Another ghost story, well authenticated, similar in all respects to that which has made Cookstown notorious, has gained currency in the quiet little village of Markethill and its vicinity. Many of the inhabitants feel not a little alarmed, and firmly believe that the effects which they have seen could only be produced by a supernatural agency. The scene of these, as many suppose, Satanic manifestations is the house of a man named Sharpe, in the townland of Drumnamather, within two and a half miles of Markethill, on the Tandragee Road.
Mr Sharpe and his family, who are weavers, and occupy a small bit of land adjoining their dwelling, are well liked in the neighbourhood, and have always lived on the most cordial terms with their relatives and friends. No member of the family ever studied the art of performing by sleight of hand, nor has anyone else in that whole neighbourhood, so far as can be ascertained. The heartless destruction of the property of these innocent people and the great annoyance to which they have been subjected seems altogether inexplicable.
The Markethill police have frequently visited the house in which the depredations have been committed, but the agents in the work of destruction hold them in utter contempt. Several beds, numbering seven, I believe, have been burned. Bed clothes, wearing apparel of all kinds, and webs of cloth have been cut in a zigzag way as with a sharp knife. Stones have been thrown and windows broken. Noises are constantly heard in the house as of a person jumping on the floor. For some three or four months past these and similar performances might have been witnessed daily, and still go on. The family have retired from the house at night, but come to it during the day.
A constable who has frequently visited it told me that a man, who alleged he was from Poyntzpass, came to the neighbourhood and made inquiries about the ghost in Sharpe’s, and intimated that if he got a trifle he would banish it. I think there can be little doubt but that these villainous tricks which have been, and are still being, perpetrated in Cookstown and in Drumnamather are performed by mere dexterity of hand. I hope that through the vigilance of the constabulary the perpetrators will soon be discovered and brought to justice. I may forward you further particulars of the Drumnamather ghost.
Belfast Weekly News, 28th November 1874.
Another Ghost Story.
A Belfast newspaper has recently devoted nearly a column to the description of the strange behaviour of a “Ghost” at Cookstown. Some similar pranks have been played on the inhabitants of a house in the townland of Drumnamether, near Tandragee.
Since last June the inmates of this house have been surprised to find several articles of wearing apparel cut slightly in several places, apparently with a sharp instrument. Until a few weeks ago they said nothing about it to any of the neighbours, but at that time was commenced a course of persecution which has had the effect of driving the occupants finally out of the house.
As before, clothes were cut, but to a greater extent, and, what has been a serious loss to these unfortunate people, webs of linen have been cut and spoiled in the loom. On more than one occasion the feathers in a bed have been discovered on fire, and live coals were found on the thatch of the roof, ready to burst into flame.
The utmost vigilance has been exercised to discover the cause of these strange occurrences, but up to the present the perpetrators have been able to escape detection. Suspicion fell upon one of the family, but at times when she was from the house the cutting and burning went on as brisk as ever. As a matter of course these proceedings created no small sensation, and the almost extinct belief in “fairies” has been revived amongst great numbers of the people in the district.
Ballymoney Free Press and Northern Counties Advertiser, 26th November 1874.