Irish superstitions, urban legends and local tales

steddyeddy

My granny was full of stories of banshees, fairies and local myths. She was a Dubliner so most of what she told me centered around Dublin. The Hellfire club is a famous one but she also told me about a huge black dog that people had seen in the area that some people could see and some couldn't.

She lived not far from Mount Jerome cemetery and she used to tell me spooky stories about the graves there. One grave has the statue of a dog on it which had lain on it's master's grave after he passed away.

The other one I remember is about the Rotunda hospital. The story goes that a gypsy approached a heavily pregnant rich woman asking for money. The rich lady said "go away you pig" and the woman's son was born in the shape of a pig. The lady felt so bad that she paid to have the Rotunda built.

Now of course these aren't real but I enjoy hearing them. Anyone remember any other old superstitions that were passed down to you?

fleet_admiral

Mount 'argos' LOL

Where all the bargains go when the reservations arent collected

deathtocaptcha

going for 'the cure'

steddyeddy

fleet_admiral wrote: »

Mount 'argos' LOL

Where all the bargains go when the reservations arent collected

Ha ha well I meant Mount Jerome. Although Mount Argos is a church in Kimmage.

Fleawuss

I forgot all that Shyte years ago.

steddyeddy

Anyone remember the child of Prague and the effect it was supposed to have on weather?

Hammer89

Mount Argos is where you buy the tombstones. They come drifting through some flaps on a little conveyor belt and then your one stamps your receipt.

cml387

steddyeddy wrote: »

Anyone remember the child of Prague and the effect it was supposed to have on weather?

Only if it had no head.

BlueLass

If the owner of a donkey cuts a bit of hair from its back where the cross is and puts in under the pillow of a person who suffers from asthma it is supposed to cure them!!!!!

NachoBusiness

My relatives down in a rural part of Monaghan always tell this tale of a banshee following one of them home the night before their mother died back in the 70s. If us unmannerly Dublin folk so much as sniggered whilst these tales were being told we'd have got the back of a brush. They are factual happenings as far as they are concerned. Knocks on doors before bad news another.

I always just laughed at them but many years later had something very strange happen in my apartment before I myself received some bad news and have to say I don't think I am as strenuously dismissive of strange goings on as I once might have been.

fleet_admiral

steddyeddy wrote: »

Ha ha well I meant Mount Jerome. Although Mount Argos is a church in Kimmage.

Mount Jerome is the cemetery, Mount 'Argus' is the church almost next door

blindside88

steddyeddy wrote: »

Anyone remember the child of Prague and the effect it was supposed to have on weather?

I hadn't heard of this until my wedding day, I was at the church and a neighbour of my wife's was telling me that she had left the child of Prague out the day before and that it had worked. I had no clue what she was talking about and had to ask my wife about it on the way to the hotel..... In fairness it was a cracking day for weather

steddyeddy

fleet_admiral wrote: »

Mount Jerome is the cemetery, Mount 'Argus' is the church almost next door

It's not next door it's (Jerome) is in Harold's Cross. Argos is in Kimmage.

Day Lewin

The little old footbridge over the Dodder above Milltown is said to be haunted.
I've heard this from several people but the oddest of all was from my grandmother: a tough, common-sensical kind of little woman who otherwise wouldn't have had any time at all for imaginary nonsense.
But once, walking home at night and passing that bridge, she sensed a "presence" and heard some kind of sound that frightened her so much she muttered her prayers the whole way home and "was never so glad to see her own front door". I think she thought it was following her.

All the more impressive, to me, for coming from someone who otherwise was so robustly down-to-earth.

XR3i

my uncle woke up one night and heard loud banging on the window,

he went over and opened the curtains and there was a leprechaun banging on the window with a 50p piece

he was laughing telling me the story but he was definitely a bit shook after it

ceadaoin.

NachoBusiness wrote: »

My relatives down in a rural part of Monaghan always tell this tale of a banshee following one of them home the night before their mother died back in the 70s. If us unmannerly Dublin folk so much as sniggered whilst these tales were being told we'd have got the back of a brush. They are factual happenings as far as they are concerned. Knocks on doors before bad news another.

I always just laughed at them but many years later had something very strange happen in my apartment before I myself received some bad news and have to say I don't think I am as strenuously dismissive of strange goings on as I once might have been.

Can you elaborate on the strange occurrence? Love a good spooky story

The Backwards Man

I've roamed manys a highway and byway for manys a year in the dead of night and I've never met anything worse than myself yet.

XR3i

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I've roamed manys a highway and byway for manys a year in the dead of night and I've never met anything worse than myself yet.

you can sing that

Pedro K

Local cures... What a pile of ****e.

Turning sods of turf under sick cow's feet, licking lizards bellies, passing a whopping cough infected child under and over a donkey 7 times..

The Backwards Man

XR3i wrote: »

you can sing that

🎵I've travelled manys a highway and byway for manys a year in the dead of night and I've never met anything worse than myself yet🎵

NachoBusiness

ceadaoin. wrote: »

Can you elaborate on the strange occurrence? Love a good spooky story

Well, not really spooky but two weeks back I was lying in bed reading and on the top shelf is some old 45s of mine and my brothers from when we were kids. They are were / are up there for around 11 years now, from when I moved in here. Dust them or whatever a few times a year and it had been a month or so since I had last touched them. Anyway, as I was reading, around 3am, they came off the shelf and slammed against the opposite wall. They didn't fall. If they did, they wouldn't have hit the other wall. I remember think about posting on the AH thread about stuff like that but fell asleep shortly after. At around 8.30am I received a phone call from my sister-in-law in Holland sounding very worried and telling me she needed to contact my mother but she couldn't and I asked her what was wrong and she said my brother had suffered a serious head injury in a quarry explosion in Finland. He's still in hospital now but doing better now thank God and hopefully with time he'll be one hundred percent.

Maybe it's all just coincidence. I don't know.

The Backwards Man

Chinese Lanterns

fizzypish

Jasus. Going by this thread investing in a donkey is better than health insurance. You can stick your medical card, I'll have an ass.

corner of hells

fizzypish wrote: »

Jasus. Going by this thread investing in a donkey is better than health insurance. You can stick your medical card, I'll have an ass.

You try and get an ass into your wallet.

Badly Drunk Boy

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I've roamed manys a highway and byway for manys a year in the dead of night and I've never met anything worse than myself yet.

The leprechaun with the 50p says the same thing, with the exception of the night he met you.

This is more in the urban myths style one of the many my mother believed.

That the shipping registration of the Titanic spelled no pope if read backwards or upside down one or the other.

_Brian

I knew a builder who was asked to come into a local house and build up the door to a bedroom.
Someone had died a natural but long horrific death in the room and the remaining people in the house insisted it was haunted ever since.
The room remained blocked up until the house was demolished on recent years.

I spoke with the builder about it and he said while he didn't believe he did say it was creepy and unnerving. Big old cold poorly lit house. The owners added holy water to the mortar mix.

As a younger lad I use to pass the house all the time and it was hard not to watch the room window as I passed bye.

sonny.knowles

XR3i wrote: »

my uncle woke up one night and heard loud banging on the window,

he went over and opened the curtains and there was a leprechaun banging on the window with a 50p piece

he was laughing telling me the story but he was definitely a bit shook after it

Was it a millennium 50p coin or a standard one?

diomed

Praying to St Anthony to find things that you lost.
I have a TV in my bedroom and lost the remote last week. Nothing worse than having to press buttons on the TV.
After a prayer to St Anthony I pushed the bed to one side and found a TV remote. But not the one I had just lost. It was one I lost a months ago back. I had looked for hours for that one when I lost it, and had to buy another. My guess is it got jammed into the underside of the bed as I pushed the bed around searching for it.
Anyway I was looking at TV for a while using the remote I just found. About an hour later I saw in a direct line to the TV on the cream coloured duvet the remote control I lost earlier that evening. I had turned over everything when looking for that remote. It shocked me.

donegaLroad

on Tory Island, the locals felt it was / is bad luck to know how to swim, because if your boat gets into difficulty and you can swim ashore, the sea fairies will come and claim 2 members of your family the next time they are at sea.

The colour green is unlucky on Tory.

On Aranmore and Tory it is considered unlucky to talk about fish on your way out fishing. You are supposed to turn the boat towards the sun in the morning as you are heading out.. this is also for luck.

I knew a lady who used to swim for Ireland, and the family would go on holidays to Tory. She sued to dive in off the rocks wearing a green Ireland swimming cap, the locals were afraid of her.

_Brian

donegaLroad wrote: »

on Tory Island, the locals felt it was / is bad luck to know how to swim, because if your boat gets into difficulty and you can swim ashore, the sea fairies will come and claim 2 members of your family the next time they are at sea.

The colour green is unlucky on Tory.

On Aranmore and Tory it is considered unlucky to talk about fish on your way out fishing. You are supposed to turn the boat towards the sun in the morning as you are heading out.. this is also for luck.

I knew a lady who used to swim for Ireland, and the family would go on holidays to Tory. She sued to dive in off the rocks wearing a green Ireland swimming cap, the locals were afraid of her.

My wife's family here in Cavan also believe the whole Green is bad luck thing. No green clothes, car or anything green if possible.

steddyeddy

A lot of my family were sailors so I heard quite a few of these. Never leave the port on a Friday. If you do reverse out out port. It's also bad luck to see a redhead at the docks apparently.

The Backwards Man

I know a fisherman who would always turn back if he saw a woman with red hair when travelling to the pier.

He was living in Malin Head and fishing out of Killybegs, off more days than he worked.

fleet_admiral

steddyeddy wrote: »

A lot of my family were sailors so I heard quite a few of these. Never leave the port on a Friday. If you do reverse out out port. It's also bad luck to see a redhead at the docks apparently.

Its bad luck in general

topper75

XR3i wrote: »

my uncle woke up one night and heard loud banging on the window,

he went over and opened the curtains and there was a leprechaun banging on the window with a 50p piece

he was laughing telling me the story but he was definitely a bit shook after it

Mr. Tremens never gave me 50p.

The mane backstard.

Vinculus

I once ran around the Hell Fire Club twelve times and a the Devil appeared to me in the form of a pigeon.

Never been back since.

The Backwards Man

Vinculus wrote: »

I once ran around the Hell Fire Club twelve times and a the Devil appeared to me in the form of a pigeon.

Never been back since.

Coo story bro'

Vinculus

Are you pecking on me?

Mesrine65

We all know that the author of the most famous vampire, Dracula, was the Irish writer Bram Stoker.

In fact we can also claim Sheridan Le Fanu who wrote the novella, 'Carmilla'.

Le Fanu is known to have drawn on his Irish homeland for his early stories.

Many historians have noted that Carmilla is the first true vampire novel ever created, and was probably a big influence on Bram Stoker.

But did ye ever hear-tell of The Dearg-Due?

The story tells of a girl of legendary beauty, with blood-red lips and pale blonde hair, whose name seems to have been lost in the sands of time.

She was being forced into an arranged marriage against her will by her father, but as it happens she was in love with another, a local peasant boy.

Unfortunately her cruel father whom was only interested in the wealth he would acquire from the union, forbade the pair from seeing each other and the arranged marriage went ahead.

The husband whom was many years older than the girl was a cruel bastard who treated her badly.

After some months of enduring her terrible life she eventually gave up all hope that her true love might find some way to rescue her.  

Now some say that her husband beat her to death, some say that she died of a broken heart but others say that she committed suicide as she could no longer cope with her abusive husband and the miserable life she was forced into.

She is said to have been buried in a small lonely grave, near Strongbow’s Tree in County Waterford.

Legend says that with her last breath she vowed a terrible vengeance.

Her husband was said to have taken another wife, while her body was still warm in her death bed.

Her cruel father and family were so busy with their new wealth lives to care about her demise.

The only person who mourned her passing was the young peasant boy.

He visited her grave many times where he spoke of his desire to see her again and prayed for her to come back to him.

As the story goes, she arose from her grave the following year on the very date she died.

Overcome  with anger and vengeance, she first visited her father’s house.

Finding him asleep in his bed, she leaned over him and placing her lips over his where she sucked the life breath from him till there was no more.

She then visited her husband.

He was said to have been engaged marital exploits with his new wife and never noticed her enter the room.

Overcome with a furious rage she went into a frenzied attack on the couple, this time her attack was so ferocious that she not only drained the pair of their life breath but also their blood.

The surge of fresh blood through her dead body made her feel alive again.

She uses her beauty to prey on lustful young men.

Luring them away to a quite place only to sink her teeth into their  throats and deprive them of their blood.

Her hunger for blood became  all that she knew.

So eager to quench her thirst,  she forgot all about her young love and never saw him again.

Each night she rises from the earth to feast like a wild beast returning to her grave a bloody corpse and thus the Dearg-Due was born.

She is said to rise from her grave at will and uses her beauty to lure unsuspecting men to their death.

It is said that the only way to stop the Dearg-Due is to  pile stones on her grave and in doing so prevent her from rising and taking her fill of life blood from her potential victims.

Locals are said to have done this for many years,  but…sometimes they forget…

'Hell Hath no fury, like a woman scorned' :eek:

redbel05

I have red hair, and my father used to be a fisherman. The trawler he was on went on fire and basically burned out less than a month after I was onboard ( I was about 7 and had been bugging him to show me around). It was the first time I had heard the superstition, and you can imagine how upset 7 year old me was.... Nobody died thankfully, they managed to get it back to the harbour, but I know at least one of the crew did get badly burned.

Only been on one of his ships since...

Micky Dolenz

Many years ago when I was a boy I was cycling home one late wet, dark December evening. I lived in a very rural place, so once it was dark it was pitch black. I was a mile or so from home and hadn't met a sinner until suddenly I heard a strange screaming/crying/ howling. It was in front of me about 100 meters away. I stopped the bike and just froze to the spot, the sound faded to a whimper. I told myself it was probably a vixen or cats riding in the road so I decided to ride on through for it was the only way home.

I steadied myself and went for it, peddling as fast as I could.I had no sooner got up to speed when the screaming started again, my heart bursting out of my chest, I peddled harder and faster. My dynamo powered light dimmly cutting through the dark curtain of the night. What I saw next will haunt me as long as I live, an old lady type figure was crouched down on the road, a dark shawl covering her or so it appeared in the half light. I served around it and cycled like the devil himself was after me. I was desperate to get home.

I got home and was white with shock, I didn't want to tell my old pair as they probably would have laughed at me. They wouldn't believe in that kinda thing, and I was freaked.

No, in fact it was an elderly neighbour who had went out for a stroll but must have twisted their ankle or knee and couldn't move. The poor dear spent all night on the road, alone and in agony. She perished with the cold.

It made perfect sense when my parents informed the next morning. Thank fcuk I thought, it wasn't a banshee or a ghost after all.

Steve F

New shoes on the table!!! Someone will DIE!!
FFS people are dying everyday
Also bad things happen everyday so they would have happened regardless of whether you walked under a black cat or a ladder crossed your path on the way home that evening people just make connections where there aren't any
Friday the 13th is another stupid one

razorblunt

Damn just came on to post about the new shoes on the table too!

DEFTLEFTHAND

steddyeddy wrote: »

A lot of my family were sailors so I heard quite a few of these. Never leave the port on a Friday. If you do reverse out out port. It's also bad luck to see a redhead at the docks apparently.

Bizarrely being able to swim was also considered badluck at one point in maritime history.

The redhead superstition used to be observed by farmers also. If you met a redhead woman on the way to market you turned around and went home.

anvilfour

steddyeddy wrote: »

It's also bad luck to see a redhead at the docks apparently.

I imagine you're screwed in Ireland then!

smash

TCP cures everything!

DEFTLEFTHAND

anvilfour wrote: »

I imagine you're screwed in Ireland then!

It's not that prominent here really when you think about it. I think the stat is 1 in 30 people.

steddyeddy

As Deft points out we're not phenotypically prone to having red hair. The Irish phenotype is far hair with pale skin.

Samaris

steddyeddy wrote: »

As Deft points out we're not phenotypically prone to having red hair. The Irish phenotype is far hair with pale skin.

far = dark rather than fair, yep?

steddyeddy

Samaris wrote: »

far = dark rather than fair, yep?

Yea dark. Typing on phone isn't easy.

Samaris

Oh quite! I actually did want to confirm since it could have gone either way rather than being bloody-minded

Also yep, although there's a strong prevalence for "Black Irish" too - dark hair and blue or grey eyes, a rather unusual phenotype in the rest of the world.