believed to be connected with ‘the Troubles’. In the corridor, the sound of running feet was often heard and the noises culminated in a bedroom where it is thought the man was shot dead.

    The house was occupied by a family who ran an art centre and workshops at the time of the above phenomena presenting itself. The family were deeply troubled by all kinds of poltergeist activity, which included stark changes of temperature, various noises and the sound of tinkling bells. Items of furniture were smashed up until the remains were literally matchwood, and mysterious ‘apports’ were transported into the house in the shape of all kinds of headwear; from babies’ bonnets to men’s caps. Coins and milk bottle tops were also scattered about the house. The people in the house were subjected to a continuing assault both by night and by day; in addition, they suffered numerous minor incidents, including a family member being pushed down the stairs. The ministrations of the church seemed to have little or no effect, and a number of paranormalists and a television crew from RTE bore witness to some unpleasant incidents while there during the 1970s.

    A subsequent family moved in after the house had remianed empty for some time and, surprisingly, they didn’t appear to be subjected to any otherwordly harassment.

    I believe the house is currently unoccupied and can be seen for sale on www.daft.ie. http://www.daft.ie/searchrental.daft?id=813869

    3. The Shelbourne Hotel, 27 Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2

    Founded in 1824, the hotel was built to serve the more upwardly mobile stream of clients and started out as a collection of townhouses. Room number 526 hosted an American paranormal investigator named Hanz Holzer and a psychic named Sybill Leek back in 1965, who reported a series of strange paranormal happenings. On August 16th 1965, when the two of them were trying to sleep, they heard what they thought was a cat but, as they listened more closely, they realised it was a young girl who was crying.
    Leek called out, ‘Who is here with us? Why are you crying?’ The young girl’s voice replied, ‘I am frightened’, so Leek beckoned to the girl, ‘Don’t be frightened, come closer’.

    With that they felt the sensation of a child climb onto the bed. They asked, ‘Who are you?’ and the child replied, ‘I am Mary Mires’. ‘How old are you, Mary?’, asked Leek. ‘Six’, replied Mary. Holzer and Leek also asked her for the names of her parents and she gave them the names Timothy and Anne. They also discovered that the little girl had a sister named Sophie.

    Further research revealed that that room (526) was not part of the original hotel, but had been added afterwards. It also transpired that the spirit of Mary (the little girl) was the spirit of a young child that lived in this part of the building when it was a private house and had in fact been a nursery. Holzer and Leek attempted to help the little girl’s spirit move into the light on the other side, but she relented as she was too frightened. It has been alleged that the little girl’s spirit still makes its presence known to guests to this day.

    4. Bridge at Portobello Harbour, Rathmines.


    The bridge at Portobello Harbour in Rathmines is said to be haunted by the ghost of a lock-keeper, who drowned himself at the spot after being sacked for drunkenness. The man was blamed for the deaths of a number of passengers on a horse-drawn bus (a large cart for public transport at least) which toppled into the canal on the 6th of April 1861.


    4. St. Michan’s Church, Church Street, Dublin 8.

    This place dates from 1685 and was used by monks and other types of clerics. The church’s roof was damaged often during the 1922 war of independence due to its unfortunate proximity to the Four Courts, a building which rebel forces were trying to blow up instead. There are vaults underneath the church, which can be accessed via a narrows stone stairway. On either side of a limestone and mortar-lined tunnel are galleries used for storing coffins. Apparently there are four open coffins that expose bodies that are covered with taut leathery skin and dust.
    Paranormal-wise, a lot of strange whisperings and voiceshave been heard within these underground chambers. Some visitors have also reported being touched while bending down to look at some of the bodies.

    5. Widower Gammon’s Hill, near Monkstown.

    The ghost of a widow is said to walk this hill. The story goes that she was responsible for the betrayal of a group of religious people that hid from Cromwellian troops in the area. Because of the widow’s actions, the group was arrested and executed. As a result of this treacherous deed, the widow was doomed to walk the hill forevermore as a penance.

    Local people are said to have seen the apparition both on the hill and in a local graveyard where she was seen wandering, despite the gates to here having been locked. Another witness saw her coming out of the castle ruins and, again, she held in one hand – as she was seen to have done in the graveyard – a large key. In her other hand, she held what looked like an axe. On a later occasion, the apparition was seen coming from the ruins, then heading for the graveyard and passing through the locked gates.
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