Ghost Town

Marsh’s Library

Image taken from The Dublin Magazine Oct. 1923.

Copyright estate of Estella Solomons and Seumas O’Sullivan.  

Narcissus Marsh was the Archbishop of Dublin and founded this library at the beginning of the 18th century; it was the first public library in Ireland. His ghost is said to haunt his library, searching through the volumes held there for the letter left by his beloved niece Grace. Grace eloped from her uncle’s house at the Archbishop's Palace of St Sepulchre’s, leaving a letter for him in one of his many books, but according to legend he did not find it and the two remained estranged.  Strangely enough, however, both were buried in the same tomb in St Patrick’s Cathedral, so this particular legend may not have too solid a base in fact. But Marsh’s Library itself must surely be one of the most atmospheric places in Dublin. Read more »

The Brazen Head 1983

Image from the Dublin City Council Photographic Collection

There is a hostelry recorded at the site of the Brazen Head from the twelfth century, though the present building dates from the 1700s. Reputedly the oldest pub in Dublin, the Brazen Head has strong associations with Robert Emmet and is said to be haunted by him.  His writing desk is still on show in the pub. “Bould Robert Emmet” became a romantic figure because of his short life and violent death, when he was  executed for his part in leading the abortive 1802 Rebeliion. In Emmet’s famous speech from the dock he requested that he should not have his grave marked until Ireland was a sovereign nation; as a result of this the whereabouts of his body are still unknown. Read more »

Malahide Castle, 1793

F. Wheatly.

Image taken from Dublin City Library and Archive, Special Collections, Topographical Engravings

Malahide Castle is one of the  oldest castles in Ireland and is said to be inhabited by no less than five ghosts. These include the traditional White Lady, members of the Talbot family and Miles Corbett, the Roundhead who was granted the castle by Cromwell. But the most famous ghost is that of Puck, a jester who fell in love with one of the ladies of the castle and was found stabbed to death for his presumption. He has haunted the castle since his death in the 16th century.

From 1185 until 1975 Malahide Castle was home to the Talbot family, who sold it to the State. It is now open to the public. Read more »

The Watcher and Other Stories

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 

London 1894

For commercial reasons, almost all of Sheridan Le Fanu’s longer novels were set in England. However, he wrote a number of short ghost stories set in locations he knew from his youth. The writer was brought up at the Hibernian School in the Phoenix Park, and novels such as The House by the Churchyard are set in the nearby Ballyfermot and Chapelizod areas. This novel includes the story of the apparition of the ghostly hand at the tiled house in Ballyfermot. Le Fanu was a master of suspense and the horror of the unseen and unspoken. For years the editor of The Dublin University Magazine, he lived much of his life as a recluse and was known as the Invisible Prince of Merrion Square. His influence on later writers was a very significant one. Read more »

Henrietta Street, 1986

Image from The Dublin City Council Photographic Collection

Once one of the most elegant of Dublin Streets, by the 1900s Henrietta Street had become rundown and the legend of the lady at the window had taken root. She was seen at regular intervals, wearing  old-fashioned clothes and  looking out from an upstairs window in Number 13. By this time Henrietta Street was a street of tenement dwellings, a far cry from its heyday in the  1790s when no less than seven peers lived on the street and it had been the  home of four All Ireland Primates. The street was developed by the builder Luke Gardiner in the late 1720s, the first of Dublin’s great Georgian streets. Its significance has now been recognised and much work has been done to preserve its buildings. Read more »

Fiona Leaps the Bonfire

Patricia Lynch

London, 1957  

Fiona Leaps the Bonfire is a story by the well-loved children’s writer Patricia Lynch. Fiona is sent to look after her aunt Margaret who lives in a haunted house near a fairy thorn and an ancient fort, just at the time of the year when the veil between magic and reality is at its thinnest. She finds her way to the legendary world of Queen Maeve and Cuchulainn and returns to the present time to take part in the Hallowe’en custom of leaping the bonfire and making three wishes.  Now sadly out of print, this is a great Hallowe’en read for children.

The book is part of the Irish Children’s Book Collection, held as part of the Special Collections at Dublin City Library and Archive. Read more »