The Project Gutenberg EBook of True Irish Ghost Stories, by St John D Seymour

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Title: True Irish Ghost Stories

Author: St John D Seymour

Release Date: November 20, 2004 [EBook #14099]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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TRUE IRISH GHOST STORIES

COMPILED BY

ST JOHN D. SEYMOUR, B.D.

AUTHOR OF "IRISH WITCHCRAFT AND DEMONOLOGY" ETC.

AND

HARRY L. NELIGAN, D.I.R.I.C.

1914

TO THREE LIVELY POLTERGEISTS W----, J----, AND G----, THIS BOOK IS
DEDICATED BY THE COMPILERS

FOREWORD

This book had its origin on this wise. In my _Irish Witchcraft and
Demonology_, published in October 1913, I inserted a couple of famous
17th century ghost stories which described how lawsuits were set on foot
at the instigation of most importunate spirits. It then occurred to me
that as far as I knew there was no such thing in existence as a book of
Irish ghost stories. Books on Irish fairy and folk-lore there were in
abundance--some of which could easily be spared--but there was no book of
ghosts. And so I determined to supply this sad omission.

In accordance with the immortal recipe for making hare-soup I had first
to obtain my ghost stories. Where was I to get them from? For myself I
knew none worth publishing, nor had I ever had any strange experiences,
while I feared that my friends and acquaintances were in much the
same predicament. Suddenly a brilliant thought struck me. I wrote out a
letter, stating exactly what I wanted, and what I did _not_ want, and
requesting the readers of it either to forward me ghost stories, or else
to put me in the way of getting them: this letter was sent to the
principal Irish newspapers on October 27, and published on October 29,
and following days.

I confess I was a little doubtful as to the result of my experiment, and
wondered what response the people of