Violent ghosts force family out of their home.
Distraught mother, Martha Cousins, who appeared on RTE’s Seoige and O’Shea, has had to leave her family home of 12 years – because angry ghosts made the family’s life a misery. Mum of three, Martha, appeared on the show to try to get help to solve the ghostly problem in her Tallaght home, located near a graveyard, after life in the home became unbearable when Martha and her children – daughters Gemma (17) and Saoirse (7) and son Daniel (13) were regularly attacked by their resident ghosts.
Terrified mum, Martha said: “I’m not afraid of the ghosts but it got so bad over the last while that we had to leave before one of us got really seriously hurt. I’ve been getting punched and hit. My kids have been kicked by some of the ghosts and just last week, they set off two gas leaks in the attic that could have caused a fire. My kids are terrified so it’s not fair to them to stay there when this is going on.”
Now living with her mother, Martha and her children were told that their house is directly on top of hundreds of old graves. Following an appearance on the Seoige and O’Shea show, Martha was put in touch with a psychic who has been trying to clear the house of its unwelcome guests. As she explains: “They told me I should get in touch with a psychic and she is clearing about eight spirits a day. At first it wasn’t too bad. There were only three or four but now she has to try and get rid of eight a day and once she does, eight more come back – she’s told me it’s because of where the house is, its lay-lines [sic] attract them.”
Widowed six years ago, Martha says that the activities of the spirits got more and more agressive after her husband died. She says: “We’ve lived there nearly 12 years now, and it’s only in the past six years that it has gotten worse, ever since my husband passed away. I’ve been bitten by a ghost and my youngest daughter, Saoirse has been kicked by a ghost and she’s had scooters and all sorts thrown at her. When I was in touch with the psychic and I told her all about what had been happening, her sister-in-law told me straight out to get out of the house straight away because it was too dangerous for us to stay.”
And Martha says the family have no plans to return to the house, although their current living situation isn’t ideal either. “We’re not going back there. I’m clearing out our stuff every day but we can’t stay here with my mother either, so I’m not sure what we’re going to do.”
Hannah-Louise Dunne.
Evening Herald (Dublin), 25th August 2007.
I’m haunted… so I want a new house.
iSpy – Ian O’Doherty.
We have all heard stories about the bizarre reasons people want their local council to get them a new house. Invariably they have too many kids to live in such a small house. But occasionally people have the decency to at least come up with a more compelling reason for another house, rather than a simple inability to keep it in their trousers or invest in a packet of Johnnies. Step forward 37-year-old Martha Cousins from Ballycragh in Tallaght who wants to be re-housed – because she reckons she’s being haunted.
According to the mother of three: “Ever since I moved into the house 12 years ago there has been a series of hauntings. My seven-year-old daughter has been kicked by one of the spirits and I have been punched and bitten.” But she hasn’t been taking such non-corporeal house guests lightly. Yup, she’s done the sensible thing… and hired a medium. Unfortunately, however: “The minute she gets rid of some of them, another vortex opens and another seven or eight of them come through.” Mrs Cousins and her medium reckon this is because the house sits directly on a ley-line to the Hellfire Club in the nearby mountains.
Maybe she has a point, though not for the reasons she expects. After all, as anyone who grew up in south Dublin knows, the Hellfire Club is where every self-respecting stoner goes to get their magic mushrooms and, coincidentally enough, they tend to grow around this time of the year. So Martha, you’re actually not facing a scourge of ghosts but hordes of tripping hippies wandering back from the Hellfire Club. It’s not a medium you need, luv. It’s an exterminator.
Irish Independent, 28th August 2007.