“Ghost” at Enniscorthy.
Furniture tossed about.
From our Correspondent, Enniscorthy, Friday.
For some time past strange stories have been afloat as to certain occurrences which took place in a private house in John street in this town. Within the past few days they have been continued, and it is now the firm belief that the extraordinary occurrances have been nothing more nor less than a ghostly visitation. In the house to which the “ghost” pays his nightly visit is a room which had been occupied for a considerable time by two young men and a boy.
On the first night of the strange happenings they retired to rest at the usual hour and noticed nothing wrong till midnight, when one of them was awakened by tappings that seemed to come at intervals from different parts of the house. He paid no heed to them, but a moment later felt the clothes being gently drawn off the bed. This either did not cause him any fright, as he believed his companion was playing a joke, from which he politely requested him to desist. The latter denied he was playing a joke, and, as the tappings continued, a candle was lighted, but there was no one in the room save those who had entered it earlier in the night.
They then locked the door on the inside, and endeavoured to go to sleep, but the tappings were resumed. A light was again procured, and the knockings ceased, but immediately on the candle being extinguished they were resumed, and continued for about two hours. The men then went to sleep, but on awakening in the morning were astounded to find the bed at the other side of the room.
On the following night substantially the same thing happened, and one of the men refused to sleep in the “haunted” bed. When he joined his companion in another bed, the empty bed was raised up in the air quite to the ceiling, turned over, and laid down legs upward. The men refused to sleep in the room after this, but for several mornings afterwards, although the room was untenanted, the furniture was found to have been changed during the night.
The occurrences have caused much surprise in the town, and their cause is still a matter of mystery.
Dublin Daily Express, 30th July 1910.
“Ghost’s” Silly Antics.
Pranks in an Enniscorthy House.
Watcher’s strange experience.
Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir Hiram Maxim, not to mention the redoubtable W.T.Stead, are in urgent demand in the little town of Enniscorthy just at present. For some time past mysterious happenings have been taking place in Enniscorthy in a house occupied by a man and his wife who keep a small restaurant and boarding-house. Amongst other weird “manifestations” stated to have occurred was the pulling off of bedclothes in one room by an unseen hand. On one occasion a sleeper, according to his own story, was pulled out of the bed and knocked against the fender in the room. If something is not speedily done the boarding-house is likely to suffer a loss of boarders.
In the absence of any enterprising member of the Psychical Research Society a local newspaper correspondent took his courage in both hands and made a carefuly inspection of the “haunted” room. The floor was carefully gone over, the beds pulled about and examined, and the walls tapped in every direction. Everything was found to be in perfect order, with no sign of a trap any place. The Pressman then asked permission to stay a night in the “haunted” room, which he was at once granted. Suitably armed and accompanied by a companion the Pressman, having learned that the manifestation generally began at 11 o’clock at night, entered the “haunted” room at that hour. The two lodgers who occupied the two beds in the room retired to rest and the light was extinguished.
At 11.30 the two watchers, who were seated in the room heard a distinct tapping which grew quicker and quicker. Then in a terrified voice came a cry from one of the beds: “The clothes are going off me! Good God, they are going off me!” One ofthe watchers struck a light and found the clothes being drawn off the bed, as if they were being blown off by a strong wind or dragged by an invisible hand. The youth in bed lay motionless, and seemed terrified. The light was again extinguished, and once more the tapping began.
Then it suddenly stopped just as a quarter to twelve midnight rang out. Once more a voice was heard from the beds, and a cry in piteous accents: “They are going again. They are at me. Something is shoving me. I am going.” A light was once more struck, and the boy who had cried out was found on the floor with the sheet under him, the blanket and quilt over him, as if he had been carried from the bed. The perspiration was rolling off him in great beads, and his face was white with terror.
The watchers searched every corner and crevice of the room but could find nothing. When midnight was tolled by the cathedral all was still, but soon after the tappings began, at one time from one corner and another time from a different place. The watchers left at 3 o’clock in the morning, having secured absolutely no clue to one of the most weird occurrences that has started the town and district for many years.
Northern Whig, 3rd August 1910.
Truly, this was a wonderful ghost. Sceptics may point out that these things happened in the dark, and that it would not be very hard to contrive the whole thing. But then there was “the perspiration rolling off him in great beads,” to say nothing of “his face white with terror,” symptoms which even a consummate actor would find it hard to simulate. Otherwise we would have been inclined to call the whole thing a “fake”. Yet we do wonder if this ghost has any connection with a rival boarding house in Enniscorthy. The story reminds us very forcibly of a tale which appears in Sir Walter Scott’s introduction to “Woodstock,” in which the ghost is made to scare the Roundheads who had occupied the castle by tossing about the beds and bedclothes. It is really difficult to know what to make of the Enniscorthy tale, assuming it is true.
North Down Herald and County Down Independent, 5th August 1910.
...The late Sir William Barrett, F.R.S., contributes two well-authenticated cases to a book entitled “True Irish Ghost Stories,” compiled by St. John D. Seymour, B.D. Litt.D., and Harry S. Neligan, D.I. R.I.C., in 1926. Sir William Barrett was closely associated with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research, and his conviction of the supernormal characters of the poltergeist manifestations was very strong.
… The manifestations which occurred at Enniscorthy, in July 1910, were more dramatic, and the professor obtained indisputable evidence of this event. Apart from hammering and other noises, the poltergeist seemed to delight in pulling off the bed-clothes and the moving of a bedstead across the floor. Three young men slept in the room, all of whom were terrorised. The poltergeist in this instance gave his attentions to a lad of eighteen.
Reliable investigators sat in the bedroom, and saw the sheets and blankets pulled off the bed and the young man himself dragged out by some unseen agency. Three persons then got into the bed and immediately the bed was thrown over on its side and fell back again without making a noise.
Belfast Telegraph, 2nd May 1932.