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About the guest: Dr. Bob Curran

Becky found out about Dr. Bob when she read his book, A Bewitched Land: Witches and Warlocks of Ireland. is the author of over 40 books on the ghosts and folklore of Ireland, published by O’Brien Press.

Irish folklore we discussed in this episode

We spoke about so many great stories and legends from Ireland, and still we only scratched the surface! Here’s a very brief summary of the topics discussed.

• Bob shares the story of the fear gortach, the hungry spirit who roams the mountains and can seize travelers with fatal hunger.
• The gruagach is a petite hairy critter who will work hard for only a jug of milk, but is incredibly stupid and disappears if you ever give it a present.
• The Banshee (Irish spelling Bean Sídhe) wasn’t always the wailing woman spirit we hear tales of today. She used to just be a fairy woman who would advise ancient kings.
• The Cóiste Bodhar or death coach, a harbinger of doom driven by a dullahan, which is a headless horseman hobgoblin of the unseelie type.
• The filid were basically ancient tabloid reporters.
• Abhartach may have been the very first vampire, as we know them in the western world today. According to folklore, the grave of this blood-drinking 5th century Irish warlord is in Glenullin in County Derry, just a short drive from where Dr. Bob lives. You can see the actual grave site in the Irish horror movie Boys from County Hell. Like Eastern European vampires, Abhartach’s bloodlust is easily thwarted by scattering small items about (like thorns or poppy seeds), as these monsters are easily distracted by counting and sorting things.

Why is storytelling so important to Irish culture?

Ever since Diana was young, her Irish relatives taught her to value the “Gift of Gab.” Far from just being talkative and outgoing, this uncommon gift was somewhat ephemerally defined as the ability to orally weave a spellbinding tale at the spur of the moment. Being good at improvisational storytelling, basically. According to legend, if you’re not born with this gift, you can attain it by kissing the Blarney Stone.

During this interview, Bob helped us understand why the Irish place such a high value on oral storytelling and folklore. The Druids apparently advised against down any knowledge because it could be stolen by the enemy. And so, oral storytelling was the primary format for handing down knowledge. Couple that with a huge population of poor, rural farmers, and a ruling elite class that preferred their peasants to remain uneducated and illiterate so as to be easier to control, and verbal communication becomes the obvious default. And sure, a bit of knowledge may be communicated verbally simply by explaining it to someone. But having an interesting story attached helps as a mnemonic device. Folklore also grabs the attention of those whose minds may otherwise wander.

What’s your favorite Irish folk tale?

Baby Diana grew up hearing stories of selkies and dancing to songs about why it’s important to hold a wake. She thinks there’s something undefinable yet uniquely magical about Irish folklore. After hearing all the Irish ghost stories we’re releasing this October, we hope you’ll agree! Does your Irish family have a unique legend? Or do you know some juicy info about folklore from other regions? Submit your story now for a chance to be the next guest on Homespun Haints. And beidh lá scanrúil agat!

The post If You Die in the Dumb Supper, You Die in Real Life appeared first on Homespun Haints.

Episode Summary: the Origin of Halloween

Have you ever wondered why we bob for apples and trick-or-treat? Where did our Halloween traditions originate? Samhain, the ancient Pagan Irish sowing festival, just happened to fall at the end of the month that is now October. This holiday is the original source of many of our Halloween traditions. But unlike the frolicking and spooky merriment we celebrate with today in the US, Samhain was a dark and sinister time of year in ancient Ireland. At this time when the veil is thinnest, the Puka may carry you off into the marsh, The Wild Hunt may send a Death Coach for you, or the Banshee might portend your doom. What better way to trick real malicious spirits away than dressing your children up like fake spirits?

About the Guest: Jo Kerrigan

Jo Kerrigan is the author of several books on Irish folklore. In this episode, she’s mainly referencing her newest publication, Old Ways, Old Secrets: Pagan Ireland: Myth * Landscape * Tradition. She mentioned some of her previous works as well. Brehon Laws: The Ancient Wisdom of Ireland, Stories from the Sea: Legends, adventures and tragedies of Ireland’s coast, and Follow the Old Road: Discover the Ireland of Yesteryear. She’s working on another book about Fairy Forts, to be released soon. Find all of Jo’s past and future publications at obrien.ie/jo-kerrigan.

We don’t call them “fairies” in Ireland

The modern term “fairy” often invokes a mental image of a flitting winged pixie, scattering sparkly dust like ectoplasm, and cutely getting all jealous over Peter Pan. In the US, when we try to discuss the supernatural race with the slightly more respectful term, we use Fae Folk. This term is not respectful enough for the Irish, however.

The terms Jo advised us to use when speaking about the Fae in Ireland include The Good Folk, The Gentry, or even just Themselves. Perhaps because there are still people in Ireland who purport to have terrible bad luck after angering the Fae, these interplanar creatures are seen as godlike nobles to be feared and avoided. While some of the most famous fairies of folklore are cute and diminutive, the Irish know that’s not how fairies actually look like.

Never forget: Tinkerbell did try to murder Wendy by proxy, and almost succeeded.

Can fairies be evil?

Why are fairies dangerous in Irish folklore?

Fairies are a supernatural race of humanoid creatures primarily from Celtic and Germanic folklore. Some fairies are benevolent, such as those in the Seelie Court, and even marry into human families intentionally. But some are as wicked and evil as they come, referred to as of the Unseelie Court.

Beautiful, tall, and magical, fairies are also quite mischievous. Folk lore tells of fairies carrying off human babies and replacing them with changeling look-alikes, much like cuckoo birds. Adult humans who enter fairy rings may become trapped.

Perhaps for modern Ireland, fairy lore and superstitions serve as the same type of parable as elves do in Iceland: if you’re not sure what’s going on, defer to respectfulness.

Scary facts about fairies

This Halloween, why not eschew Hollywood monsters and instead tell fairy tales about these original terrifying creatures of the season?

• The Púca, a mischievous dark goat-horse sídhe cryptid, might carry your husband off into the bog if he stays out too late drinking. This might be related to the mysterious condition “dizziness of the marsh” that Jo warned us of.
• The Wild Hunt may decide you’re as good as a stag, and hunt you through the forest.
• If you spot the Death Coach on the horizon, quickly open every door and window. If you act fast enough, it might drive on through, missing your house entirely. Woe be unto those who don’t spot it in time.
• The Banshee is like a lonely Valkyrie, her mourning wails heard only by those who are about to die, and only within certain Irish families, at that. And she only wails in the countryside, apparently; in more refined city areas, she might just knock on your door three times. Don’t open the door, if you want your family to live.
• Elementals, while not fairies technically, are the evilest spirits to haunt County Clare.

How do you protect yourself from fairies?

What are fairies afraid of? Not much that we humans have control over, unfortunately. It’s far better to avoid The Good Folk than to try to fight them. It may be harder to avoid the Fae in the first place on Halloween or Samhain, so it’s good to know what to do to defend yourself. Since fairies follow the laws of nature, there may be some hope in the forest.

For example, should you encounter The Wild Hunt, Jo recommends hugging a tree. Specifically, find an apple or rowan tree, press your back to it, and reach back to hold it in your arms behind you. Be sure to also hold back your dog. Then, be very, very quiet and still, so as not to annoy the hunters, lest they decide to hunt you.

If you do get taken by fairies, whatever you do, don’t eat anything in the Fae realm. Like Persephone, just a few little bites might be enough to trap you there.

Are Samhain and Halloween the same thing?

Samhain is a fall festival representing the start of the new year in Ancient Ireland. The original festival revolved around the time of year when seeds were traditionally planted, but the modern one occurs on Halloween. Given the relatively mild winter weather in Ireland, Jo informs us that Irish folk wisdom suggests planting seeds at the end of the harvest. That way, the seeds have time to get comfortable in the still warm earth, and a little more time to think about becoming a plant.

But there’s more to this Pagan holiday than just sowing seeds. At Samhain, the veil between this world and the next is thinnest. Spirits may visit, usually to the detriment of the living. During this time, tradition states you should honor your deceased relatives. Folks who aren’t careful may get trapped on the wrong side of the veil.

You can probably already see that Samhain has more in common with Day of the Dead, which purportedly originated from the European All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, and was reclaimed as a semi-secular Aztec-Mexican tradition only in the past century. While the word Halloween has etymological origins in All Hallows’ Eve, the US has since mutated this sacred day of ancestor worship into something nearly unrecognizably commercial, as we do.

When is Samhain 2023?

Every year, Samhain begins at nightfall on October 31st, and lasts until sunset on November 1. Before our modern Western calendar, the ancient Irish people would’ve celebrated on the date halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice.

What to do on Samhain

Several of our modern Halloween activities originated in Samhain festivities. This year, instead of dressing up as a slutty pirate and getting wasted again, try one of the following.

• Bake a barmbrack. Even this Samhain cake is scary, as the guests discover hidden trinkets within with their delicate teeth bones. Like the baby in a New Orleans Mardi Gras king cake, these surprises tell your future in the coming year. The guest who finds the bean will gain wealth, but find the pea and you’ll be poorer by year’s end. She who finds the ring will soon be wed, but the rag finder (yes, there’s a rag inside this cake) is destined to be an old maid. Oddest of all, finding the stick portends that you’ll commit domestic violence.
• Trick or treat, but with the intent of convincing wandering ghosts not to haunt your home. Lost spirits are looking for a place to stay, is your house available? Quick, dress your children in ghost costumes. That way, the ghosts will say “Oh, wait, there are already spirits here, guess I’ll keep looking.”
• Play Slap Apple. This is a version of bobbing for apples where you’re less likely to drown or snorkel up a stranger’s backwash, but more likely to lose a tooth. Tie a string to the stem of an apple, then tie the other end of the string to the rafters in the attic. Swing the apple at your brother. If he can catch the apple in his mouth, he wins, and gets good luck for the year. But if he gets a black eye, you win, but your brother’s suffering is its own reward.
• Set a pile of raw hazelnuts (in the shell) very near to the fire. Play a betting game about which ones will explode, letting the direction the shrapnel flies determine your fate in the coming year.
• Use a paring knife to peel an entire apple in one go. The apple paring should fall into the shape of your future first love’s initial.
• Place a candle to either side of a mirror, and light them at midnight. Stare into the mirror as you comb your hair. If you stare hard enough, a face will appear, gazing over your shoulder. You can only hope that’s the face of your future spouse, and not the Hat Man, here to eat your soul.

Or, just draw a jack-o-lantern using our very own tutorial!

References for further reading

Here’s more info on some of the Irish topics we discussed in this episode that don’t have to do with the origin of Halloween.

• The Well of Lunatics, in the valley of Gleann na nGealt.
• Women as priests in early Christianity back when the religion took Ireland in the 5th century.
• Fairy forts and why they’re still considered sacred.
• Fairy Paths in the Gaelic tradition, and more on the Lace School, which is built on a Fairy Path.
• The Leap Castle Elemental, and more about how to visit Leap Castle and take a ghost tour there.

Read up on another haunted castle in the US: Thornewood Castle.

Other Irish content

We’ve done several episodes featuring guests from Ireland. Here are a few episodes to get you into the Samhain spirit.

• Irish Ghost Stories and Premonitions of Death
• Exploding Ghosts and Buckets of Blood: Interview with This Paranormal Life
• The Ghosts of Ballylough House
• Three of the Most Haunted Libraries in the World
• Article: The Mummies of St. Michan’s

Samhain: the Original Halloween

Were you aware of the link between Samhain and the origin of Halloween? How do your family Halloween traditions keep the original spirit of Samhain alive? Any Druids in your family rowan tree? Submit your story about to be the next guest on Homespun Haints. And don’t forget to curtsey to the new moon.

One thing Samhain and Halloween will always have in common is they’re both going to be spooky days!

The post The Irish Origin of Halloween: What is Samhain? appeared first on Homespun Haints.

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Irish ghost stories and superstitions

Can the bonds we have with our loved ones go beyond this plane and into the next? Can we feel those connections so strongly that we know when someone we care about is in trouble? Is dying? Or is dead? And how do those connections persist throughout generations?

Today, we speak with Kelly Fordon, an author and podcaster, who has a myriad of experiences about these connections, and their effects on the living. Her stories are both spooky and uplifting, and we know you’re going to enjoy them.

About today’s guest, Kelly Fordon

Kelly tells us that POV matters more in fiction writing than the traditional hero’s journey story arc we learned in grade school. She’s published through Wayne State University press. Her books include I Have the Answer, Garden for the Blind and a full-length poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, On the Street Where We Live, which won the 2011 Standing Rock Chapbook Contest, and Tell Me When It Starts to Hurt. Her fiction, poetry, and book reviews have appeared in The Boston Review, The Florida Review, Flashquake, The Kenyon Review, and various other journals.

You can find Kelly’s podcast, Let’s Deconstruct a Story, at kellyfordon.com.

Do we all get 6 weeks to haunt before moving on?

Kelly experienced messages from her father from beyond for just a short while, then his spirit must have moved on. She recalled hearing the belief that, when a person dies, their soul has 6 weeks to remain on Earth, tying up loose ends, before moving on to reincarnation or whatever other eternal reward they’ve earned.

Can you get directly into heaven by dying on a Saturday?

This type of heavenly fast pass isn’t canonical to Catholicism in general; it must have been a colloquial Irish superstition. Which really begs the question; what’s more likely: to manifest one’s own death with the strong belief that one will die on that day, or to have a premonition that accurately predicts one’s own death? Both may seem quite supernatural, and neither story is unique to Kelly.

By this point in the story, we were thinking “man, Kelly’s whole family has premonitions related to death!”

Are premonitions of death due to deep connections, or The Gift?

Far from taking her familial ghostly premonitions of death to mean she’s inherited a psychic gift, Kelly believes anyone can have these types of premonitions. It’s more who you’re close to, and based on what kind of a link you had in life.

Although she’s probably right about that last part, we’re curious if that explains her prediction of her dad’s friend’s death. Or all the people who lose loved ones without any sort of premonition, and never do hear from them again. Surely it must be a little of both?

Comforting hauntings and practical premonitions

It is a comforting thought that a loved one can reach out from the beyond, but that doesn’t mean they’re stuck in an Earthly purgatory between planes of existence for the long haul. We really like the idea of a 6 week goodbye tour. What do you believe? Even if we can predict someone’s death through premonitions, none of us will ever know for sure what happens after this life until it’s too late. But better to die on a Saturday, just in case. No need to go having a spooky day.

The post Irish Ghost Stories and Premonitions of Death appeared first on Homespun Haints.

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About our guests: This Paranormal Life

Rory and Kit are childhood friends who take turns researching strange paranormal phenomena, and then try to convince one another that their researched story is true. You can find their podcast at thisparanormallife.com.

We ask the hosts some of their favorite stories, and they regaled us with tales of the White Lady of Union Cemetery in Easton Connecticut, the Kuchisake-onna (or slit-mouthed woman) of Japan, and the Jikininki, also from Japan.

When Rory asked us about one of our favorite ghost stories, we told them the story of the hellhound at Rotherwood Mansion.

This Paranormal Life‘s upcoming tour

Rory and Kit will be touring the U.S. in October of 2023! Check out their schedule here and be sure to grab tickets if you’re near one of the cities they’ll be visiting!

Love discussions of Irish cryptids and folklore?

In this interview, we discuss how the E.U. recently made leprechauns a protected species, and the other Irish cryptids Rory and Kit learned about in grade school. Like This Paranormal Life, we ourselves have heard stories about banshees, skunkapes, and bigfoot from our podcast’s guests. We also love hearing about cryptids in Scottish lakes and the chupacabra in Mexico and parts of the U.S. And we can’t wait to hear more strange Irish ghost stories and Irish cryptid stories, which can’t help but lead to a spooky day!

The post Exploding Ghosts and Buckets of Blood: Interview with This Paranormal Life appeared first on Homespun Haints.

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Episode Summary

For some of us, the word charming evokes images of lush gardens, cottage rooms and hearty food. For co-host Becky, charming also means taking her family to a haunted bed and breakfast thousands of miles from home, where centuries-old ghosts wander the grounds and warn of impending doom. Becky stayed at a delightful mansion in the northern Irish countryside, where she encountered beautiful scenery, warm hospitality, and sooo many Northern Ireland ghosts.

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About Ballylough House and the Northern Ireland ghosts

Ballylough House is a delightful structure about 5 miles from the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. The house itself is about 300 years old; however, it rests on top of the ruins of a castle decimated centuries ago.

The MacQuillans and the MacDonnells

Legend states that the MacQuillans and MacDonnells arranged a marriage between a young woman of the MacQuillan clan and a young man of the MacDonnells. The two families had been warring for generations, and the marriage would finally bring peace between the clans. The wedding took place at Ballylough, then occupied by the MacQuillans.

However, during the wedding feast, the MacDonnells swooped in and slaughtered everyone at the banquet, including the young bride and her mother. The MacDonnells then burned the castle to the ground; only the crumbling tower remains. The MacDonnells held the land until 1625, when they gave the land to their land agent, Archibald Stewart.

Other haunted castles we’ve covered

If you’re looking to visit a haunted castle, be sure to consider the following.

• Thornewood Castle.
• Leap Castle.
• Akershus Fortress.

Would you spend the night in a haunted B&B built on a castle?

We loved our time at the Ballylough B&B! We here at Homespun Haints would absolutely spend more time communing with the spirits there. It is certainly a reliable place to have a spooky day!

The post The Ghosts of Ballylough House appeared first on Homespun Haints.

The foundation of the church dates back to Viking times, in 1095. The building you visit today, however, reflects renovations conducted around 1685.

The crypts beneath the church date back to the 17th century renovations, and contain some unusual residents.

How to see St. Michan’s Mummies of Ireland

Visiting the mummies is a lot easier than I anticipated when I arrived for the last tour on a rainy Friday afternoon. And yes, in order to see the mummies, you must come during tour times and be prepared to pay in cash for your ticket (see below for opening times and costs). The guide asked us to wait for the tour to commence within the church’s sanctuary. I stared in awe at the magnificent stained glass windows and organ. The organ itself is also really old—still in use since 1742. Legend says Handel practiced and perfected his Messiah on this very organ.

The tour of the Ireland Mummies

After milling about in the church for a few minutes, a very enthusiastic guide came in and directed us to exit the church into the graveyard. Rain began to pour, but, being in Ireland, we just made a go for it amongst the drenched tombstones. I wish I could have spent more time hanging out with those graves, because they looked magnificent!

As the afternoon rain pelted the group, our guide ran to what looked like old-fashioned cellar doors on the side of the church. He instructed us to watch our heads as we hobbled down the uneven, Medieval stone steps into the crypt.

One by one, we filed into the crypt. Once underground, I instantly felt a difference in the air. Everything felt much drier, and my sixth sense knew instantly I was surrounded by dead bodies.

At this point our guide, no longer being drenched by the rain, began to tell the tales of the crypt. I need to interject just how amazing our guide was. In our small group of about a dozen people were visitors from Austria and Italy, and our guide seamlessly switched between English, German, and Italian as he told us of the tales of the crypt. He also used elaborate hand gestures to keep the conversation going, even when he spoke in another language. As a storyteller myself, I was very, very impressed!

Our guide told us to go to the end of the hallway, and there we saw the mummies.

The Mummies of Ireland

Originally, the four mummies were known as the Thief, the Nun, the Crusader, and the Unknown. However, in 2019 someone stole the body of the Nun (who would freaking do that?). When the church recovered the body, she was so badly damaged (and missing a head) that they decided to no longer display her for public view. So they replaced her with another mummy as apparently they had quite a few on hand.

In the photo above, the Unknown, a woman, lies to the far right on the raised casket. The Thief lies just left to her. Next to him lies the Crusader, whose hand outstretches from his casket (and before the 2019 burglary, visitors could touch his hand for good luck). To the left of the Crusader is the Nun’s stand-in, also an Unknown. You’ll note that his/her body is slightly darker; the body has not been coated with the same quantity of stirred-up dust as its companions.

The Thief

The Thief is known as such because he has lost his hand and his feet. Our guide informed us that if he were truly a thief and had lost his hand as punishment, he would not be buried in a church crypt unless he reformed and became part of the church later in life.

Morticians probably removed his feet (and possibly his hand) during burial because he was just too big for his coffin. While people come in all shapes and sizes, apparently coffins do not.

The Thief is about 300 years old, as are the other mummies in the crypt save for the Crusader.

The Crusader

The Crusader got his moniker from the way he’s buried, with his legs crossed at the knees, and from his age. No one is quite sure how he got down there since the crypts date to around 1685, but the Crusader is 800 years old! He was also very tall for the times—6’6″ which is tall by even today’s standards. So, perhaps his legs were crossed as a way to get him to fit into the coffin. At this point, we can only speculate.

Why are the bodies mummified?

Something about the dry air combined with the limestone tomb has created the perfect conditions for preserving the interred’s corpses, while deteriorating the wood of their caskets. It is sacrilegious to open a casket, and it is not allowed to photograph or disturb the tombs of those whose descendants are still alive. But for these unknown individuals whose coffins happened to split apart when stacked, revealing their bodies for all to see—well, it’s perfectly fine for us to gaze upon them and marvel at what their lives must have been like. They are still people, however, so respect is in order.

Other tombs in St. Michan’s

The tour does not end with the mummies! After leaving the crypt, our guide led us to another set of doors into another underground vault. Also filled with caskets, this particular crypt had a very famous set of residents: brothers Henry and John Sheares. The Sheares brothers were lawyers who visited Paris and became inspired by the French Revolution. Returning to Ireland, they plotted the Irish Rebellion of 1798, but were betrayed by a spy and arrested by the English in May of that same year.

The Sheares were tried for treason and executed by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. Our guide mentioned something about them being forced to watch their own entrails burn as well. Regardless it was gruesome. The original execution orders are on display in their crypt.

How to visit St. Michan’s mummies in Dublin, Ireland

St. Michan’s Church is open for tours year-round, but you do want to make sure you arrive within visiting hours (and plan to arrive about a half hour before closing).

November 1 through March 16:

Monday to Friday: 12:30pm – 3:30pm
Saturday: 10am – 12:45pm

March 17 through October 31:

Monday to Friday: 10am – 12:45pm / 2pm – 4:30pm
Saturday: 10am – 12:45pm.

Location

St. Michan’s Church is located at Church St, Arran Quay, Dublin 7 in Ireland
Phone: +353 1 872 4154

Pricing

Tours are not expensive. I don’t know the exact pricing as it does change from time to time. When we went, we paid €5 each. However, you will need to pay in cash, so make sure you go with some bills in your wallet.

Transportation

I took public transport which was not easy. I can usually find my way around any city, especially if the signage is in the same alphabet I’m used to, but Dublin’s transportation system is whack (sorry, Dublin).

That being said, here are the stops nearest the church:

By Luas (Tram): Smithfield or Four Courts (Four Courts is slightly closer) on the Red Line
By Bus: Get off at the Arran Quay or Merchant’s Quay stops (or if your bus goes to Four Courts, get off there). There’s about a dozen different buses that can get you there. For detailed information, visit moovitapp.com

Accessibility

The crypts are not accessible to anyone who has difficulty walking or difficulty walking on uneven surfaces, as you need to climb into a medieval vault via scary stone steps.

The post The Mummies of St. Michan’s appeared first on Homespun Haints.

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Episode Transcript

BECKY: Libraries can be very haunted places. They’re full of liminal spaces. They’re full of old haunted objects, A.K.A. rare books. And of course, as we all know, ghosts love to read. So it comes as no surprise that many libraries throughout the world are very haunted. We just heard on Monday about the Willard Public Library in Evansville, Indiana, and we spoke to the library assistant, Stacie Dotson, who works there. We learned about her experiences in this very, very haunted library. But this is not the only haunted library. We are going to go around the world and learn of libraries haunted by those who first tread on the land.

So it’s not just libraries that are haunted, it’s libraries that are haunted by the people that like actually lived there before the library was established.

Because think about it. Libraries are built on places, right? But those places were not necessarily always libraries.

Guess where we’re gonna go first, Diana?

DIANA: Dublin

BECKY: Yes.

DIANA: ‘Cause you just visited Dublin

BECKY: I did, and I didn’t know about this and I did not get a chance to visit it. I wish I had stopped by to see Marsh’s Public Library in Dublin, but I did not make it there.

DIANA: That wasn’t at your kids’ top of the list? “Mom, take us to a haunted library, please.” No?

Marsh’s Library, Dublin, Ireland

BECKY: Apparently, the ghosts tend to be seen at night and of course the library closes at night. They are offering some haunted tours through the month of October. We’re talking about Marsh’s Public Library in Dublin, Ireland. It is the first public library in Ireland. In fact, it’s one of the first public libraries in all of Europe. It was formally incorporated in 1707, over 300 years ago, and much of the library is exactly the same as it was since it was built.

They have preserved it. It’s beautiful, it’s beautiful. So it’s right next to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Again, a very historic area. It was commissioned by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh. He was the archbishop. He became Archbishop in 1694. And he founded the library on the grounds of his own residence. It was incorporated in 1707. But Marsh died in 1713.

The Hauntings at Marsh Library

Now here’s the story behind the hauntings—just one of the hauntings. There’s a lot of hauntings here, but the most famous is that of Marsh himself. Now remember, he died just six years after the library first opened its doors. Marsh’s niece, Grace, was under his care. He was her guardian, and when Grace turned 19, she fell in love with a sea captain and she wanted to marry him, but Marsh disapproved.

And so she did what any early 18th century archbishop’s niece would do. She eloped.

DIANA: At sea?

BECKY: Yes, at sea. Before she left though, she wrote a little note explaining why she did what she did and begging for forgiveness from her uncle, from Marsh. But she was worried that if she just left it downstairs, when he came downstairs, he’d see the note and he’d chase after her and she’d get caught.

So she wanted to hide it. She placed it somewhere in one of the books in the library. Now there’s thousands of books in this library. Even in 1707, there were thousands of books in this library. Marsh never found the note.

So he’s still there. And at night you might see his figure hunched over looking through the books. Wandering through the stacks, trying to find his niece’s note, still to this day, 300 years later.

The library cages

So Marsh haunts Marsh’s Library. He’s not the only ghost there. There’s a lot of ghost stories. Marsh’s Library is very haunted. Another creepy thing about this place is—even in the early 1700s they had rare books.

Actually, probably more so because they probably didn’t print as many copies as they do now, and they didn’t want their books running off. And the way they made sure you didn’t steal a book is, when you went in to read the book, they locked you in a cage with the book

DIANA: Wow. Now that’s a restricted section. Are you kind of like on display so everybody who walks by can watch you reading this book? Or is it like deep in a dungeon so they could like forget about you and you could be like, “the lights are out. Oh no, wait, let me out! I’m still here!”

BECKY: You’re in the oubliette of the library! No, no they’re between the stacks.

DIANA: Oh, okay.

BECKY: They’re still there. Some of them are still there, so you can go check it out.

DIANA: That’s phenomenal. They lock you in a cage!

And yes, Jonathan Swift haunts Marsh’s Library

BECKY: Some other famous ghosts of the library: Jonathan Swift. We all know Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels. He’s kind of like an Irish hero. He and his girlfriend, Stella, are buried next door at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, but they made death masks of their faces after they died. Swift’s death mask is still in the cathedral, but Stella’s is in one of those cages in Marsh’s Library.

DIANA: Why?

BECKY: It’s decoration, right? There’s a lot of statues and busts in these libraries. It’s pretty. I’m sure she was very pretty. So they go visit each other at night. So Swift comes to visit her in the library, in the cages, I guess. Would that be considered a conjugal visit if you’re like locked up? I don’t know.

A Conjugal Conjuring

DIANA: Conjugal conjuring.

BECKY: So good for you guys. You’re still, uh, you’re still getting it on.

DIANA: Keep the magic alive. Live next door. Die next door.

BECKY: They’re actually both buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. But because her death mask, the face, her bust or whatever is in Marsh’s library, that’s where the ghosts are seen. Again, that’s just some of the ghosts. The land that the library stands on was inhabited by plenty of people long before it was built. Long before it was the archbishop’s home, it had been home to like sort of these almost tenement type of homes outside of the city walls. And it was, it was not very good living conditions, so lots of spirits wandering these ancient halls.

We always hear that rumor that ghosts kind of dissipate after a few hundred years, but I don’t think that’s the case here.

DIANA: I imagine that ghosts would dissipate because the times changed so much that the ghosts can’t really fill the space in competition with the new. But in a library of old rare books that’s remained a property unchanged for hundreds of years, you would think that the ghosts wouldn’t know that time was passing and they’d just hang around. They wouldn’t feel like they’d been usurped.

BECKY: Well, the next place I’m going to tell you about is also very, very old. Dating back to the 1700s.

DIANA: Okay.

National Library of India

BECKY: Let’s go to another part of the world and venture to Kolkata, India. Here we are going to talk about. The National Library of India in Kolkata. This actual library was established in 1836 while India was still under Imperial Rule. And then after India gained independence, the library became a national library and was officially opened to the public in 1953. Another old building, but the building doesn’t date from 1836. It’s so much older than that.

Let’s go back another a hundred years before the building was a library. It was known as the Belvedere House, and was home to Warren Hastings, who was first an administrator in the East India Company and then became the first governor of the area, British Governor. Before it belonged to Hastings, it was the home to Mir Jafar, who actually built it in 1760. But he was forced to abdicate his throne, and he had to gift the property to Hastings. And he actually lived on the property after that. Apparently had a decent relationship with Hastings. I mean, his life depended on him, being nice to this guy.

DIANA: I’d make sure we had a decent relationship.

Hastings gets around

BECKY: Hastings became Governor General in 1773. And this was the year he challenged his legal officer, Philip Francis, to a duel over a woman. Hastings—Hastings got around. Man, he was banging the former queen. He was banging this lady. She was a Baroness, Marian von Imhoff, and apparently she was married.

She was a Baroness. So she was married to the Baron, who knew, who knew. He was completely aware that Hastings and Marion had this like relationship and he was totally cool with it.

DIANA: Marriage was very different back then.

BECKY: But Hastings was not cool with it when he found out that his legal officer, Phillip Francis, was also sneaking off to have a rendezvous with Marian when Hastings was busy.

DIANA: Okay, so wait. Two dudes that know each other had a duel over some other dude’s wife that they were both having sex with?

BECKY: Mm-hmm.

DIANA: Why? What? So sordid.

BECKY: So sordid. Hastings was a better shot and he shot Francis in the neck and Francis bled out to his death.

DIANA: Yikes.

Poor Francis

BECKY: There’s stories of, say Hastings tried to save his life, but the Ganges was too full of water and they couldn’t get him over and he bled to death, or he refused medical care. I don’t know. Anyway, he died. And their ghosts are still wandering the halls of this library. 250 years later. The legend has it that Hastings is looking for a black bureau. In this bureau, he believes, were some papers that would clear his name and prove his innocence, ’cause he did just murder this dude.

And he was banging the Baron’s wife, and other people’s wives. And he was just, he got around. I hate to think of what diseases that man had. So he’s wandering around looking for this bureau, this desk, to find these papers. He actually had his name cleared in life, but you know, ghosts, they forget things. So he’s looking around for this, but of course it’s not there because the building’s a library now, so he’s never gonna find it. He’s kinda like Marsh looking for that note in the thousands and thousands of books. Who knows if the note even exists?

DIANA: Right.

But wait, there’s more ghosts!

BECKY: That’s not the only ghost there. Legend has it that workers who were working on renovations to the building who died during renovations are still seen from time to time throughout the library.

There’s the ghost of a wife of another governor, Lady Metcalfe, who still roams the hall. She is a stickler for things being back their right place. So if you don’t put a book back or you leave it out, or you’re a little sloppy, she’ll breathe on your neck!

DIANA: That’s gotta be creepy, especially if you’re in a reading cage at the time. I know it’s different library, but still, I’m still picturing everybody reading in a cage from this point on.

BECKY: I imagine Kolkata is pretty hot, so if you get a cool breeze on your neck, and you’re inside, I imagine it’s probably nice.

DIANA: That’s pretty pleasant. I’d be angry at the ghost all the time; like, free air conditioning.

This is how haunted it is

BECKY: Apparently the place is so haunted that the guards who work there are armed with a copy of a very, potent hymn, The Hanuman Chalisa, which is used to shoe away any spirits that are lurking around; any spirits that they encounter.

It’s very well known throughout all of India that if you chant this Chalisa, Hanuman himself will come and help you out, in the case of very dire problems. And, it’s not just a devotional thing. It’s like you can use it if you’re in a grave danger. And Hanuman will come and be like, “Okay, all right, I got you.” So the guards have a copy of this on hand, just in case you see a ghost. They could be like, “Okay, we’re gonna sing this now.”

Listen to The Dormitory Demon of Mumbai on Homespun Haints.

DIANA: I love that.

BECKY: All right, Diana, are you ready to hear about the library that’s so haunted, it’s believed to be cursed?

DIANA: Should I chant anything?

BECKY: I don’t know. Do you know the Hanuman Chalisa?

DIANA: Oh, I think that’s a little extreme for this situation.

BECKY: I don’t know.

DIANA: I should probably just chant, “I ain’t afraid of no ghost.”

Peoria Public Library, Main Branch

BECKY: You will not want to become a director of this library, let’s just put it that way. Let’s go back to the Midwest US, because we’ve been traveling all over the world here. Now, we’re going to go back, not to Indiana, but to the state right next to it, to central Illinois.

Central Illinois is a very interesting place. It’s a such an interesting place. In fact, earlier this week we appeared on a YouTube channel called Mysteries of the Past and Present, and they are located in central Illinois. And boy does she have plenty of spooky stories that she’s able to garner just from that region.

So definitely check that out. Go to YouTube and check out Mysteries of the Past and Present. And while you’re watching that video, think about. Peoria.

Now Peoria is a very, very haunted town. A lot of people don’t think about Peoria when they think about hauntings, but Peoria is freaking haunted.

DIANA: Hmm. Really?

Something about Central Illinois

BECKY: Yeah, I don’t know what it is about central Illinois, but it’s very haunted. And here I’ll be talking about another public library, the Peoria Public Library in Peoria, Illinois. Now, the Peoria Public Library, of course, has multiple branches, I’m talking about the main branch. And a lot of people, when they think about the haunted Peoria Public Library, they think about the Lincoln branch because that’s the branch that looks like it could be haunted. All of these buildings I’m describing, The Willard Public Library, the National Library of India Marsh’s Library in Dublin, they all look like they could be haunted.

And the Lincoln branch of the Peoria Public Library, which was built in the early 20th century—and this is neoclassical architecture—also looks like it could be haunted, but that’s not the one that’s haunted. It’s actually the main branch that looks like a pretty modern building. I suspect they’ve added to it and modified it over time.

Before it was a library…

This building was built in 1894. Now before the library was built—we’re talking about the land that the library was on—there was a lady by the name of Mrs. Mary Gray, and she lived in a very nice little mansion on this property.

Depending on the accounts you read, she seems like she could have been just a victim of scoundrels or a pretty nasty woman. It just depends.

She was quite wealthy and she became caretaker to her nephew after the death of her brother. Doesn’t sound so bad, right?

But things began to go south for Mrs. Gray. Her nephew was always getting into trouble, always getting into trouble. Some accounts say that she hired a lawyer to make sure he couldn’t get hands on her inheritance. The account that makes most sense says that she hired a lawyer to continually bail her nephew out of jail, get him out of these sticky situations that he kept getting himself into, and she retained the services of a new up and coming lawyer. Mr. David Davis—yeah, that’s his name—to smooth things over with the law whenever the nephew got into a bind. And he was very good at his job, and he was very costly, and he bled Mrs. Gray dry.

That dang nephew

Eventually, it got to the point where she couldn’t make her payments and she had to use her house as collateral. Well, guess what? That nephew got into trouble. And Davis came back and she didn’t have money, and so he sued and took her house. Now, she was pretty pissed at her nephew at this point, so next time he came ’round, she kicked him out of the house.

DIANA: What house?

BECKY: It takes a while for ownership to transfer over and all. I think this is why the lawsuit is going on. She kicked him out. She kicked him out and then she lost the house, and then a few days later he was found dead floating in the river there.

DIANA: Uh oh.

BECKY: Yeah. So who knows? Who knows who did that? Well, Gray’s pushed out of her house and she is pissed. So in a fit of rage, what could she do? What do you think she did, Diana?

DIANA: Burned it down.

BECKY: That actually would’ve been really smart.

DIANA: No one can have this house!

A timeless curse

BECKY: That is pretty much what she did. She cursed the land. And all of its future occupants. Legend has it that once she did that, all of the gardens on the land just died. And Davis really couldn’t even do anything with the property. It just looked dead and sullen and nothing would grow. It was about then that the ghost of the nephew started showing up. Banging on the door to be let in. Well, apparently Davis got tired of it. Got tired of his tomatoes dying, got tired of the ghost banging on the door. So the city of Peoria got the house in 1894, knocked it down and built a library on top.

But she didn’t curse the house. She cursed the land.

BECKY: The first three directors died in short succession of one another.

DIANA: Oh no!

The Directors’ Deaths

BECKY: the first guy’s name was Wilcox. He was hit by a streetcar in 1915. The next guy named Prouse died from a heart attack during a board meeting in 1921. [giggle] I know we shouldn’t laugh.

DIANA: That’s, that’s an intense board meeting. “No, I do not approve this proposal!”

BECKY: Director number three, Wiley, ingested arsenic in 1924.

DIANA: Intentionally? Was it suicide?

BECKY: They say it was suicide.

DIANA: Hmm.

BECKY: Well, Wilcox, the first director loved the library so much that not even a Streetcar Named Desire could keep him away from his love. Oh wait. Wrong library. Anyway. Wilcox still haunts the halls of the Peoria Public Library.

It’s considered to be incredibly haunted. Everybody who works there has seen something. They see his face materialize in the doorways and then disappear. They feel cool spots on their skin. He sometimes will knock books off the shelf. He’ll sometimes move things around, chairs, scooching across the floor on their own. You know, typical Poltergeist activity. Is it just Wilcox? I don’t know. Is it the nephew? I don’t know. Is it the curse itself, bringing souls to the land to pay attention to what’s going on and to maybe be like voyeurs, like, “uh, who’s coming next?” don’t know.

DIANA: Does anything still happen at this library that’s completely creepy? Not the haunting part, but like the three directors that died? Are there more like unexplained deaths or tragedies or strange things that occur to people who work or work with this library?

Can curses expire?

BECKY: Not anymore. I mean, curses do have an expiration date, right?

DIANA: The curse wears off. The ghosts stay on.

BECKY: Yes.

DIANA: I like that. That’s a theory.

BECKY: That’s, that’s where we’re gonna go with this. Yeah. The curse wore off in, uh, let’s see, what’s 50 years after 1894? It would be 1944. Yeah.

DIANA: Yeah. Statute of limitations ran out.

BECKY: Well, she would’ve been somebody who knows a lot about legal procedures if she got bled dry by a lawyer.

DIANA: right? I wanna write a curse in legalese.

BECKY: Isn’t that what every contract with a demon kind of is?

DIANA: Ooh. Legally cursed contract with a demon. Okay. Okay. I like it.

BECKY: You’re basically exchanging your soul in exchange for something else. I mean, You’re cursed, you’re cursed to give your soul up at the end, there’s no getting out of it.

DIANA: Or is there?

BECKY: Well, I don’t know, we are not lawyers.

We are neither lawyers nor demonologists

We are certainly not demonologists or demonologist lawyers or lawyer demonologists, but we can offer our non-legal advice. Never get into a binding agreement with a demon.

DIANA: Right.

BECKY: Yeah, just don’t do it. don’t do it,

DIANA: And if you got into a binding agreement with a demon, when you were a minor, have it nullified. That should be possible.

BECKY: And if your guardians sold your soul to a demon without your consent, you can get out of that.

DIANA: That’s what we learned from Maddie and Amber and the show Reaper

BECKY: Yes, I loved Reaper! Yeah. We are not experts. We just play ones on this podcast.

DIANA: True. Legal disclaimer, we are full of shit.

BECKY: Don’t hold us liable , or we will curse the land.

Next haunted road trip?

Anyways. Diana, which of these libraries do you want to visit next?

DIANA: Oh, I’m going for the one with the cages. Dude, nothing you said after they make you reading cages could have possibly topped that. I’m gonna go read in a cage with a ghost death mask in it and maybe get locked in late at night and they’ll forget that I’m in the cage reading a book.

BECKY: Ooh

DIANA: I’ll get to watch ghost banging while I’m locked up in, The library in Dublin.

That sounds like a really spooky night. I, can’t wait.

BECKY: You know who was a frequent visitor to that library?

DIANA: Ooh. Ooh.

BECKY: Bram Stoker.

DIANA: Oh!

BECKY: I don’t think he’s still wandering those halls, but you know, you might get lucky.

Too many haunted libraries to talk about

DIANA: I’m excited. I wanna definitely see that library, but I really wanna see all the libraries that you described. And I thought it was interesting when you texted me while you were researching the haunted library angle and said, “Well, God damnit, there’s too many haunted libraries to do them all. So I’m gonna do a specific segment of haunted libraries that are libraries haunted by the original owners of the land?”

I was like, Yeah, that okay, that’s a good sub of haunted libraries to focus on.

BECKY: Diana, thank you so much for coming with me around the world.

A very literary journey through Ghost Land

DIANA: Thank you for schooling me about all these haunted libraries. You’ve been an excellent sexy librarian for the day.

BECKY: Well, Hainted Loves, we hope that you enjoyed this spooky literary session. I guess spooky story time In the cage of Desire, Stella! Sorry, I’m getting my literary references confused here.

DIANA: This is going in a tight clockwise circle down the drain. Reel it in! Hainted Loves, which of these libraries are you most excited to go haunt yourself? And have you ever been haunted in a library that you wanna tell us about? Enter in the comments below your own haunted library stories.

And of course, if you find yourself in a cage reading a book while ghosts bang next to you, you’re probably going to have a sexy, spooky day.

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