Family flees after things went bump in the night.
A frightened Newtownabbey family have fled their home after ‘things went bump in the night.’ Moving furniture and glowing presences were just two of the bizarre incidents that led the young Monkstown mother to call in exorcists. Local clergymen rallied to the distress call made by 21-year-old Cathy McAllister after she felt the bed she was lying in move across the floor and an invisible presence clutch her neck and throat.
This week the occupant of the Tynan Close home – now dubbed “the haunted house” by local residents – vowed never to put a foot over the door again. “I still can’t sleep at nights because of what I witnessed last week,” she said. “I’m terrified.”
And local minister Pastor David Glass of Rathcoole Pentecostal Church, told Sunday Life he believes the startling claims made about the spooky happenings. “To this young girl it was all very real. I believe it was quite genuine,” he said. “I also know that similar experiences were reported by the previous occupant of the house.”
Pastor Glass and an elder from his church visited the home last weekend and prayed in it. The pair also spoke “in tongues.” “We don’t want to be looked upon as some type of ‘ghost busters.’ We went along to this home with an open mind as ministers of the gospel,” he added. “Although we did not actually see or experience any of the things this young girl said had happened, that doesn’t make her claims any less believable.”
No-one knows of any history attached to the house, although rumours circulating in the estate are that years ago a child died there and someone else took an overdose in it. However, the Housing Executive say they have no record of any suicides or mysterious deaths in the property since it was built in 1968. A spokeswoman added: “While we are currently considering Miss McAllister’s reports, it would be our intention to re-let the house to an applicant from our waiting list.” In the meantime, Executive workmen have boarded up the three-bedroom house.
A scared Cathy McAllister and her children flee their ‘haunted house’ which has now been boarded up. Inset: the room where the bizarre incidents happened.
Sunday Life, 17th January 1993.