Irish Ghost Tales (19 page)

Mr Robert Sinclair, the Presbyterian minister, and two of his elders came to the house and stayed there with the distressed family, spending much of their time in prayer. Mrs Haltridge went to bed as usual in the haunted room but got very little rest. At around midnight a scream was heard. Mr Sinclair rushed to her room to ask what had happened, Mrs Haltridge said she felt as if she had been stabbed in the back with a sharp knife. Next morning she left the haunted room and went to another but the pain in her back persisted. By the end of the week, on 22 February, she died.

Now we come to Mary Dunbar. Around 27 February 1711, the 18-year-old came to stay with Mrs Haltridge junior to keep her company after her mother-in-law's death. There was already a rumour spreading that old Mrs Haltridge had been bewitched into her grave and that this had had a bad effect on Mrs Haltridge junior. It was on the night of Mary's arrival that strange things began to happen. When Mary and another girl retired to their room they found that some of their clothes had been removed from their trunk. When they went looking for the missing items they found them scattered throughout the house. That night Mary was seized by a violent fit. When she recovered she cried out that she had been stabbed in her thigh. She claimed that she had been attacked by three women who she went on to describe. Around midnight she suffered a second fit, during which she saw a vision of seven or eight women talking together and calling each other by name.

When Mary recovered from her fit, she remembered their names: Janet Liston, Elizabeth Cellor, Kate McCalmont, Janet Carson, Janet Mean, Latimer and one known as Mrs Ann. She gave such a good description of the women that people could guess who the others were. All the women were sent for and those she had not named were paired with other ‘innocent' women. Dunbar then identified each of them as her tormentors. One was even picked out of a group of thirty women.

Between 3 and 24 March seven women were arrested for witchcraft: Janet Mean of Braid Island; Jane Latimer of Irish Quarter, Carrigfergus; Margaret Mitchell of Kilroot; Catherine McCalmont of Island Magee; Janet Liston,
alias
Sellar, of Island Magee; Elizabeth Sellar, also of Island Magee; and Janet Carson of Island Magee.

The accused women stood trial on 31 March 1711 at Carrigfergus before judges Upton and McCartney. Dunbar stated that her tormentors had told her she would be unable to give evidence against them in court, then she was reported to have been struck dumb the day before the trial. The accused had no legal representation and no medical evidence regarding Dunbar was ever given. Of course they all denied the charges. They even went as far as to take communion and call upon God as their witness. Judge Upton, in his summing-up, instructed the jury that in his opinion they could not give a guilty verdict based on the evidence of one person's visions. He went on to say that there was no doubt in his mind that there some diabolical work was going on, but if the persons accused were really witches and in league with the devil they would not attend service and partake of communion on such a regular basis. Unfortunately his brother judge on the bench was not so open-minded. Judge McCartney instructed the jury to find them all guilty. And the jury did just that.

This was the last trial for witchcraft in Ireland. Judge Anthony Upton committed suicide in 1718.

T
he Black Dog is found in folklore all over the world and is essentially a spirit that comes out at night and is often associated with evil fairies or the Christian devil. Usually it is believed to be a portent of death. It is larger than an earthly dog and has large eyes that glow. It is often associated with storms, ancient pathways, crossroads and places of execution, such as a gallows tree.

Their origin is lost in time but in European folklore and mythology dogs have been associated with death and the underworld and have often been depicted as guardians of the gates. This may also be because of the scavenging habits of dogs, which were often seen around graveyards or searching for fresh meat after a battle. It may be because of this that the legend of the Black Dog came to be.

In Irish and Scottish folklore, the
Cú Sidhe
(fairy hound) is a large and fearsome dog with supernatural powers. They are usually black but may also be green (the colour favoured by fairies) or even white with one red ear and one red eye. They are always large, sometimes as big as a calf or small horse. The
Cú Sidhe
roam the land performing certain tasks for their fairy masters, such as helping in the hunt and abducting human women to take back to the fairy realm. It was believed that these women were used to nurse fairy babies. The
Cú Sidhe
are completely silent during the hunt but sometimes they give three blood-curdling howls that can be heard from very far away. When men heard this sound they used to lock up their women to prevent them from being carried off. The creatures are said to have the power to appear and disappear at will. In much the same way as the grim reaper appears at death to lead the soul to the afterlife, so the
Cú Sidhe
takes the soul to the underworld.

John Toler was born in County Tipperary in 1745. He was admitted to the bar in 1770. As a strong supporter of the government, he attained many offices, including that of Lord Chief Justice, and was eventually ennobled as the Earl of Norbury. He was also the Solicitor General and a member of Grattan's Parliament. Later, by bribery and deception, he reached the bench and became a corrupt and fearsome judge. He had poor legal skills and used his power to intimidate lawyers and defendants with his sarcastic wit and twisted sense of humour. His courts were like a wild theatre. His most famous trial was that of Robert Emmet (1803), in which Norbury continually interrupted and abused Emmet when he was making his speech from the dock, before sentencing him to death.

Daniel O'Connell despised him and initiated an investigation of his conduct during a trial in which he fell asleep. He was eventually removed from the bench in 1827 due to his absent- mindedness and his inclination to fall asleep during important trials. He died in his home, at 3 Great Denmark Street, Dublin, on 27 July 1831 at the age of 85 years and was buried at St Mary's church, Mary Street, Dublin.

But what has this to do with a black dog? Well, the story goes that Norbury wrongfully convicted an innocent young man from Blanchardstown of the capital crime of sheep-stealing. The man was hanged and his distraught widow survived him by just a few months. On her deathbed she cursed Norbury, vowing to haunt him from beyond the grave until the end of time, promising that she would never let him have another night's sleep. Norbury was said to have suffered from chronic insomnia after that, a deserving end for such a brutal man. When he died, aged 85, Norbury was reportedly changed into a phantom black hound, condemned to forever roam the streets of Cabra, dragging a hefty chain in his wake.

Even that literary giant James Joyce recalls the black dog, ‘with eyes like carriage lamps', that patrolled the stairs of the Jesuit College in Kildare, where Joyce went to school.

Also known as the Hounds of Rage, these black dogs were the legendary hunting dogs of Crom Dubh, also known as the ‘Black Crooked One'.

The Dartmoor death-hound of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
The Hound of the
Baskervilles
was based on the black dog.

On the Isle of Man, there is a story about a black dog that roamed Peel Castle. Every night it warmed itself in front of the guardroom fire and at first the soldiers were afraid, but eventually they got used to it. Then one night, during the reign of Charles II, a drunken soldier boasted that he would patrol the castle alone, and dared the dog to accompany him on his rounds. The ghostly dog arose from his place by the fire and followed the man. Fearful cries and screams issued from the corridor, but no man dared venture from the room. The foolish soldier returned white and gibbering. He died three days later, without saying a word about what he had seen. The black dog has not been seen since, but some say it still haunts the castle, unseen.

The dog was considered good luck. Its companionship drove away loneliness and the signs of illness and rejection that loneliness brings.

The howling of the dog was considered the first note of the funeral dirge and the signal that death was near. A dog howling at night when someone in the house is sick is a bad omen.

Howling dogs mean the wind god has summoned death and the spirits of the dead will be taken.

It was believed that dogs were capable of becoming ghosts after death.

In County Cork it was believed that some food should be thrown out of the room of the dying so the death hounds would be drawn away and not take the soul of the dead.

It was believed that dogs could foresee evil.

If you have your newborn baby licked by a dog, your baby will be a quick healer.

Dogs have always been credited with the power of sensing supernatural influences, such as ghosts, spirits, fairies or deities, all of which are invisible to human eyes. It is remarkable that when dogs see spirits they never bark, but only growl.

Fishermen traditionally regard dogs as unlucky and will not take one out in a boat or mention the word ‘dog' when they are at sea.

The sight of a dog eating grass, rolling on the floor or scratching itself excessively are all said to be omens that rain is imminent.

If several deaths occur in the same family, tie a black ribbon around all living beings that enter the house, even dogs and chickens. This will protect against more death.

A black dog was said to be a hag's (witch's) father.

Never ask a dog a question for if it answers, you will die in the near future.

Dogs were feared as carriers of rabies. Sometimes even a healthy dog was killed if it had bitten someone because of the belief that if the dog later developed rabies, even many years afterwards, the bitten person would also be afflicted. Remedies for the bite of a mad dog often included the patient being forced to eat a part of the dog in question, such as its hairs or a piece of its cooked liver.

Dogs were also used to cure other illnesses. One old charm, which was often used for healing sick children, involved taking some of the patient's hairs and feeding them to a dog in between slices of bread and butter. The ailment was believed to transfer to the animal, healing the patient.

It is strange that although the dog is so faithful to man, it is never mentioned in the Bible without an expression of contempt. Moses in his code of laws makes the dog out to be an unclean animal, probably to deter the Israelites from the Egyptian worship of this animal. It was the lowest term of offence – ‘Is thy servant a dog?' False teachers, persecutors, Gentiles, unholy men and others mired in sin and vileness were called dogs, while at the same time the strange prophetic power of these animals was universally acknowledged and recognised.

A
n interesting tale associated with the Black Dog Prison in Dublin's Cornmarket was related in the
Dublin Penny Journal
in November 1832. The paper described how a ‘creature', who appeared in the form of a black pig, had apparently engaged in a reign of terror against the women of the city at the end of the eighteenth century.

The beast, known as ‘The Dolocher', was commonly believed to be the spirit of a former inmate of the Black Dog named Olocher who had been sentenced to death for murder and rape. On the night before he was to be executed at Gallows Hill, Olocher cheated the hangman by committing suicide. This caused uproar in the prison.

Within a few days, the prison staff had another worry on their minds. One of the sentry posts, a little removed from the main prison, had a sentry on duty every night but around this time the sentry was found lying unconscious on the ground. He had been badly mauled. When he recovered his senses he told his listeners that he had been attacked by a big black pig. At first, no one believed his story but when he was stripped in the prison hospital, his wounds were so horrible that some began to believe him. During the nights that followed, the black pig was seen by other sentries.

The prison was now on full alert, but they had another shock coming. About a week after the first sentry was attacked, another sentry on duty at the same lonely post was found to be missing when his relief came to replace him. A search was organised and the man's clothes were discovered at the rear of the sentry box. His rifle was standing with the butt on the ground and his uniform, tunic, trousers and shirt were piled beside it. Locals, putting two and two together, decided that the black pig was really the ghost of the unhappy Olocher, or the Dolocher, as he came to be known, and that he had carried off the unfortunate sentry and murdered him.