"...we should pass over all biographies of 'the good and the great,' while we search carefully the slight records of wretches who died in prison, in Bedlam, or upon the gallows."
~Edgar Allan Poe

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Newspaper Clipping of the Day



This odd little tale of ghosts that go bump--well, shriek--in the night comes from the "New Zealand Tablet," May 30, 1901:
The Wellington ghost seems to have taken a trip to Ireland, and settled down in the neighborhood of Nenagh. A correspondent writes: An affair of a decidedly mysterious nature has for the past fortnight or so kept, and is still keeping, the inhabitants of the districts of Bawn and Kilmore, a couple of miles from Nenagh, in a state of terror bordering on panic. It appears that on the night of March 1 a most unearthly shrieking noise awoke the inhabitants of the districts mentioned from their slumbers, and as it lasted intermittently for several hours, a party of investigation was formed, but although the noise continued during the time of search, now seeming quite close to the party, and again coming apparently from a distance of a couple of miles, the closest inquiry failed to elicit the cause. On Friday night, March 8, the uncanny disturbance was again renewed, and the now thoroughly alarmed country folk informed the police of the matter. On the following Sunday night a patrol, under Head Constable Horgan, was on duty in the neighborhood of Bawn, and distinctly heard cries of a most terrifying description. Matters became so serious that on the night of March 19 a force of 30 police, under District-Inspector H.P. Shiel and Head Constable Horgan, were in the neighborhood of Bawn, but though they remained out until the small hours of the morning their efforts to penetrate the mystery were fruitless.
I found no follow-ups to this article, so I have no idea how long the disturbance continued, or if the source for these unsettling sounds was ever found.

2 comments:

  1. Just one of those disturbances country-folk lived with in those days...

    ReplyDelete
  2. M. P. Shiel would've known what was shrieking.

    ReplyDelete

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