In the 1930s, school children across the Irish State were tasked by the Irish Folklore Commission with collecting local lore. With Halloween around the corner, Pauline Murphy treats us to some of the spookier stories submitted by schoolchildren in West Cork.
In his story, John Shorten, 13, from Curravarahane school in Ballineen, shares a ghostly encounter experienced by his father: “Long ago when my father was about 12-years-old, he was sent to the shop for messages. He went on horseback and it was about ten o’clock in the night. On his way he passed the creamery and just as he reached a dark spot in the road, coming towards him he saw an old man and woman in an old fashioned car. There seemed to be no horse under their car yet it was travelling slowly. The old man and woman were dressed in white and as my father passed, the old woman called out in a ghastly shriek “help me garsún!” There were dreadful sounds and creaking from the car. My father said nothing but passed on as quickly as ever he could. He was a young boy at that time but has never forgotten it. A woman was drowned in a river hole in that spot on the road many years before.”
Bantry school pupil Patrick Cronin’s story involved a haunted glen: “Long ago there lived, in a cave near Murdering Glen, about five miles from Bantry, a man named Paddy Kelly with his wife Mary. Now this Paddy Kelly was a robber and every day the mail car used to pass by that road and he used to rob it often.
One day a number of disguised soldiers went in the mail car and when they came to the glen, Paddy told them to halt as usual. The car stopped and the soldiers came out and captured Paddy and brought him to the barracks where they killed him.
When his wife heard that she committed suicide and ever since the place has the name of Murdering Glen or sometimes it is called Máire Ní Cheallaigh. It is also said by the people of that district that the ghost of Máire Ní Cheallaigh is often seen around the place.”
Drinagh school student Máire Ní Coinneallaigh recalled a scary story told to her by a neighbour: “I heard an interesting story told last night by a neighbour. It was about a man who was going to a fair and when he was about half way there, a man suddenly jumped up on the horse’s back. The rider got a great fright and asked him to get off but he would not. He took a rosary bead from his pocket and held it in his hand and then asked him for God’s sake to leave. Then the man left and was never again seen. That frightened man never went to the fair after nor never went out at night again.”
Mary Kiely, a pupil from Ballyheada school near Ballinhassig, told a tale concerning grave robbers: “A funny story is told concerning the stealing of a corpse from Ballinaboy burial ground at the time when body snatching was carried on. The body snatcher arrived with a horse and covered car, about 9pm of an October night and, having evaded the watchers, deposited his prize in the car and quickly left the scene of his labour.
Fearing he would be detected passing through Ballinhassig village he thought of a plan. He put the corpse on the driver’s seat and having strapped it there put the reins in through the front window and then went inside. He then took the reins and started off.
A large crowd had collected in the village. The passenger called to the make-believe driver to pull up at the public house as he wanted a message. The driver stopped as commanded. The passenger entered the public house and after very little delay returned to the car. He then ordered the driver to drive on and thus he got away safely.”
Patrick Keohane, a pupil at Kilbrittain school, recounted a tale about a ghostly figure on horseback:
“About the year 1860 fishermen used to be out very late and sometimes it would be morning before they would return from fishing. In those days the weather was a good deal finer than it is at present. The fishermen, when they would return from fishing, would anchor their boats on a sand bank opposite Courtmacsherry. Most of the fishermen lived near Harbour View. After leaving their boats, they would walk along the sand banks towards their homes.
The fishermen would not have gone far when they would meet a man on horseback, the horse travelling in a full gallop and the horseman wearing a white coat. All the fishermen knew him as he was a local man, his name being Scott, and he was dead for about twenty years.
Before his death, Scott was a great horseman and used to wear a white coat. The hours when these fishermen used to see him was from twelve to 1am. He never injured anybody and after some time he cleared away.”
Anne O’Donovan, a Ballineen pupil, shared a spooky story about a big house in the area: “Palace Anne is a house in the parish of Enniskeane. It is on the road to Bandon from Ballineen. A part of the old house has been renovated and is now occupied by a farmer named William Warner.
About forty years ago a farmer named Bateman lived in Palace Anne. He had a big black cat and the cat usually sat on an armchair near the fire. One day Father Hurley was passing on the way to Bandon. He was a stranger in that part as he came from west of the country. He called to Palace Anne to inquire the way to Bandon. Bateman asked him in, and when the priest saw the cat, he said to Bateman ‘you have the devil in your house, that cat is a devil’.
Bateman asked the priest to drive the cat out. The priest told Bateman to get behind him, and he took his prayer book and read prayers. As he read, the cat got bigger, and bigger, until he reached the roof and disappeared in a flame.”
A pupil from Darrara school near Ring, Clonakilty, told a ghost story gleaned from her relatives: “Some relations live near Ahafore and there is a place called Cos Dearg, the path of the red, named because the red coats visited the place. One of their soldiers was believed to be killed there and strange lights were seen there. The place was haunted and people were afraid to pass there in the night time.”
A pupil from
Burren school, near Timoleague, shared a tale about a ghost ship: “Mrs Whooley, Timothy Holland’s grandmother, saw a phantom ship before she died forty years ago.
Before Timoleague Abbey was plundered by Cromwell’s soldiers in 1651, it was occupied by Franciscans. Ships used to go up to Timoleague and anchor at the Abbey Pier. One night the sailors insulted and mocked the friars and used bad talk. Next morning, when coming down the channel all the ships sank. No ships went up since to that pier.
Since that time a phantom ship is supposed to appear suddenly on the water and disappear just as quickly before death or some disaster happens at sea. Mrs Whooley saw it and called the Hollands to see the ship but it had disappeared before they answered her call. This happened shortly before her death.”
A pupil at Kilnadur school near Dunmanway recalled a neighbour who witnessed strange lights: “Mrs O’Sullivan saw five lights one night coming together from a westerly direction. Another light flashed across a pond that was north of the other lights. The six lights then went together over the fields to the south and stopped in the farmyard of Crowley’s. That night Mr Crowley died. There were six children of this man who had died some years before him.”
Nora Murphy, 14, from Dromleigh school recalled a story told to her by her mother:
“My mother told me this ghost story, which happened to my uncle named John Bradley. One night as he returned home late, he came across fields. As he drew near his home, he went through a potato field of his own.
Seeing a white article, which he thought to be a cow at the top of the field, he went to drive it out. He spoke cross words to it but, it came towards him slowly and stood still before him. He stamped his foot on the ground and said ‘get away’.
It walked around him but, he stood still. It stopped in front of him again and suddenly it disappeared out of sight. He looked around him and then walked away greatly upset. As he closed the gate of the field after him, he saw a light in the same place.
He did not go to see what it was. He went home. He never found out what it was but it so happened that an old man died in the neighbourhood that night, who often wore white clothes and crossed the same field everyday.
My uncle now lives in America and can bear testimony that what I write is true.”
