Terrified woman flees ‘haunted’ bungalow.
A mother-of-three was today being cared for by her parents after fleeing from her home where, she claims, a spirit appeared and tried to take her year-old-child from her arms. Hannah O’Connor, of Clogher, Lixnaw, Co. Kerry, claims the new two-bedroom bungalow she moved into just a year ago is haunted. Her claim has been backed up by a local Parish Priest, Father David McElliggott, who believes the house is inhabited by a “wandering spirit.” Locals say the house is close to a medieval fort and that it may have been the site of an ancient burial ground.
Hannah O’Connor says she began hearing crying and wailing shortly after she moved into the house, firstly in the backyard and then in the hall. Each time she went to investigate there was nobody there. She claims the crying persisted and that lights she would switch on went off without anybody being near the switches.
Now she has fled her home, claiming a ghost-like spirit appeared in her bedroom and tried to snatch her year-old-son, Clyde, from her arms. “I had just turned off the light and I brought Clyde into the bed with me and squeezed him tight. The next thing I was just closing my eyes when this ghost came. It was like a sheet thrown over a person.” She added: “It was huge. It was the breadth of a press, with eyes like bulbs that would dazzle you. They would penetrate your eyes even if you had them closed. they came right up to me. The next thing it pulled back the blankets and it started pulling the baby by the legs. I just held on the whole time.”
Hannah O’Connor has now returned with her three children to live with her parents at Ahabeg, a few miles from Lixnaw village.
Ordeal: Hannah O’Connor, Clogher, Lixnaw, Co. Kerry, with her daughter Emma outside the house she claims is haunted.
Evening Herald (Dublin), 12th November 1992.
‘Poltergeist’ in house
The haunting which forced a Kerry mother of three to flee her home is for real, Ireland’s first female, self-styled ‘ghostbuster’, said yesterday. Psychic investigator Sandra Randhami – who interviewed Hannah O’Connor, from Lixnaw, Co. Kerry, for two hours – said there was definitely spirit activity of the Poltergeist type in the house. “I would accept every word that Hannah has said,” Sandra declared. She believed the spirit is that of a child or a child-like person.
Sandra will return to the haunted Kerry home in 10 days – in a bid to exorcise the spirit. “This will be about the tenth case of this type that I’ve dealt with and I have had a 100pc success rate.”
The haunting of Hannah O’Connor’s two bedroomed Council bungalow, stems from a fairy ring in a nearby field, she said.
Evening Herald, 20th November 1992.
Family forced to flee – by a playful, backward ghost!
By Ronan O’Reilly.
A ghost who forced a Co. Kerry family to flee their home is believed to be the spirit of a mentally-retarded person. Psychic experts have confirmed to Sunday World that the spooky shennanigans, which have been going on in Hannah O’Connor’s home in the north of the county for some time, fit in with the behaviour of someone of a low mental age. The final straw for mother-of-two Hannah is believed to have been an innocent attempt at playfulness by the spirit, which the experts also think may be that of a child.
Glamorous ghostbuster Sandra Ramdhanie was this weekend attempting to rid the haunted home – in the Clogher area of Lixnaw – of the spirit, which isn’t thought to be evil. Dublin-based Sandra first visited the two bedroomed bungalow last week.
The trouble began for Hannah O’Connor six months ago when mysterious voices and unexplained lights started disturbing her homelife. It’s believed that she initially kept quiet about her experiences for fear of being disbelieved. But when the incidents became more serious three weeks ago, she finally spoke up. The last straw came when the ghost tried to take her year-old baby from its cot, a gesture the experts believe had no malice whatsoever. At that point, Hannah – whose other child is aged four – is understood to have fled the attractive home. She has since said that she won’t return there until she’s sure the presence is gone.
Ms Ramdhanie told Sunday World that she was sure she’d be successful with the O’Connor case. “This’ll be the tenth incident of this sort I’ve had since the mid-1980s, and its been 100 per cent successful so far,” she said. And Sandra, who’s the resident psychic-psychologist on Adrian Kennedy’s Monday morning show on East Coast 95 FM radio, also revealed: “When I was in the house last week, the spirit joined us for about 30 seconds when we were looking into the cot. And I believe that’s because it thought the baby was in there. The baby is the attraction really. It likes playing with the baby.”
Sandra, who feels the spirit is that of “a young girl,” doesn’t use exorcism to cleanse houses of unwanted spirits. Instead, she revealed this week, she employs “healing methods.” As well as performing these on the bricks-and-mortar of the house, she’ll also cleanse the troubled family of the anxiety. “I’ll also do some healing for the spirit. It shouldn’t be hanging about here – it’d be far happier somewhere else,” she added. Sandra, who says there’s nothing ritualistic about what she does, also said that Hannah was “very stressed out.” But she scotched any suggestions that the young mother might have been mistaken. She commented: “People probably assume that she’s making it up or imagining it or exaggerating. But, in fact, she’s doing none of these.”
The “haunted” home in Lixnaw, Co. Kerry.
Sunday World (Dublin) – 6th December 1992.