(Fivemiletown is in County Tyrone)
Mysterious Noises.
Weird story from Fermanagh.
A comfortable farmhouse in Cornaroosland, a mountainous district of Co. Fermanagh, has been during the past few weeks the scene of mysterious happenings which have caused a sensation in the district. It is occupied by a widow, her son, and six daughters. About a fortnight ago the younger children, it is stated, were disturbed at night by sounds of rapping on the bed, accompanied by scraping noises and an occasional thud. A diligent search by their seniors failed to reveal the source of the noises, which have continued intermittently ever since, being heard by many farmers of the neighbourhood who have come to stay with the terrified family at night. One of these stated that in addition to hearing the sounds, he saw the clothes being apparently lifted from the children’s bed, but on seizing them found nothing to explain the movement.
A cardriver also relates that while waiting outside the house he distinctly heard the sound of someone tramping round the car, and the lights were extinguished.
Irish Independent, 27th March 1913.
Fermanagh House “Haunted.”
Priests invoked “to lay the ghost.”
A remarkable story.
A series of occurrences that have caused some excitement in the neighbourhood have taken place recently at the house of a widow named Briget Murphy, who with a son and six daughters reside on a farm of forty-six acres in Cornaroosland, between Cooneen and Mullaghfad, in North-East Fermanagh. While in the possession of the previous tenants the house had the reputation of being “haunted,” and one night about two weeks ago Mrs. Murphy and her daughter, it is alleged, heard peculiar noises in a room in which three of the younger girls were sleeping. The children were awakened by the noise of something “rapping” on the bed. It was thought at first that the disturbance was caused by rats, but all efforts to discover traces of the latter proved unsuccessful, while the mysterious sounds continued.
Matters came to such a pass that some of the neighbours sat up at night with the family at the fireside. Amongst these were prominent farmers in the district, and they testify to hearing the noises. One farmer, who was sitting in the room, and his story is testified by others, states that he distinctly heard the noise first on one wall, then in the other, and then under the bed. Then suddenly the scraping was heard along the bed, and the clothes rose gently off the children, as if, to use his own words, “it was a dog or a pig hoking.” The clothes began to move off the bed, and when he asked one little girl if she felt anything, she replied that she did. The farmer then pulled sharply back the clothes, but found nothing. When spoken to the strange spirit made noise as if spitting at his interrogators.
The parish priest, Rev. Patrick McKenna, Brookeborough and the Rev. Peter Smith, C.C., Cooneen, visited the house on the 15th inst., “to lay the ghost.” But nothing occurred, and on another day, it is stated, the Rev. Peter Smith and the Rev. Eugene Coyle, C.C. Maguiresbridge, paid a visit, and they heard the strange noise. Rev. Father Coyle corroborated the story as to the noises, which, he said, whether natural or supernatural, became louder and more pronounced when the ghost was challeged with such as expression as “come out of that,” or “who are you?”
On the 18th inst. Mrs. Murphy removed her three children to the house of a neighbour named Patrick Flynn, and there they remained three nights. While the children were out of the house everything was quiet. On the 21st the children returned to their home, and on Saturday night last, 22nd, the same noises were again to be heard.
Northern Whig, 27th March 1913.
Fivemiletown Ghost.
The sensational manoeuvres of what is believed to be a real ghost, at Cornarooslin, a few miles from Fivemiletown, has been the subject of much comment and gossip in the countryside during the last week or two. The scene of the apparition is a bleak mountainous district and the quarters taken up by the ghost are in a comfortable-looking thatched dwelling-house on a farm occupied by Mrs Murphy (a widow), and a family of seven children. The father, it may be remembered, fell from a cart some five years ago, receiving injuries which proved fatal. Since then his wife and family have resided in the holding.
The mysterious visitor first attracted attention on a Saturday night two weeks ago, while the mother and younger children were sitting in the kitchen, the elder boy James being absent. From what can be gathered the ghost commenced its operations in the children’s bedroom by a tapping on the bed just as the young people had been laid aside for the night. The strange tapping became louder and louder and the occupants became frightened almost out of their senses.
On the arrival of the son James he made for the room where the ghost had made itself heard and made a stroke at it with a stick and simultaneously the cows in the byre apparently conscious of the presence of the unwelcome visitor, got up an unearthly chorus of roar which struck terror to the already terrified family.
The ghost seemed to follow the two younger children, as for over a week just as soon as they retired to bed the strange tapping could be heard, and the children were removed to another room, but yet still the phantom followed them.
Neighbours came and sat up to lay the visitor at night, but their presence was no deterrent to the doings of the strange apparition, as night after night the rap, rap, rap, could be heard at the children’s bed and the bedclothes were seen to be mysteriously moved and pulled down the bed in the presence of the eye witnesses, who, however, could not see the visitor, but some of them assert they felt it rubbing against them at times, and one of the children said she felt its touch on her chest.
The lights were put out on one of these occasions to see what the result might be, but the mystery was only further enhanced as the rappings were repeated with renewed violence and it was with the greatest difficulty that the bed clothes could be kept on the bed.
The priests of the parish have, it is stated, visited the place and celebrated Mass in the house. The children were removed to a neighbouring house, but still the visitor followed them with its antics, and the chairs and stools were mysterious removed from under men who sat during the long nights’ vigil in their attempt to solve the mystery.
The doings of the ghost, however, are somewhat now abated, and since last Saturday the family sleep alone at night. The affair has created a great sensation in the locality.
Fermanagh Herald, 29th March 1913.
The Cooneen Mystery.
House still haunted.
The extraordinary story of the strange doings of the Cooneen ghost is still shrouded in mystery. Since the matter was given publication in last week’s Fermanagh Times, the utmost reticence has been observed by Mrs Murphy and her family, who refuse point blank to discuss the matter with outsiders, and even with neighbours, so prejudiced are they against giving it further publication. They have even declined latterly to welcome the police to the house, while a couple of photographers from Clones on Sunday were given the cold shoulder. Scores of inquisitive visitors made their way to the scene during the past week.
Further, the Roman Catholic neighbours in the locality avoid any discussion of the atter. Some of those interviewed by our correspondent, who paid a visit to the place on Tuesday, declined to talk of the affair or to give any further information, saying that they “knew nothing about it, and didn’t want to know any more,” and it is asserted that this conduct is the result of a warning issued from the altar on Sunday last.
Our correspondent says that from what he could gather the “strange doings” still continue unabated in the haunted house. He interviewed several Protestant farmers, one of whom informed him that he had been told by Mrs Murphy’s son, James, on Friday last, in response to the query “Is it annoying you yet?” that it was still annoying the two children a little at night.
The affair is said by some of the neighbours to be the outcome of witchcraft, one R.C. farmer, who witnessed the workings of the spook in daylight, telling our correspondent that the uncany visitations were a sort of witchcraft and nothing else. “It is no ghost,” he added, “for a ghost would not be about in daylight.”
It is stated that even the stock on the farm are haunted by the strange spirit, the mare, though well fed, being observed to be affected by a peculiar weakness, while a cow which fell into a hole on Saturday, when pulled out tried the strength of a dozen men to carry her to the byre, they, it is asserted, being so overtaken by weakness that they had to procure a cart to place her on.
Fermanagh Times, 3rd April 1913.
A Fermanagh Ghost Story.
Family’s Remarkable Plight.
The mystery connected with the visitation of an alleged ghost or “spook” to a country farm house at Cooneen, near Fivemiletown, which has created much excitement among the people of the district during the past six weeks, still remains unsolved, and inquiries made in the vicinity on Wednesday show that the unusual noises in the house occupied by Mrs. Murphy and her family continue, and are stated to be “worse than ever.”
The mysterious occurrences, it seems, consist of scraping, scratching noises in the vicinity of the beds occupied by the two younger children, the bedclothes at times being shaken and pulled about in an unexplainable manner. The noises are heard both in the morning and at night while the children are in bed. The family are in a state of terror, and are said to contemplate selling the farm and emigrating. Repeated visits have been made to the house by a number of Roman Catholic clergy from Enniskillen, Monaghan, and local parishes, and these have offered masses and used every effort to “lay” the “spook,” but without avail.
During the past week about half-a-dozen clergymen from different parishes have called at the house and have said masses. The children have ceased attending school, neighbours refrain from visiting the house, and altogether the family appear to be in a most unhappy plight. Locally the affair is attributed by some to witchcraft, by some to fairies, and by others to ghosts or spirits, but so far no satisfactory explanation is forthcoming.
Londonderry Sentinel, 26th April 1913.
Irish Ghost. Widow and her Children in great Terror.
Bed-clothes pulled.
A ghost which resists all attempts to lay it has so frightened a widow and her children at Coonen, near Fivemiletown, co. Fermanagh, that the family are thinking of emigrating as the only way to escape the ghost’s attention. Mrs Murphy, the widow, and her young children have been disturbed for some time past by mysterious noises in their little cottage. At first, the sounds were attributed to rats, but investigation tended to disprove that theory, and to show that the children are the special objective of the ghost or ghosts. When the children were taken away all was quiet, but when they are in the cottage the sounds follow them from room to room.
They are scratching sounds, such as would be caused by rats under the floor, knocking at the walls, and sounds of footsteps overhead. Sceptical neighbours have sat up at night in the room occupied by the children, and have emerged at daybreak convinced and fearful of the nearness of the spiritual world.
In one case (says the London “Express”) two hardened farmers watching by the bedside of a girl were roused from their dozeful watch by the child’s cry. “Something is clutching me!” “Where?” they asked, and for answer she pointed to her breast. Instantly they whipped the clothes down, but found nothing to explain the child’s fright.
It is said that at other times the bed-clothes on the beds occupied by the two younger children have been shaken and pulled about in a mysterious manner in the presence of hard-headed neighbours who have been as keen on laying the “ghost” as any member of the Psychical Research Society, but without any of the sub-conscious predilection towards the supernatural which a member of that society might be expected to possess.
The noises are heard both in daylight and at night, and the family are so terrified by the manifestations that they contemplate selling the cottage and emigrating. Repeated visits have been made to the house by a number of Roman Catholic priests from Enniskillen, Monaghan, and local parishes, who have offered Masses and used every effort to “lay” the ghost, but without success.
The children have ceased attending school, the neighbours refrain from visiting the house, and the plight of the unfortunate family is pitiable. Some pople think the affair is the outcome of witchcraft, others attribute it to fairies, others to ghosts, but so far no satisfactory explanation is forthcoming.
Football News (Nottingham)! 26th April 1913.
Curious “ghost” story.
Fermanagh mystery still unsolved.
Priests’ unavailing efforts.
The mystery connected with the remarkable workings of the alleged “ghost” in a country farmhouse at Cooneen, near Fivemiletown, and which has kept the people of the district in a state of curiosity and excitement during the past six weeks, still remains unsolved, and inquiries show that the unusual noises and scratchings in the “haunted” house occupied by Mrs Murphy and her family still continue, and are stated to be “worse than ever.”
The strange occurrences consist of a scraping scratching noise in the vicinity of the beds occupied by the two younger children, the bedclothes at times being shaken and pulled about in a most mysterious manner. The noises are heard both in daylight and at night while the children are in bed, being repeated with the greatest violence while the little ones are awake. The family are terrified by the remarkable performances, and they contemplate selling the farm and emigrating.
Repeated visits have been made to the house by a number of Roman Catholic clergy from Enniskillen, Monaghan, and local parishes, who have offered masses and used every effort to “lay” the “spook,” but without success. During the past week about half a dozen clergymen from different parishes have called at the house and said masses. The children have ceased attending school, neighbours refrain from visiting the house, and the plight of the unfortunate family is pitiable.
Some think the affair is the outcome of witchcraft, others attribute it to fairies, others to ghosts or spirits, but so far no satisfactory explanation is forthcoming.
Strabane Weekly News, 3rd May 1913.
Disappearance of the Cooneen Ghost.
“Any word now about the Cooneen ghost?” said Mr T Gavin, J.P., to a man who attended the meeting of the Lisnaskea School Attendance Committee on Monday to explain why his children had not attended school.
“I do not hear a word about it now,” replied the man.
Rev. Mr Lapham presided at the meeting, and Rev. Mr Davies and Mr T Gavin, J.P., were also present.
Fermanagh Herald, 19th July 1913.
Black Magic – confessions of a ghost hunter.
To the making of names there is no end. The last is a poltergeist. Some years ago there was a series of happenings at Coonian, in the County Fermanagh, to which newspaper men flocked in order to record the doings of what they were pleased to call the “Coonian Ghost.” Something of the same kind was recently reported in our news columns from County Derry. In Coonian, however, the curious occurrences were reported over a number of months. The local clergy sat at night in the house, and although not confirming the scare stories, they did not disclaim that certain things were happening for which they could not account.
A small farmer and his children, it may be recalled, were tormented by having pebbles flung about the house at odd times, with hearing knocks from the ceiling below the floor, and along the walls. The family had had to leave the country eventually and go to America. One of them afterwards wrote to friends here that it was only after they had been some years in the States that the phenomenon entirely ceased.
[… a review of Harry Price’s ‘Confessions of a Ghost-hunter’]
Irish Weekly and Ulster Examiner, 4th April 1936.
“The Cooneen Ghost.”
“The Cooneen Ghost,” a true story of County Fermanagh, will be broadcast again from Northern Ireland on Monday, June 19. On a night in 1913 a widow and her eldest daughter were sitting in the kitchen of their little farmhouse. suddnely there was a vicious rapping, and then the younger children rushed down in their nightclothes, terrified. Night after night the rapping continued. The family’s nerves cracked, the eldest son’s hair grew white, and finally they left the farm for America. The rapping followed them across the ocean, and for three months haunted them in their new home. Then, as suddenly as it began, the rapping ceased.
Norman C Hunter, the author, and James Mageean, the producer, are responsible for “The Cooneen Ghost.” The script is based on information supplied by Cahir Healy, author and member of the Northern Ireland Parliament.
Londonderry Sentinel, 13th June 1939.
The Coonian Ghost – It Wouldn’t Keep Quiet!
By Olive Kay.
The articles on the supernatural which appeared in the News Letter intrigued me so much that I decided to have a talk with a man who had come into close contact with an unearthly manifestation. In a room in the Houses of Parliament yesterday, Mr. Cahir Healy, M.P. for South Fermanagh, told me about the famous “Coonian Ghost” – the ghost which answered back and which followed an Ulster family across the Atlantic and more than half-way across the United States. This manifestation of poltergeist activity is one of the best-known and best-attested cases of its kind.
Mr Healy had been in Fermanagh just about eight years when he read of strange happenings at a small farmhouse in Coonian (also known as Cooneen) in the heart of the mountains between Brookeborough and Roslea. From being a story of local interest the poltergeist activities there became so pronounced that the Coonian Ghost became national news.
The family that lived in the farmhouse included three daughters aged 15, nine and seven, and it was these young girls who seemed to be “overshadowed by the ghost,” as Mr. Healy put it. Another member of the family was their brother, James (20), who had become head of the house when his father was killed in a fall from a horse. James, his older sister and the mother of the family were all spared the direct attentions of the poltergeist. It concentrated on the younger children…
Continual rappings during the nights, and sometimes during the day as well, distressed and disturbed the family so much that there they could not rest. Persistent noise and mysterious shapes heard and seen by the family were also witnessed by neighbours who visited the farm. The younger children were beaten and bruised as they lay in their beds. The local Roman Catholic curate, who was a close friend of Mr. Healy’s, went to comfort the distracted and exhausted family. The suggestion that rats caused the rapping noises in the wainscotting was soon negatived by an examination of the room.
The curate, who had read a great deal on the subject of visitations, put questions to the “noise” in various languages. Sudden raps came as replies! A request to the poltergeist to answer “Yes” or “No” by means of one rap or two was disregarded by it, however, and the idea of communication with it seems to have then been abandoned. When the young girls were taken from their bedroom to the kitchen the rappings followed them there, but in a more subdued form. The curate and his friend sometimes sat with the children in the bedroom and were there when the girls complained that someone was pulling the bedclothes off them. The clothes did appear to have drifted to one side. At first it was thought the wind was responsible, but this was proved not to be the cause. The men took the children out of the bed and re-made it. The clothes near the pillows seemed to rise and fall as if someone was breathing beneath them!
The persistent rapping varied in its source, sometimes emanating from the wainscotting and sometimes from the ceiling. Over the girls’ bedroom was a barn and one of the men went up there to investigate. His friend below could plainly hear his footsteps above and also a patter of another being moving, although there was nothing visible. A dog which was placed partly under the bed on one occasion appeared to be pushed out into the room. The frightened animal refused to enter the room again and remained in the kitchen.
James, his mother and his older sister, though not directly troubled by the poltergeist were wearied by losing sleep every night looking after the younger ones. Finally, the ghost appeared to win the war of nerves and James decided to emigrate to the United States to be rid of its presence. At this time, there were rumours in the neighbourhood that the family, who were regular church-goers, were reading “bad” books (presumably dealing with Black Magic). The younger children and the older members of the family were said to be suffering from an instinctive revulsion.
Mr. Healy has no personal knowledge that the family was troubled by the poltergeist noises on the boat and in America, but Mrs Jeanne Cooper Foster in her book “Ulster Folklore,” says that the wicked spirit pursued the hapless family over the Atlantic and half-way across the United States, ceasing to annoy them only after a considerable number of years. “This may very well be true, but I did not meet anyone who had spoken to the family after they left Ireland,” Mr Healy told me. He added that since these fearful visitations which troubled the district of Coonian 50 years ago, he had returned to the house on two occasions. The barn above the bedroom had been removed and the tenants (who did not come from the locality) denied having heard anything abnormal and refused to believe there was ever anything of the supernatural nature in the house.
Mr. Healy does not say whether he believes in poltergeists, but he does believe his clerical friend’s account of what he heard and saw. I believe Mr. Healy. What do you believe?
Belfast News-Letter, 24th February 1965.
Haunted House That Dripped Ketchup.
By Nuala McCann.
It was the gallon of tomato sauce that scared the Coonian ghost off. Bobby Hanvey, the rambling man, (the man with the sore feet), got it on HP from a local pub. He and fellow ghostbuster, Tommy Sands, (the man with the sore head from listening to the man with the sore feet), were on the trail of Ireland’s most famous ghoul… with a little help from a shop dummy and half of Fermanagh. The idea was to spend a night in a haunted house and raise money for the charity, Telethon.
Coonian has a history that would drive a devil to drink – and there were plenty of spirits around on Sunday night. But no-one was afraid of no ghosts… not really. Although Sands confessed to a healthy respect for the supernatural (he was yellow like the rest of us), Hanvey was determined to lure the spectre out with his sexy shop dummy and fight to the bitter and bloody end.
The Coonian house is a ruined cottage – an old tin roofed, squat building, with crumbling, yellowing walls and gaping, black holes of windows. The last man who stayed in it, declared that the only thing to go bump in the night was the flea population – and he was scratching for weeks. But strange things started happening even before the likely lads reached their destination. They got separated en route, losing each other at the turning on the M1 and only meeting up by the light of the full moon as it glinted on the shadowy cottage walls. “I met a man and asked him the way there,” said Sands mysteriously. “He took a strange look at me and walked backwards, pointing his hand this direction and saying, “Good luck.” The spirits were already affecting Sands… Hanvey was getting excited at the prospect of the night ahead – as were about 1,000 visitors, who were in and out of the cottage all day, hanging from the rafters.
The true history of the Coonian ghost dates back to 1913 when locals say an old pensioner was murdered when he went to collect the rent. They also say a man hanged himself in one of the rooms. The story goes that one morning a man was waiting by the fire in the house, when he saw a ghost. It came down by the trap-door like a ball of wool in a black bag, and coasted around the floor. It’s said that one family bought the house, stayed in it one night, but kept quiet and sold it six months later. A canny businessman sold it to a new family who had hardly a night’s peace.
As the two daughters lay by the fire to sleep one night, they felt a movement like snakes in their beds. Suddenly their pillows were torn from under their heads. As the petrified girls lay on, there was a sound like a kicking horse and the bed clothes were thrown across the room. The girls were shunned when they went to crochet class and when they sought the parish priest, the ghost got down his back.
Although the ghost was apparently a Protestant one, it would whistle and answer questions in Irish and Latin. When holy water was sprinkled in the house, as it often was, it showed its loyal hostility by playing back the tune of Boyne Water. As the water was being sprinkled, the being would flee along the wall of the house, knocking louder and louder as it went.
A priest, who investigated the being on fifty occasions, said it spat at him, lapped like a dog, and came down with the sound of straw in the air. The family eventually emigrated to America and were never troubled again. Three priests were not so lucky – it is said that one had a nervous breakdown, another spinal meningitis and the third, facial paralysis.
The older people of Coonian have a healthy respect for the ghost. Most do not talk about it, for fear of upset. “My father knew the priest who had the facial paralysis. It’s said that the ghost spat at him when he tried to exorcise it,” one resident confided. Others whispered that the spirit had been captured in a green bottle and was buried in a sealed room.
But there was safety in numbers at Coonian cottage on Sunday night. It might have been different, were it not for the crowds, the roaring fire and the musicians playing a tune. Tommy Sands said he felt the spirits would remain friendly because what we were doing was for a charitable cause. But the rambling man had a trick up his sleeve. He had a mysterious black plastic bag and on disappearing to an upstairs room, there followed a wild knocking, banging and screaming. He emerged dripping with what looked like blood. But a distinct whiff of Ma’s favourite tomato ketchup fairly gave the game away. He succeeded in frightening one wee woman. She took to her heels like a Lilty and was off down the lane before you could say ‘boo.’ But dawn had truly broken before the final bravados, gave up on the ghost and headed for home. The patch back down the lane to the main road was twice as mucky as on the way up. The ditch at the bottom proved a balancing act. On the way up, there had been a few logs across it – but on the way back, there was just one single pole to totter on. Even the female dummy had had a hard night. She looked rather the worse for wear, after some of the abuse she got. And she never tempted the ghost out of hiding for all of her fine wig and blue dress.
But the Coonian people weren’t complaining. Most of them enjoyed the stint – they’re talking about making it an annual pilgrimage.
Belfast News-Letter, 31st May 1988.
Spook that emigrated.
When a family from Fermanagh boarded the boat for Boston earlier this century they hoped to escape from a ghost. Vincent O’Toole from Windermere Gardens, Belfast, is back on the spooky trail. The Coonian ghost, as the strange spirit was called, tormented all the members of a certain Murphy clan. Its presence manifested itself by rapping on the walls and throwing things all over the place. It would not keep quiet and was an example of the paranormal acting at its worst. On most nights, the mischievous “thing” came to the house and caused havoc, and Anne, a 15-year-old daughter, was frequently its prey. The blankets were lifted off her bed and flung across the room, there were spitting noises, hissing and constant banging on the walls from midnight.
“All the three girls in the family were overshadowed by the ghost,” said Cahir Healey, who was MP for the area at the time. “The suggestion that the noises were caused by rats was soon discounted.” Vincent adds that clergy and country people prayed in the house but this only brought on more violent disturbances. Heavy breathing started, stopped and started again, and one “witness” claimed: “It sounded like somebody was dying.”
The ghost won the war of nerves with the Murphy’s because they left the house in Coonian and emigrated. But the wicked spirit accompanied the unfortunate family on the voyage to the New World. In a letter home the mother wrote: “The ghost created disturbances in the girls’ cabin on the sea trip.”
The Murphy’s travelled half way across the States in a bid to free themselves of the poltergeist and even had to change their apartment in the first few months when neighbours complained about the rumpus. Then, says Vincent, peace came and the family’s prayers were answered. “The nightly nightmare ended and the Murphys were finally parted from the gruesome gremlin and left to live in peace.” Are you still there?
Belfast News-Letter, 18th March 1992.