Kells Board of Guardians, Saturday.
An unusual sort of ghost.
John Brennan, Tullatin, wrote on the 5th August: “I regret that I had to leave the labourer’s cottage at Feagh from a continuation both day and night as the house was haunted. I paid two months’ rent in advance and I also limewashed the house. I gave up the key to the collector on this date.”
(Laughter). Mr Radcliff – That house is haunted they say. There were two or three people living in it. The last man was an ex policeman and he is gone now.
Clerk – The man before him died in it.
Mr Radcliff – And he is there yet it seems. The house is haunted and no one will stay in it – at least they say it is haunted.
Rent Collector Conlon said it was a very curious case; Brennan told him that he couldn’t live in it. Mr Radcliff said he had heard of houses being haunted in the night but he had never before heard of a house being haunted in the day time. Mr Sheridan – The man must be suffering from delusions. Rent Collector Conlan said the man said he saw nothing, but there were noises and things were moved about the house.
Mr Sheridan – He’ll give the house such a bad name that we won’t get a tenant for it. Chairman – We’ll have to lay the ghost. What did the ghost do to him? Mr Conlan – He says it did nothing at all. Mr Radcliff – And is the man all right? Mr Conlan – Yes he’s all right himself, but I couldn’t say much about the woman. A Guardian – Aye, it is the woman I suppose. Mr Conlan – He says he saw nothing, but there were noises and a chair was removed from where he left it.
Drogheda Independent, 13th August 1898.
The Haunted House.
John McConnell, Tiercorke, wrote: – “Having been informed by a few members of your board that you are willing to give a reward to any person who sleeps three nights in the so called ‘haunted cottage’ at Feagh, I hereby propose to stop in it for three successive nights at £2 5s 0d (15s a night). I am a brother in law of the late tenant, Pat Farrelly, and I slept with him for several weeks in the cottage, during which time I never found any bottles or bricks a firing, or chairs moving without human aid. So that I’m not afraid to sleep in it now, and if there be anything in the house to question it and find what takes it there. I will also, if you keep me in [fire?] remain in it as caretaker till you get a tenant, and if he be afraid to occupy it, I will engage to stop with him for a while and see him all right.”
Following up this gracious offer to rid the guardians of a troublesome tenant, Mr William Manning, Inspector Board of Works, wrote:-
“I have been informed the guardians have a ‘haunted’ labourer’s cottage in Feagh, and that no one will go near it. I will be taking about 10 days’ leaves from 19th of this month and want a change. If the guardians can see their way to letting it to me temporarily I would 1.) take it at whatever rent they may see fit to charge or 2.) go in as a caretaker at 1d per week and give a guarantee (£10) that at any time they find a bona fide labourer to take it I will (within 24 hours’ notice) hand it over to them. In support of Mr Manning’s candidature for the proud privilege of soothing this uneasy spirit, Mr Michael Cahill, Tallyattee, wrote: –
“As a member of the Newcastle divisional committee I would recommend Mr Manning, Board of Works Inspector, to have that haunted labourer’s cottage in Feagh for a month or so as he will pay you well. I think it will help to dispel ‘the ghost reputation’ and encourage a bona-fide labourer to take it in the future. I only speak in the interests of the ratepayers and not have it shut up and paying nothing for it.”
Chairman – What will you do, gentlemen?
Mr Tully – Mr Bryan Smith, I am sure, will propose that the ‘haunted house’ be given to Mr Manning, and it will give me great pleasure to second it.
Chairman – As a caretaker? (laughter) you will admit him?
Chairman – He will be ‘fowling’ down there and it will suit him largely.
After some discussion it was decided to admit Mr Manning as caretaker.
Drogheda Independent, 17th September 1898.
The Haunted Labourer’s Cottage.
The alleged haunted labourer’s cottage at Feagh, in Kells Union, and situated between Kells and Bailieboro’, is the subject of much gossip in the district, in consequence of its being abandoned by two tenants and taken by Mr W Manning, inspector of Board of Works, with the object of seeing the “ghost,” and it is stated he has not had the experience of the former tenant, Mr John Brennan, ex-constable of the Royal Irish Constabulary.
According to his statements, bottlles, boots, pot lids, would jump even in the daytime from the floor to the ceiling of the cottage, and in the night there was continual music and noise in the cottage, and doors slapping though bolted previously.
Though a brave man, with a young wife and children, he has removed to a worse house, for which he is paying the same rent as for the cottage. It is considered that the house will be a long time before it is occupied again by a bona fide agricultural labourer.
Irish Independent, 5th October 1898.
The Kells Ghost.
Whilst the Civic Fathers of Kells are said to be in a quandary over the management of the affairs of that historic town, their brethren of the Poor Law Board are in an equally sad plight over one of their many domiciliary possessions – the haunted (?) house at Feagh. It is once more vacant, after passing through the hands of many tenants, and being experimented upon by a few very valiant ghost deliverers, who were unable to ‘lay’ the pugilistic female spirit who wanders uneasily about both by day and night.
It is all very well for Mr Manning to say ‘if repairs were made he did not see why any reasonable tenant should not take it,’ but if he saw as a lady, who lives adjacent to the haunted house beheld the other day, a large, jet-black dog, wearing a scintillating pair of pince-nez, gazing nonchalantly at her through one of its windows, to disappear instantly and before her very eyes, in a large dusky puff of smoke, it would be certain to dispel whatever scepticism may in him exist. Such was the statement which she made when she arrived home one evening last week, after her speech was restored and the cold perspiration ceased to bathe her trembling brow.
The cottage was visited on Sunday last by large numbers of cyclists from Virginia and other districts, and considerable interest was manifested by them in the tales told of ‘the haunted house.’
Drogheda Independent, 15th October 1898.
A Cavan Ghost.
The latest ghost story comes from Feagh, a village in County Cavan, Ireland. It is alleged by the villagers that a house belonging to the Guardians of the Kells Union is haunted and an ex constable, named Brennan, and his family, who entered into occupation of the dwelling a few months ago, has experienced some bad quarters of an hour at the hands of the ghostly visitant. They were awakened at night by unearthly shouting, whistling, and music; the children’s clothes were dashed in the father’s face; a bottle was flung at him and a sandboard [?] hidden in the dresser jumped up to the kitchen fire. This finished the constable and he and his family wisely vacated the cottage. The only cause that can be found for the cottage being haunted is that a man lived there years ago called Drummer Kingley.
Ballymena Observer, 21st October 1898.