The Paranormal Database

Jangling

Location: Dublin - Kimmage Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Nineteenth century
Further Comments: The area where an old woman was murdered by a tramp was haunted by a strange jangling sound. Two sisters who heard the jangling were hit by a blast of air as it passed them.

Ladies!

Location: Dublin - Madigan's Public house, O'Connell Street
Type: Other
Date / Time: 12 September 2025
Further Comments: While exiting a bathroom stall, a woman heard a loud voice say 'Ladies'. Both the room and the hallway outside were clear of other people. When asked, a member of staff told the witness the site was not haunted.

Girl with Curly Hair

Location: Dublin - Mansion House
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May 2013
Further Comments: After Lord Mayor Naoise O Muiri's four year old daughter reported seeing a girl with dark curly hair watching television, he told the local press that the building was haunted.

Pat Doyle

Location: Dublin - Marshalsea Barracks (ruins)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Doyle attempted to escape from the Marshalsea prison but fell from a roof and died. His ghost could be seen balancing on a wall for several years after his death.

Archbishop Narcissus Marsh

Location: Dublin - Marsh's Library
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The wraithy Archbishop still looks through the books and manuscripts which line the library's shelves. One legend says he is searching for a lost letter, hidden within the pages of an unknown volume.

Sean Treacy

Location: Dublin - Mater Private Nursing Hospital (no longer standing?)
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1920
Further Comments: Sean appeared to his friend Dan Breen as he lay in hospital - both were involved in a gun fight with the British, though Sean died of his wounds some hours before visiting Dan.

Singing

Location: Dublin - Monkstown area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1977
Further Comments: Phantom singing, combined with the occasional whimper for help, could be heard for a few months during 1977.

On the Telephone

Location: Dublin - Murrays Car Rental (no longer operating), Lower Baggot Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: 2006-2011
Further Comments: Staff here experienced pens being thrown around the office, fire extinguishers falling from their mountings, and strange voices interrupting telephone calls.

An old postcard of Dublin Museum.

Nineteenth Century Soldier

Location: Dublin - National Museum of Ireland (was Collins Barracks)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: Several entities are said to exist at this former barracks, including a black shadowy figure and a soldier in nineteenth century uniform. Truck drivers have reported seeing figures in Napoleonic era uniforms burying the dead in Croppy Park, while visiting tourists said that they had watched soldiers in First World War uniforms, believing them to be a re-enactment group. Screams, panicked horses and gunfire have also been heard coming from the area.

Dressing Room Rearranging

Location: Dublin - Olympia Theatre, Dame Street
Type: Poltergeist
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Doors and windows have been known to rattle violently in this theatre, and once a dressing room was virtually destroyed by an unknown presence, although it is more common to merely hear footsteps.

Sherwood Forester

Location: Dublin - Percy Place
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: The Sherwood Forest regiment suffered heavy losses during the Battle of Mount Street Bridge, just around the corner from Percy Place. The ghostly soldier seen standing on guard is believed to have participated in the fight.

An old postcard of Dublin's Phoenix Park.

Swift?

Location: Dublin - Phoenix Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: It has been claimed that the ghost of Jonathan Swift haunts the park.

Smell and Smoke

Location: Dublin - Private flat, Camden Row
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth or early twenty-first century
Further Comments: A former occupier reported that a horrible smell would periodically come from a wall and a door would be heard slamming, although they could never figure out which door it was. The occupier's partner also encountered black smoke which took human form and started to insult her.

Footsteps

Location: Dublin - Private house (no longer standing), Cork Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1900s
Further Comments: Loud footsteps and bangs could be heard through this building.

Rocking Woman

Location: Dublin - Private residence, Ballsbridge area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1960s
Further Comments: A phantom woman wearing nineteenth century clothing was observed knitting while sitting on a rocking chair. The witness initially mistook the ghost as a family member.

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.