got very
W, and sent for a Mrs. Kelly. Mrs. Kelly, as soon as she saw her, said,
"My woman, you are dying," and sent for the priest and the doctor. She
died in an hour. After her death, as Montgomery neglected the children,
the landlord had them taken to the workhouse. A few nights after they
had gone, Mrs. Kelly was going home through the bogeen when the ghost
of Mrs. Montgomery appeared and followed her. It did not leave her
until she reached her own house. She told the priest, Father R, a noted
antiquarian, and could not get him to believe her. A few nights
afterwards Mrs. Kelly again met the spirit in the same place. She was
in too great terror to go the whole way, but stopped at a neighbour's
cottage midway, and asked them to let her in. They answered they were
going to bed. She cried out, "In the name of God let me in, or I will
break open the door." They opened, and so she escaped from the ghost.
Next day she told the priest again. This time he believed, and said it
would follow her until she spoke to it.

She met the spirit a third time in the bogeen. She asked what kept it
from its rest. The spirit said that its children must be taken from the
workhouse, for none of its relations were ever there before, and that
three masses were to be said for the repose of its soul. "If my husband
does not believe you," she said, "show him that," and touched Mrs.
Kelly's wrist with three fingers. The places where they touched swelled
up and blackened. She then vanished. For a time Montgomery would not
believe that his wife had appeared: "she would not show herself to Mrs.
Kelly," he said--"she with respectable people to appear to." He was
convinced by the three marks, and the children were taken from the
workhouse. The priest said the masses, and the shade must have been at
rest, for it has not since appeared. Some time afterwards Jim
Montgomery died in the workhouse, having come to great poverty through
drink.

I know some who believe they have seen the headless ghost upon the
quay, and one who, when he passes the old cemetery wall at night, sees
a woman with white borders to her cap[FN#2] creep out and follow him.
The apparition only leaves him at his own door. The villagers imagine
that she follows him to avenge some wrong. "I will haunt you when I
die" is a favourite threat. His wife was once half-scared to death by
what she considers a demon in the shape of a dog.

[FN#2] I wonder why she had white borders to her