Spiritualistic Manifestations in Fermanagh.
I have been credibly informed that, since the beginning of April, some extraordinary noises have been heard nightly in the house of a small farmer named Thompson, who resides at the foot of Knockmore Rock, about a mile from Derrygonnelly, on the road to Kiltyclogher. Knockings are heard in the house at night, and nothing in short inside the house can be said to be proof against what may be called its capricious action, the contents of the presses or cupboards, even while locked, being as easily manipulated and removed as if fingers of flesh and blood had the articles in their visible grasp.
The wonder-stricken occupants, who, by the way, are Protestants, have tried various modes of relieving themselves of the visitation, but, for so far, without having succeeded in its expulsion. Answers to questions proposed to the intruder are given by “knocks” in the fashion peculiar to spiritualistic agency; and several clergymen who have visited the place, and a Methodist class-leader are alike puzzled as to the supernatural manifestations of which I have endeavoured to convey a brief outline.
An Enniskillen gentleman, who is connected with one of the learned societies, on hearing of the matter, went out to the scene of its operations, and I believe the result of his visit, and the inquiries it led to, was not of a character to justify his supposing it a humbug or an illusion. Some persons assert that the “manifestations” have been cunningly exerted to prevent a marriage, whereby a stepmother would be introduced; and others, that they are nothing more than a quid pro quo for certain strong allusions to the Roman Catholic priesthood by a Protestant while on his death-bed.
Of course I cannot say anything as to the truth or otherwise of these reports. All I know is, that there is a belief in the existence of the “manifestations,” and that they are a puzzle for so far all who have undertaken to investigate the matter by hearing for themselves. I have not enumerated one-tenth of the strange vagaries perpetrated by the “spirit,” or whatever it may be, which I have heard ascribed to it, but I may have occasion to refer to the subject again. – Correspondent.
Belfast News-letter, 20th June 1877.
A Holiday Ramble Around Enniskillen.
… As if in keeping with the awful gloominess of these vast caves, and the terrible gloominess of the huge cliffs that frown over the lonely valley below, we learn that here under the very shadow of Knockmore, in this wild and lonely region, the solitary cottage of a little farmer is haunted by some troubled spirit. Most of the night the scratching of demoniacal claws, and the loud rappings of a wandering ghost, with stone-throwing, and stealing of lamps and candles by invisible hands, have been going on with scarcely an intermittance since Good Friday last. Neighbours and friends have in vain tried to fathom the mystery: it remains insoluble; the terrified family crouch together at night into one room, but cannot escape their cruel tormentors. The oddest part of the matter is that in this humble family, in the wilds of Fermanagh, are repeated all the strange disturbances that once haunted the Wesley family, and still later, a farmer’s household in the hamlet of Rochester, in the United States.
We stay and devote some nights to an attempt to discover or explain away this ghost of Knockmore- but in vain; it baffles us, and makes us look with more respect on the fairy tales of our childhood, or the spiritualism of the present day. To all lovers of the marvellous we heartily commend a trip to Lough Erne, not forgetting the caves in the cliffs and a night with the ghost of Knockmore.
Cavan Weekly News and General Advertiser, 3rd August 1877.
Ghosts.
As an illustration of the belief in ghosts which still exists, I have to mention two cases which have occurred within a few miles of Derrygonnelly. The first of these phantoms has been for months practising its pranks at the house of a respectable farmer in this locality. The spectre goes through an exciting programme nightly in exquisite style. It makes very loud noises by knocking and rapping in various ways, commits acts of theft by carrying away boots, stockings, lamps, candles, lamp-tops, and other articles, and acts the rowdy by throwing turf, stones, and divers other things about through the house in a very reckless manner.
The whole neighbourhood has for some time been in a regular commotion about this story; and many persons, incited by curiosity, have gone to visit this “haunted house” in order to satisfy themselves of the truth of what they heard. Scarcely a night passed that parties were not present at these singular noises, &c. Professor Barret, of Dublin, and the Rev. Mr Close, with other scientific gentlemen, were amongst the many who visited this particular house. Searching investigations were held as to the cause of these peculiar ghost-like achievements, and the conclusion arrived at was, that the noises were the work of some unknown agency.
I would myself have gone to hear this ghost were it not for an uncomfortable misgiving that perhaps it might take the fancy of appearing to me that it had taken to cultivate all this clamour.
The second or junior ghost, to which I now allude, has I believe commenced its operations in a neat little domicile in the immediate vicinity of the house troubled by Ghost No. 1. This junior spectre’s performances are in some particulars like the antics of its senior relative. It makes frightful noises, tears the wearing apparel of someof the inmates of the house, breaks delf, and, it is said, appears to those whom it wishes to terrify.
Surely a locality pestered with such a plague of phantoms may fairly be called a land of ghosts and goblins. – Cor.
People’s Advocate and Monaghan, Fermanagh and Tyrone News, 3rd November 1877.
A Modern Ghost Story.
When we find Professor Barrett, of the Royal College of Sciences, of Dublin, vouching for the occurrence of supernatural noises in the pages of such a sober magazine as the Dublin University, it is time to inquire seriously whether after all there may not be “more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy.” The Professor was informed by a learned correspondent that the cottage of a small farmer in one of the most secluded spots in the county Fermanagh had, for some months, been the seat of various strange and inexplicable disturbances; and he resolved to investigate the matter. From Enniskillen he drove nine miles to Derrygonelly, and two miles beyond this village he found the “haunted house” – a more lonely spot could hardly be met with in the country.
At last we reached the door of the farmer’s cottage and found him within. He gave us a friendly greeting, and whilst he was making up the turf fire, and his daughters preparing, with Irish hospitality, to get us a cup of tea, we looked around. The cottage did not differ in its size or arrangements from that belonging to any other of the small farmers in the country districts of Ireland. The front door opened into a roomy kitchen, with a low ceiling, in great part open to the blackened rafters of the roof. The floor was of hardened earth, and on a large hearth-stone there burnt against the wall a turf fire, the smoke ascending through the primitive and ample chimney. A small window let enough light in to discern, by the fire-side, a door, opening into a bedroom, and in a corresponding position on the opposite side of the kitchen was the little parlour.
The farmer himself was a grey headed man, with a careworn look; he spoke with a quiet and simple dignity totally different from the voluble utterance that betrays insincerity. He had lost his wife a few weeks before Easter last, and the loss had greatly affected both himself and his children. The family now consisted of four girls and one boy, the youngest about ten, and the eldest, a girl, Maggie, about twenty years old. It was chiefly in the neighbourhood of Maggie that noises were heard, and hence it was of interest to regard her a little more closely.
Her appearance was most picturesque; without shoes and stockings to hide her white and well-formed feet and ankles, he gown neatly tucked up, a little red shawl thrown across her shoulders, he hair simply and tidily arranged, and her whole attitude graced by a manner instinctively gentle and modest; to this was added an intelligent and interesting face which wore a somewhat sad expression, though the healthy, open countenance gave no evidence of a character which could pursue a systematic course of deception.
Whilst at tea, I questioned the old farmer closely as to any suspicion he may have had to account for these sounds. He was perfectly frank with me, and told me how unable he was to find any clue to their origin, and how gratefully he would thank me if I helped him to discover their source and banish the disturbance. All he knew was that as soon as the girls had lain down noises and rappings began, and often continued all night long, and this, too, when he had sat in their room with a candle, and watched closely both within and without the house.
Our primitive tea being over we went back to the peat fire in the kitchen, where I questioned, aside, each of the children, but all gave me substantially the same story of the noises. Maggie now left us to put the children to bed, and afterwards herself bade us good night, saying she would merely lie down on the bed without undressing, so that if the noises came we might, if we chose, carefully examine the bedroom. A few minutes after she had retired a pattering sound was distinctly heard, as if made upon some soft substance. This was followed after an interval by at first gentle, and then gradually louder and louder raps, coming apparently from the walls, the ceiling, and various parts of the inner room; and this again was succeeded by scratchings and other indeterminate sounds.
Naturally, the first thought was that we should find Maggie, or one of her little sisters, making these sounds within, or some one making them at a given signal without. Quietly stealing outside the house, every corner was examined. No one was found, but the noises were still clearly heard within the inner room. Upon returning, we obtained permission to go into the bedroom. When we entered with a candle the noises ceased, but they returned on our quitting the room!
Instead of going home at once, satisfied that the noises were a practical joke, I begged permission to make another trial. Taking the lad (who had all the time been by my side) with me, and putting the candle on the little window sill in the kitchen, I stood, along with the father, just inside the open bedroom door. In a few moments the sounds recommenced, but in a timorous sort of way; gradually they became stronger and stronger. Taking the candle in my hand they ceased again, but after a minute or two once more returned, as if growing accustomed to the presence of the light! When at last, after much patience, the sounds were heard in full vigour, we moved towards the bed, and, candle in hand, closely watched the hands and feet of the girls; no motion was apparent, and yet during this time the knocks were going on everywhere around; on the wall, on the chairs, on the quilt, and on the big four-post wooden bedstead whereon they were lying.
Returning to the door and placing the candle just outside, enough light was cast into the room for me to see every object distinctly. Whilst in this position the knockings and scratchings came with redoubled energy, and yet the closest scrutiny failed to detect any motion on the part of anyone in the room.
Now came a very staggering and marvellous affair – one of those things which, as Robert Houdin said of a somewhat similar occurrence, are simply stupefying, inasmuch as they defy any ordinary explanation. I found my request to have a certain number of knocks was obeyed, and this, too, when I made the request more and more inaudibly. At last, I mentally asked for a certain number of knocks; they were slowly and correctly given! To check any tendency to bias or delusion on my part, I thrust my hands in my coat pockets and said “Knock the number of fingers I have open.” The response was at first merely a loud scratching, but I insisted on my request being answered, and to my amazement three slow, loud knocks were given – this was perfectly correct.
The chances were, of course, one in ten of its being right if trickery were at work. Again I opened a certain number of fingers, and bid it tell me the number open; five were knocked. This, too, was right, and the chances of both times being right were one in one hundred. Again, I opened other fingers, and the number was correctly rapped; the chances were here one in one thousand. Again I tried, and six was knocked, which was also right; and here the chances for all four cases being correct were as but one in ten thousand.
After the last number had been correctly rapped, and I expressed aloud my great surprise, the knocks increased in vigour and in variety of character. A loud rattling was heard like the beating of a drum, the pattering on the bed clothes was incessant, and violent scratching and tearing sounds added to the diabolical hullabaloo. This, said the old man, is how it has been going on nearly every night, and often all the night through, “and it frights and puzzles us greatly, sir.” Certainly I was as puzzled as the old man; such uncanny sounds might well scare the lonely little household. By degrees I got the whole of the story from the old farmer, and the following account contains his ipsissima verba, verified, as I have already remarked, by cross questioning his children: –
“My poor wife,” he began, “died in March last, and after her death we were all very lonesome and sad, and fretted a good deal. On Good Friday night, just three weeks after her death, after I had gotten to bed I heard a little wee rapping at the door forenenst where I lay, and it kept on rapping till about two o’clock in the morning. I thought it was our cats, or some rats, and that it would go away soon, but it didn’t. The next night it began again, so I fetched a light and got up to see what it was, and it then ceased; but when I lay down again it began again. Then I got a stick, thinking I would scare it away, so when it began again I hit the door a crack with the stick, but instead of scaring it it struck harder than before at the door, and when I struck again it struck too. Then when I found I couldn’t daunt it just a wee dread came over me, for I knew then it couldn’t be rats or mice.
“So I got up and searched all the house; the cats were surely asleep by the fire and no one was about. Then I began to take a thought what it was, but could pass no opinion. Then I woke the children, but when I went to bed again it kept on rapping till daylight, when it went away till next night. After this a great dread came over us all and we kept a candle burning all night, but the knocks would still come when the light was burning, though not so loud. Then we all laid ourselves down in the same room, and now it wrought on the quilt of the bed, making sounds like tapping the quilt, and touching my daughter Maggie, so she says.
“One morning we found fifteen or sixteen small stones had been dropped on her bed. The noises and the tapping continued nearly every night, and once it wrought all night till the children were getting up in the morning; and so it went on, and with the dread and the loss of sleep we all felt very sick. Then it began to steal. We found this first on May 24th – I know it was that day, because it was Derrygonelly Fair. It first took a pair of boots and an odd one from out of the press in our sitting-room, and we searched the house for them everywhere, but could not find them; and we looked in the fields, but never a one of them could we find. Then one of us said, “Let us ask the raps to tell us.” So that night I said, “If the boots are in the house, give a rap,” and it gave a loud rap. Then I said, “Give a rap if they are in Garrick’s field,” and it gave a scratch; then I asked other places, and at last I said, “Are they in the plant field?” and it agave a loud rap; and I said, “What o’clock will they be there?” as I had searched the plant field already. Then it gave six knocks. So a little before six in the morning I went out and searched the plant field again, but could find nothing; then I came in to see the clock, and it do be only just six; so I went out again, and I found them in the very place I had looked before.
“Other things besides boots it stole; some things it took in daylight, and many of them we have not found yet. It took a pair of scissors, and then it began to steal our candles. First it took a pound of candles; then we had to light the little lamp; then it stole the lamp chimney, and after that three more lamp chimneys, so we couldn’t get our lamp to burn. Then we borrowed a lamp which burnt without a chimney, and it stole the bottle of lamp oil. None of these things could we find, nor would it tell us where they were, but kept on scratching and seemed to get angry. We got some more oil, but it came that night and stole the lamp we had borrowed, and this vexed us badly. Then Jack Flanigan came and lent us his lamp, saying ‘he would engage the devil himself could not steal it, as he had got the priest to dip it into holy water.’ But that did no good either, for a few nights after that it stole that lamp too.
“One day I bethought me of putting a candle in a lantern and tying the lantern up to the ceiling. So I bought a candle of a woman who comes this way to sell things, and I put the candle in the lantern, and set the two young children after watching it, like a cat would a mouse; but they didn’t keep their eyes on it all the time, but every now and again they looked up. We were down working in the bog, and before night came the children came running down to us, saying the candle had gone out of the lantern; and sure it had, for when I got home there was no candle in the lantern; it had been stole out, though the lantern door was close shut all the time, and no neighbour had come nigh the house. After that I said it was no use getting more candles, so we had to use the light of the turf fire. Lately, however, it has left off stealing, and we can now keep a light, though every day we fear it will be taken.
“Many people came now to see us and hear the knockings for the news of it had gone about, and some said it was only rats, and others thought it were trickery, and some said it was fairies, or maybe the devil. Several neighbours wanted us to get the priest, but we are Methodists, sir, and believed the Bible would do more good. A class leader one day told us to lay the Bible on the bed; so we did in the name of God, but a little after we found the Bible had been placed on the pillow and was laid open at the book of Jeremiah. Then I got a big stone, about 28lb in weight, and laid it on the Bible in the window sill, for I was afeared it might take the Bible away; but before long we found the Bible had been moved and we found the big stone laid on the pillow and the Bible open on top of it. After that it moved the Bible and prayer book out of the bedroom and tore seventeen pages of the Bible right across, as you see sir, here.”
Thus I left the neighbourhood fairly puzzled, and on my way home could not help reflecting upon the extremely curious similarity between these phenomena cropping up in a remote part of Ireland, where, as I ascertained, neither the name of Spiritualism, nor the report of any of its prodigies had ever penetrated, and the rappings that so mysteriously arose thirty years ago across the Atlantic, in the family of a respectable farmer, also members of a Methodist Church, and living in a lonely country district of the United States. I allude to the well known case of “Kate and Maggie Fox,” of whom their Irish counterparts had never heard.
Berkshire Chronicle, 22nd December 1877.
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000358/18771222/097/0007
Sir – Those who think that every case of “haunting” is due to trickery or a lively imagination are quite mistaken.
At Derrygonelly, near Enniskillen, a case happened several years ago in a Protestant family. The mother died, and after her death extraordinary happenings took place. Things were thrown about this room by an unseen agency and on one occasion a large Bible was torn right in two across the leaves, cover and all, with no one near it.
These occurrences always took place when the eldest daughter was present. A gentleman, well known to me, and an eminent Irish scientist, investigated the affair. He questioned the agency, and got correct answers by means of knocks. He is an agnostic, and attributed the phenomena to some unknown force.
The family got greatly alarmed finally, and called in three Protestant clergymen to exorcise the “ghosts” while they were engaged in prayer. The girl went into a trance, and there was a continual knocking on the roof of the old fashioned bed on which she lay. Finally this ceased, and peace permanently resulted.
About three months afterwards, my friend was passing by the house and went in to see how matters were. He asked some questions of the “spirits,” and there were very faint knocks in reply, which so frightened the family that they at once asked him to leave the house. When the disturbances were at their height, clothes used to be found removed to outside drains.
All these things sound incredible, but my friend who saw them is no believer in the spirit theories, and is too robust and substantial a personage to be moved by emotion. There is, in fact, so far as I can see, no possible explanation of these happenings unless it be that indeed we are living in company with invisible beings, who occasionally are able to get in contact with us. Who they are no one can tell. I am not a credulous person, but the evidence that such things happen is too strong to be ignored, and the happenings being intelligent, must be controlled by some intelligence. My friend is so eminent that at one time the Canadian Government offered him a scientific post at a high salary, but he declined it as he had a private fortune and preferred to be a free lance of science.
FREE LANCE. August 30, 1912.
Western Daily Mercury, 31st August 1912.
Ghost stories.
Evidence in Fermanagh Will Case.
“Unseen Spirits.”
Weird happenings in house described.
(From our own correspondent.) Enniskillen, Wednesday.
A remarkable story of a ghost which tore 17 pages out of a Bible upon which a big stone had been placed, was told in Fermanagh County Court, before Judge Green during the hearing of a case to establish the will of Miss Emily Thompson, aged 60, who lived on a 30 acre farm in Derrygonnelly district. The will was contested by some of her relatives on the ground that she had not testamentary capacity. The will was prepared by Mr Joseph Murphy, an Enniskillen solicitor’s clerk, who said she seemed quite capable of making it.
Cross-examined by Mr Cooper, M.P., solicitor, witness said he never heard that the late Miss Thompson lived in a haunted house and conversed with spirits by rappings. Mr Cooper read extracts from a book in which the doings of ghosts were related. The weird happenings were investigated by Professor Barrett and others. On one occasion, Mr Maxwell Close, M.A., on visiting the house, read passages from the Scriptures and the Lord’s Prayer. At first his voice could scarcely be heard owing to mysterious knockings, but gradually the noises ceased altogether. Mr Cooper told the judge that the occupants of the house were Methodists, but got the Parish Priest to specially bless a candle. It was lighted in the house, but unseen spirits extinguished it.
Miss Thompson was a child when these things occurred, and witnesses said her mind was always weak, and she could not count sixpence in coppers.
The further hearing of the case was adjourned.
Dublin Evening Telegraph, 25th April 1923.
Haunted House in Fermanagh – Strange Allegations in Will Suit – Noisy Ghosts Who Blew Out Candle – ‘Unseen Hand’ Which Tore Up The Bible – Dispute Over An Old Maid’s Property – Heard at Enniskillen Quarter Sessions – Question of Testator’s Capacity.
At Enniskillen Quarter Sessions before His Honour Judge Greene, Wm. John Elliott, Kilduff, Derrygonnelly, sought to establish the will of the late Miss Emily Thompson, Kilduff, this application being opposed by Wm. John McClelland, Caldrum, and William G. Ferris, Blaney, defendants. Mr J. P. McGovern, solicitor, for plaintiff, and Mr. James Cooper, M.P., for defendants.
Joseph Murphy, Law Clerk, Enniskillen, stated that he saw Miss Emily Thompson on 25th August, 1921, accompanied by plaintiff and his mother. Miss Thompson told witness she wanted to make her will and he made it according to her instructions. She was quite clear and sensible at the time. Plaintiff corroborated previous witness’s evidence and stated that the testator was quite capable of making a will and knew perfectly well what she was doing.Cross-examined by Mr. Cooper, witness denied that testator was very odd in her manner or that she was incapable of transacting business.
Mr Cooper – Was her house haunted? Witness – No.
Did you never hear the story of ghosts being in this house? – I did, but I never paid any attention to it.
Was it not alleged that your sister Annie and a man, who is in court, used to go down at night and throw stones on the roof of this house? (Laughter). – I know nothing about that.
Did you ever go to this house yourself? – Yes, I used to go down and “caley” there.
Was this woman not one of those who said they heard strange spirits in this house and did Professor Barrett from Dublin, and the late Mr Thomas Plunkett, Enniskillen, not go out to the house and spend some time there investigating the alleged presence of these ghosts? Did the whole world not come down there to banish the spirits haunting the place? I will tell you how the ghosts were finally expelled.
Mr Cooper then read some extracts from Seymour’s “True Irish Ghost Stories” in which reference is made to strange and inexplicable noises having been heard in the house in question which aroused much widespread public interest at the time. The book set out in detail the various ineffectual methods adopted to try and ascertain the origin of the strange scratching and rumbling sounds frequently heard in the building and told how Professor Barrett, of Dublin, and the late Mr Thomas Plunkett, M.R.I.A., Enniskillen, had spent some time in the locality investigating the affair. The book narrates how when all the usual methods had failed the clergy were called in. “Scripture was followed by the Lord’s Prayer to the accompaniment of knockings and scratchings which gradually ceased as all present kneeled in prayer.”
Mr Cooper, proceeding, said it was further stated that the Parish Priest was sent for although these people were Protestants. As a matter of fact, he added, they were Methodists, but no Methodist parson could do the house no good and so the Parish Priest came who blessed and lighted a candle, but unseen spirits came and blew it out again. (Much laughter).
To Witness – Did you ever hear of the “unseen hand” coming down into this house and tearing seventeen pages out of the family Bible although there was a big stone placed on it to protect it? Witness – No, I did not. Mr Cooper – Well, you will see all about it in this book. At this point Mr Cooper handed up the book in question to the judge who perused portions of it apparently with much interest.
Mr Cooper – Was the testator one of the peopel living in the house at the time these things occurred? Witness – I don’t know.
Do you know that when people came to visit this house she always ran away and hid herself? – No, I never heard that.
Was she eventually found dead in her bed? – Yes.
Do you do any work for her? – Yes.
When her sister, Maggie, died, Emily, the testator, was left money and cattle on the farm, but got rid of everything and what was there for you to do for her? – She had to get firing and do other things.
There was no one there to look after her? – No. – You were no relation of hers? – No. – Would you say there was any “want” in this girl? – No. – She was an ordinary intelligent woman according to you? – Yes.
His Honour- Where did she keep her money? Witness – She had a place in the house for it.
Mr Hugh Macken, Arney, said that at the request of Mr Murphy he had gone into Mr McGovern’s office and witnessed testator’s signature to her will. He did not know her at the time and had never seen or spoken to her before or since. On that occasion she appeared to be quite normal and witness saw nothing strange or odd about her manner. She appeared to know quite well what she was doing. He did not think the will was read over to testator in his presence.
Mr McGovern – You saw no sign of any ghosts about her that day anyway? His Honour – Ghosts do not appear at that hour of the day. (Laughter).
Philip Murphy, executor under the will, said he lived about two or three hundred yards away from testator’s house and had known her all his life. He had never seen anything strange or odd about her. He had had conversations with her at different times when they talked about the weather and the creamery, etc.
His Honour – Did you ever talk politics with her? Witness – No. His Honour – Did you ever ask her what she thought about how things were going on in the country? Witness – Well, we might, at times, talk about that. His Honour – Do you recollect anything she said on that subject? Witness – No.
Cross-examined by Mr Cooper- Was this girl ever at school? – I believe she was at school under Master McGuinness. – Could she read? – No, I do not think she could. – Did she ever go to Church? – She used to be out with the rest of the sisters. – His Honour – At Church? – Witness – I could not say at Church. – Mr Cooper – When did you see her last? – Witness – About thirty years ago. (Laughter).
Mr Cooper – Did you ever ask her to vote for you when you were standing for the Rural District Council? – Witness – No, she was asked to vote for some other body, but would not do so. – Did you never ask her to vote for you? – No. – She did not want to vote? – No. – Did she ever vote? – She did. – Mr Cooper – When. – Witness – She helped to return your honour to Parliament. (Loud laughter). Sir Charles Falls – That is clear proof of her sanity. (Laughter).
Mr Cooper – Don’t you know she was different from the rest of the family? – Witness – She was just as good looking as the rest. (Laughter). His Honour – Was she not good looking? – Witness – Indeed she was not. (Laughter). Mr Cooper – There was £300 in the house at one time which afterwards disappeared; can you tell us what became of it? Witness – I cannot.
David Hamilton, local postman, said he used to deliver letters to testator and he never noticed anything peculiar about her. Mr Cooper – What did she get letters about? – Witness – She used to get Land Commission receipts for her rent, circulars and fashion books and things of that sort. – Was the testator accused of being the cause of these things? – Yes. – When people spoke to her she would run away? – Both her father and brother and sisters knew there was something wrong with her. Her father used to take her out into the fields with him because he would not leave her with the people in the house. – Mr McGovern – Is there anything strange about a shy young girl in the country running away when strangers speak to her? – Witness – There is something odd about it.
Rev. W.B. Steele, rector of the parish in which testator resided, in reply to Mr. Cooper, said if he had been asked to make a will for deceased he would not have been willing to do so as he would have had grave doubts in the matter. Mr Cooper – In your opinion was she not a person capable of making a will? Witness – I would not say that, but I would have been afraid to take the responsibility, that is all I can say. Mr McGovern – Suppose nine or ten years ago you had been asked to make her will, would you have done so? Witness – I did not know her then at all. – Did you ever hear any talk about her? – Nothing definite, but there was an impression on my mind that she was not like other people. She would answer questions intelligently if I asked her, but she was very hard to talk to. I would say she was very eccentric and it was always my impression that she needed someone to manage her business for her.
Hugh McClelland said testator was never capable of transacting any business; in fact she could not count sixpence in coppers and was very easily influenced. Before her sister died the place was stocked and there was money in the bank, but all this money disappeared. Witness had managed the farm for twenty years before he went to the war. – To Mr McGovern – He had not seen her for some time before her death. – Mr McGovern – Why? – Witness – Because she did not want me. – Why did she not want you? – Because your client poisoned her mind against me. – Mr McGovern – You say that the whole thing is a conspiracy against you? – Yes.
Mrs Mary Ferris, niece of testator, corroborated the evidence of last witness and stated that her aunt had never been to school and never went to Church and was very peculiar in her ways.
The case was adjourned for production of another witness as to testator’s mental capacity.
Fermanagh Times, 26th April 1923.
…The late Sir William Barrett, F.R.S., contributes two well-authenticated cases to a book entitled “True Irish Ghost Stories,” compiled by St. John D. Seymour, B.D. Litt.D., and Harry S. Neligan, D.I. R.I.C., in 1926. Sir William Barrett was closely associated with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research, and his conviction of the supernormal characters of the poltergeist manifestations was very strong.
… In the two fully investigated cases given by Professor Barrett in the book above-mentioned, one occurred in 1877 at Derrygonnelly, nine miles from Enniskillen, in the house of a farmer, who had been left a widower with a family of four girls and a boy. The eldest child, aged 20, seemed to be the centre of the disturbance.
Strange rappings and scratchings were first heard, then objects were seen to move, stones began to fall, and candles and boots were continually being thrown out of the house. In such manifestations in Ireland it was customary to invoke the aid of the local Roman Catholic priest, who, however, was usually unable to frighten the intruder, unless, indeed, the supposed ghost was a product of some human agency carrying out a clever trick.
In the case at Derrygonnelly, the troubled family were urged to send for a priest, but being good Methodists preferred to put an open Bible on the bed with a big stone on top of it. Some unseen power, however, displaced the Bible, removed it from the room, and tore several pages right across. Candles and lamps were mysteriously thrown about. When Professor Barrett visited the house he heard long, continued knockings, as loud as those made by a carpenter’s hammer. He assured himself that the noises could not have been made by any of the inmates, who were all under his view, and, moreover, he saw a stone fall from the void.
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Belfast Telegraph, 2nd May 1932.