Thefts attributed to spirits.Police and peasantry in County Donegal are actively searching for a mysterious thief. The whole countryside in the Illies district near Buneran [Buncrana?] is interested, its imagination has been aroused, and it is quite convinced that the house of a neighbour has become the abode of supernatural strangers.
In a cottage where the daughters of a family were engaged in shirtmaking, articles have been missed day by day, and the closest watch has failed to reveal the thief. First the scissors disappeared. Pair after pair vanished. The seventh pair was secured to the bedpost. Next morning it was gone. Spoons were the next attraction, and they gradually diminished in like fashion. A young girl was brought in to finish the shirt-making, and, incidentally, “to break the spell.” While she was sitting at the table sewing her spool of cotton was missed, and even bread from the breakfast-table was “spirited away.”
The family gave up the unequal battle and decamped from the house, leaving only a few articles of furniture and domestic utensils. The mysterious visitor was active in the family’s absence, for on their return they found the articles all ranged in a row convenient to the door – an unmistakable hint that nothing less than absolute possession would satisfy this uninvited guest. The mystery remains unsolved.
Ross Gazette, 31st March 1904.