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County Dublin Ghosts, Folklore and Paranormal Places

Depression

Location: Dublin - Property close to Waterloo Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early / mid Twentieth century?
Further Comments: Elliot O'Donnell mentions that a property around this area was supposed to be haunted and cause depression in anyone who stayed in a particular room.

Chained Hound

Location: Dublin - Pussy's Leap, Templeogue area
Type: Shuck
Date / Time: Early / mid twentieth century
Further Comments: The large black canine which walked his area created the sound of jangling chains with each step it took.

Little Boy

Location: Dublin - Rathfarnham Castle
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Frequenting the gate house area, this young lad is thought to have been murdered in the area. The castle is also haunted by a dog, which gave his life trying to save his master who had fallen into an ice covered pond.

Lock Keeper

Location: Dublin - Rathmines Bridge, Portobello Harbour
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1861
Further Comments: The hostile phantom of a former lock keeper has been blamed for the deaths of seven people over the years - it takes the form of a blinding light which causes disorientation in witnesses, resulting in them falling into the waters below and drowning.

Woman with Stick

Location: Dublin - Residence in Walkinstown Avenue
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2004
Further Comments: The Irish Examiner reported that the Quinn's family house was haunted by an elderly woman. The phantom, moving around with the aid of a stick, was said to have been photographed.

Rathfarnham's Dog

Location: Dublin - River Dodder close to Ely's Arch, Rathfarnham
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A dog that died while trying to save its master at Rathfarnham Castle took to haunting this area.

Headless Horseman

Location: Dublin - Roper's Rest, leading to Love Lane
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: Winter (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This decapitated figure rides along the road once darkness falls, and is thought to be an ill omen for any witness, or one of their family.

Man in Tweeds

Location: Dublin - Sean Kavanaghs public house, aka The Gravediggers, Glasnevin
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Man in 1970s, dog unknown
Further Comments: An elderly man dressed in an old fashioned set of tweeds was said to occasionally sit near the bar. A ghostly dog was also seen just outside the inn.


An old postcard showing the Shelbourne hotel in Dublin.

Mary Masters

Location: Dublin - Shelbourne hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century onwards
Further Comments: Medium Sybil Leek said that she had met this young girl in Room 526, and that the youngster was looking for someone named Sophie. In 2015, the hotel claimed that guests would flee one particular room in terror.

Lepers

Location: Dublin - St Audoen's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s?
Further Comments: The church is said to be the haunt of lepers. The area outside the church is home to a green lady, reputed to be Darkey Kelly, executed for killing her unborn child (or five men).

Whispers

Location: Dublin - St Michan's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The vault under this church contains thirty mummified bodies - people who have listened carefully in the room claim to have heard loud whispering.


An old postcard showing Dublin's St Patrick's Cathedral.

Boyd's Dog

Location: Dublin - St Patrick's Cathedral
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Dog unknown, clergyman circa 1896
Further Comments: The ghost of a Newfoundland dog sometimes appears at the memorial of John McNeill Boyd - Boyd died rescuing sailors at risk of drowning, and his dog was said to have waited at his master's grave until the day it died. The incorporeal pet is also reported at Glasnevin Cemetery. A phantom clergyman was reported in Lady's Chapel, with one witness recognising the figure as a former resident.

Jonathan Swift

Location: Dublin - St Patrick's Psychiatric Hospital
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The author of Gulliver's Travels has been seen many times since 1745, when the hospital which Swift championed finally opened.

Buck Whaley

Location: Dublin - St Stephen's Green, leading to Cuffe Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Pacing along the road, Whaley's shade is said to follow the well-travelled route he took while living.

Airman

Location: Dublin - Temple Theatre Nightclub (no longer operating) (formally St George's church)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996 - 2003
Further Comments: A spokesperson for the nightclub claimed that P Diddy had encountered a ghostly airman in the nightclub, which had been a church. Another report said the nightclub, when not open to the public, was also home to the sounds of a church organ being played, the notes punctuated by bouts of coughing.

Shadows

Location: Dublin - The Dublin Hellfire Club
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Though not officially used for many years, visitors to the site at night report dancing shadows in and around the former hunting lodge.

Larry the Wax

Location: Dublin - The Liberties
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The phantom cobbler known as Larry the Wax would vanish when told to 'go to hell'.

Opening Door

Location: Dublin - Tivoli Variety Theatre (closed 1930), Burgh Quay
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A door at the theatre would always be found open - the ghost of a chorus girl who took her own life would be blamed.

Lady Reid

Location: Dublin - Town house in Fitzwilliam Square
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This phantom woman has terrorised many visitors to the house who have tried to spend the night in the guest bedroom.

Corney

Location: Dublin - Unknown house near St Stephen's Green
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late nineteenth / early twentieth century
Further Comments: Most of Corney's antics resembled classic poltergeist activity (hiding crockery and cutlery, pinching people as they lay in bed), though he did manifest to a young boy who described him as a naked old man. The haunting became so well known locally that the owners had a very hard time trying to sell the house.

Gammon

Location: Dublin - Widow Gammons Hill, Monkstown
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The widow Gammon is said to have informed Cromwell's men that monks were hiding in this area. After her death, the widow's ghost returned to the area, one witness claiming that the phantom had touched his neck, leaving a burn.

Lord Luttrell

Location: Dublin - Wolfe Tone Street
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A man reported being followed by a white figure along the street that he believed to be Lord Luttrell, the so-called 'King of Hell', who was killed along the street in 1717.

Shadowy Coaches

Location: Dublin Mountains - Montpelier Hill - ruins of the Hell Fire Club
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Founded in the 1730s, the Hell Fire Club quickly became notorious for its black antics. The former meeting ground is said to be haunted by some of these dark deeds, and by phantom horse and coaches which rush past the building, containing the souls of former Hell Fire Club members.


The ghost of Lady Grace.

Lady Grace

Location: Dun Laoghaire - Boley manor house (since demolished and replaced by Rory O'Connor Park)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Likely circa early twentieth century, and May 1977
Further Comments: Lady Grace was said to haunt this house, walking with a limp while wearing black clothing and a bonnet. Towards the end of the haunting, the phantom took to knocking on doors and telling one witness 'you are not to sleep here tonight'. The phantom may have made a brief reappearance in 1977; when the last tree from the manor was cut down, a phantom voice was heard in the neighbourhood, calling for help before breaking into song.

Rent Avoidance

Location: Dun Laoghaire - Unnamed house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 1888
Further Comments: A case heard by the Recorder of Dublin involved a landlord suing a tenant for non-payment of six months' rent. The tenant claimed he had seen a young woman with a glowing halo walking around the property at night. The landlord was awarded rent covering three months. As an aside, the Recorder of Dublin commented he was surprised that a ghost story would be discussed in court in the nineteenth century.

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