“Bogles” in Ballygowan.
For some weeks past, the parishes of Kilwaughter and Ballynure have been bewildered by wonderful and mysterious transactions which are said to have occurred in Upper Ballygowan, in which two families have suffered intolerable anguish of body and mind for the greater part of the past winter. The belief in witches and warlocks is now nearly exploded; still, when circumstances occur seemingly at total variance with the order of things, the philosophy of the simple-minded is at fault, and superstition dethrones reason.
Two simple and inoffensive families, residing in the locality alluded to, are alleged to have suffered a long series of mysterious maltreatments which have nearly bereft them of the little reason apportioned to them, and puzzled even men of education who proceeded to investigate the circumstances connected with the phenomenon. The mode of maltreatment resorted to on the part of the supernatural agents on this occasion was pelting with missiles, and the two families in question are said to have endured intolerable persecutions, in this manner, from invisible hands for several weeks without intermission.
Stones were hurled into their houses, night after night, and day after day, during the greater part of the winter. Kind neighbours sympathised deeply with them in their terrible and mysterious affliction, while many plucked up courage and volunteered to share with them in their dreadful calamity, by sitting with them by night and encountering the chances of broken bones. On such occasions many were found to abandon the scenes of the mysterious stone-throwing; while others, possessed of stronger nerves, suffered for their temerity. Still the missiles came,
“Quick, thick, and heavy as a thunder shower,” and no one could divine from whence they proceeded; but it was evident in the estimation of the sufferers that no human hand could have directed them. On one occasion when a volley was poured in the window, a young man, regardless of supernatural agents, and believing in nothing more than cause and effect, had the daring audacity to fire a musket in the direction of the mysterious invaders, but the explosion was immediately responded to by a loud peal of satanic laughter, followed by another volley of missiles the composition of which was doubtful.
On another occasion, it is asserted that above twenty individuals were gathered together in one of the houses so mysteriously visited, in order to witness the wonders, when a shower of stones fell among them, as it were, from the roof, which, when examined, were found to be quite hot. One party suggested that they must have emanated from the infernal regions, while another contended that had they came from that quarter they must have arisen from the floor, and a controversial discussion ensued as to whether the stones had emanated from the upper or lower regions.
On one occasion a potato “bing”, stowed in an inner apartment, got into a commotion and poured into the kitchen thicker than the bullets at the memorable battle of Ballinahinch. On this occasion the assembled sympathisers had to fly for their lives, and on the premises being searched no person was to be seen, nor was there a place of concealment or escape. As might be expected, the entire proceedings were ascribed to fairies and witches, and for months the suffering inmates only spoke to one another in suppressed whispers, fearing every moment a renewal of hostilities; however, nothing further has transpired for the past few weeks to render these poor people’s homes unhappy, but whether there is only at present a truce to the proceedings or the mysterious tormentors have gratified their vicious propensities upon the unoffending parties time alone will testify.
However, the affair has given rise to much discussion and conjecture, and forms the staple topic of the locality for many miles – even the much-dreaded Fenian invasion has sunk into indifference through its agency, and long and loud debates on the nature and probabilities of the strange proceedings are of daily occurrence among the people of the neighbourhood, but the best received opinion seems to be grounded upon the following facts:-
Some forty years ago when fairydom was in its grandeur and potency, the “good people” took a fancy for frequenting the house of a small farmer in the neighbourhood, and he was so tormented with their mischievous tricks and gambols that he was compelled to vacate the premises, and his house stood a roofless ruin until a short time ago the two families in question, unmindful of the respect which is due to the haunts of these mysterious gentry, in an evil hour conveyed away the stones composing the dilapidated fabric, to assist in building additions to their dwellings. This is the generally received opinion of many who have witnessed the strange and mysterious maltreatment to which the two families have been subjected, and it is doubtful whether they be allowed to remain in their tenements unmolested after such a flagrant violation of the usages of good society.
Larne Reporter and Northern Counties Advertiser, 31st March 1866.
Sceptics who ridicule the idea of ghosts will find it difficult to explain away the recent alarming happenings in Artrea Rectory, Co. Tyrone, where (according to our Stewartstown correspondent) brick-bats, stones, bottles, jampots, and suchlike handy missiles have been flung around the place by unseen hands. Nor are mysterious occurrences of this nature quite as rare as most people imagine. Offhand one can recall instances of this kind in places so far apart as Derrygonnelly and Enniscorthy, Larne, Portarlington, and Passage East. Years ago the family of a respectable farmer residing at Ballygowan, Co. Antrim, were tormented for a time in this manner. Stones came showering into the house by night and by day, and on one occasion a heap of potatoes, storied in an outhouse, was lifted by an unseen force and hurled holus bolus into the kitchen!
At length one of the neighbours volunteered to frighten off the mysterious tormentors. Taking cover in the kitchen, he awaited the next volley of stones, and replied to it by discharging a shotgun in the direction whence it came. A loud peal of mocking laughter, followed by a further shower of stones and sods showed how little the invisible assailants cared for his powder and shot. The curious thing about this Ballygowan affair was that a former occupant of the farmstead was said to have suffered so much annoyance from a troop of fairies who had a habit of holding their midnight revels at his fireside that he was forced at last to leave the house, which for a long time stood a roofless ruin. His successor in the place did not repair the dilapidated building, but erected a new one, utilising some of the stones of the old house for this purpose. The local theory was that in doing so he had given offence to the “good people,” who took revenge upon him and his family in the way just described.
Freeman’s Journal, 27th March 1924.