Sexy spirit tried to get under my sheets.
Mum flees afterlife spook who was after her body.
Exclusive by Greg Harkin.
A terrified mum has been forced out of her dream house… by a sex-mad spook who tried to pull the bedclothes off her! Single mother-of-two Eileen Monaghan had to flee the house she’d spent a fortune redecorating because she couldn’t stand the nightly visitations of the passionate poltergeist. Still shaking, the 24-year-old mum told the Sunday World: “You wouldn’t believe what went on. It was sheer hell.” She even called in a priest to perform an exorcism-style ceremony on the ordinary semi-detached home.
“He blessed th ehouse, but he told me he thought there was something strange about the place,” said Eileen. She recalled her terror when the ghost began to: Shake the furniture about in her bedroom; Rattle the cupboard doors in her kitchen; and Roll icy fingers seductively through her hair. But she was finally forced to flee her home by taxi when the ghost grabbed a telephone out of her hands and flung it on the floor.
Eileen thought she was in heaven when she got her own home in the quiet housing estate where she’d always wanted to live. But a few weeks after she moved in with her sons James (5) and Stephen (2)… it felt more like living in hell. Unknown to her, no. 55 Rockview Park had a reputation for being haunted and had already scared off other tenants who’d lived there. There were local rumours that the house was near an ancient burial site. Another report claimed that a fairy thorn was cut down when the estate was being built.
Whatever the reason, Eileen quickly realised things were right when the kitchen cupboard doors began rattling loudly – and a holy picture above the boys’ bed cracked down the middle. “In my bedroom, I had the feeling that some presence was hovering over me and beside me,” she said. “Someone was watching me. God knows what was going on when I was sleeping in that room before I was spooked by this spirit.”
The bedroom jinks reached a climax when the spook tried to wrestle a quilt off her. “I felt this cold chill down my spine. I was so scared I froze,” she recalls. “I couldn’t see anything, but I felt this spirit grabbing on to the quilt. I grabbed it back – and ran like hell.”
When crucifixes, holy pictures and holy water all failed to shift the spirit, she made up her mind to move out. And that’s when the jealous spirit began to really frighten her. “I felt this hand slipping through my hair and I went white,” says Eileen. She grabbed the phone and rang a friend. “Then I felt something pull the handset from me and throw it on the floor,” she said. Suddenly the answering machine activated and a whispering voice said “Eileen, Eileen,” before the answer tone cut in.”
“I grabbed the kids, got into a taxi and got the hell out of there,” she says. Within hours of leaving the house in the sleepy south Co. Derry village of Moneymore, Eileen was rehoused. A spokesman for the housing authority siad: “Due to the sensitive nature of the case we cannot comment further.”
Eileen in the bed the ghost visited.
The house she has fled.
Sunday World (Dublin), 28th April 1996.
Young mother describes her family’s terrifying ordeal in Moneymore.
Inside Rockview Park’s own ‘house of horrors’.
5 Rockview Park in Moneymore – would you be brave enough to spend a night in this ‘house of horrors’?
Eileen Monaghan has described the terrifying moment when she realised she just had to get out of her ‘house of horrors.’ The 24-year-old mother-of-two decided enough was enough after hearing strange voices on her telephone. “I heard this whispering voice saying ‘Eileen, Eileen’ on the answering machine and this was before the answering tone,” she said. “That was the last straw because it couldn’t have been anyone outside the house. I couldn’t take any more. I had to get the kids out of that house.” Eileen also claims the ghost wrestled the handset from her and tossed it onto the floor.
The story of 55 Rockview Park has intrigued the media over the past couple of weeks, with many people sceptical about the truth of Eileen’s story. One theory is that the estate is built near what is believed to have been an ancient burial site. But Eileen is in no doubt that there was someone else in there with her and her boys – James (5) and Stephen (2). “I loved the house,” she said. “It was just what I wanted and I began spending money on decorating, beds for my boys and putting down lino in the kitchen.”
The first thing she knew of the spooky spirit was the sound of kitchen cupboard doors banging open and closed. She didn’t worry too much at first – but things steadily grew worse. “The next thing I noticed was that a holy picture above the boys’ bed was cracked,” said Eileen. “I knew it was too high up for the kids to have broken it, so I knew then that there was something seriously wrong with that house. I called in a priest straight away. He blessed the house but told me he thought there was something strange about the place.”
The goings on became more and more frightening and Eileen told of a strange feeling in her bedroom – as if someone was in there with her. “There were lots of other incidents,” she said. “One night I was downstairs when I heard the bed banging upstairs in my room. It sounded as if it was being thrown about.” Even when she went downstairs she says the poltergeist followed her, adding: “It’s a feeling that is very hard to describe. I knew that someone or something was there.”
Now that she has been rehoused at Cookstown’s Tullywiggan estate Eileen says she feels much safer. But she also stresses that the memory of what happened in her Moneymore home will not go away overnight, adding, “You wouldn’t believe what went on. It was sheer hell.”
Haunted house severely damaged in blaze mystery.
Mark Weir reports on the strange story of how a young mother was scared out of her home by a spirit.
The house at the centre of the great ghost debate in Moneymore has been severely damaged in a mysterious weekend fire. Police are playing down the incident and are refusing to connect it to recent claims that the building is haunted. The blaze at 55 Rockview Park was discovered just after 2 am on Sunday. According to a police spokeswoman the back door of the dwelling had been forced open and an old mattress lying in the house set alight. “The living room suffered fire damage and the rest of the building suffered severe smoke damage,” she added. A Housing Executive spokesman confirmed that there had been a ‘small fire’ at the house, but described the damage as ‘superficial’. He also revealed that the Executive has ‘agreed in principle’ to lease the dwelling to the Tenants’ Association in the area.
The house sprung to prominence last week when former tenant Eileen Monaghan claimed it was haunted. The 24-year-old mother of two young boys said she had been so scared by a spooky spirit that she was left with no choice but to get out of the so-called ‘house of horror’. To date the Housing Executive has failed to say whether or not they believe Eileen’s story, even though they agreed to rehouse her in Cookstown’s Tullywiggan estate. When approached by a Mail reporter last week District Manager, Walter Mullan refused to answer any questions, instead referring the journalist to the Executive’s information department. But within a matter of minutes he gave an interview to UTV Live’s Frank Mitchell. Anyone with information on the weekend fire is asked to contact the CID on Cookstown 66000.
Great ghost debate divides the residents.
The residents of Rockview Park in Moneymore are divided on the great ghost debate. Some would say they believe Eileen Monaghan’s amazing tale of the spooky goings on at number 55. And a few of them even claim to have experienced the petrifying poltergeist for themselves. There are others however who think it’s all far-fetched nonsense. And to prove it they would be only too happy to spend some time in the ‘house of horror’ for themselves. “There’s definitely something strange about that house and I wouldn’t want to be in it alone,” said one woman. “When I was in the house with Eileen I got the feeling we weren’t alone.”
Another lady is said to have been so scared when she was in the living room of the ‘haunted house’ that she leapt out of the front window. She claimed she was frightened to death after feeling a shiver down her spine. A female resident of the estate says the ghost lifted up her jacket when she was inside th ehouse, while other neightours say it even moved the beds around. One said, “I was sitting in the house when Eileen went pure white and her hair began to stand on end. It was frightening. And why would Eileen make this all up, after all she spent a lot of money on the house shortly before this happened.”
But not everyone is convinced, one neighbour saying, “It’s complete rubbish, there’s nothing at ll. She brought us into the house on one occasion to see this ghost. There must have been about a dozen of us in there and I certainly didn’t see or feel anything.” Another man was quite happy to spend some time in the house to prove there is nothing lurking inside. “For a start I don’t believe in ghosts and if there’s a reward going I’m all on for staying there for a few days,” he said.
Eileen Monaghan faces the cameras as UTV Live’s Frank Mitchell asks her about the Rockview Park ghost.
Mid-Ulster Mail, 2nd May 1996.
Only the good book beats a bad spook…
Veteran exorcist says demolition WON’T end ghostly goings-on at Ulster haunted house.
By Chris MacNeil.
The sale of a ‘haunted’ house has been scuppered – after protests by terrified residents. The terraced property, at Rockview Park in Moneymore, has been empty since a petrified tenant fled eight years ago, claiming to have been subjected to a series of supernatural happenings. Anxious residents now want it demolished. But a Church of Ireland minister, who spent 30 years in the supernatural field, warned that flattening the property will not solve the problem – only an Exorcism will work.
Canon William Lendrum (80) makes an unlikely ghostbuster. The softly-spoken clergyman who retired 14 years ago after serving in Belfast and Lisburn, is a far cry from the Hollywood image of an exorcist. He said: “I don’t like to be referred to as an exorcist, although I am involved in exorcism. I regard this as part of my priestly ministry, something that I have been called to do. I’m simply exercising the authority that the Lord has given to His church and I’m carrying out His command to preach the Gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons. I reckon I’ve dealt with considerably more than 50 cases. I have been invited to minister in places including homes, shops and hospitals, where people have been convinced of an unwelcome spirit presence.”
Housing Executive chiefs are currently facing demands to demolish the property in Moneymore, which, according to local legend, is built on the site of an old horses’ graveyard. Added Canon Lendrum: “Flattening the house will not solve the problem. I’m surprised no one has been brought in from one of the churches to try and sort the matter out.”
The clergyman is well aware that mental health problems can lie at the root of a ‘possession’. “I realise that some psychiatrists would disagree with what I’m doing. I’m very aware that there are multiple personality disorders,” he said. “Sometimes I’ve had cases where I came to the conclusion that this person had a psychiatric problem, and I would say a prayer. But I wouldn’t go through the normal things I’d do for an exorcism, for a spirit that wasn’t there.”
Canon Lendrum has detailed his experiences in a book – Confronting the Paranormal: A Christian Perspective. “I wrote the book because I want to get it onto paper before I die, so that others would know that experience,” he said. “I wouldn’t like to die and take all these experiences with me, and not pass them on.”
Sunday Life, 7th August 2005.