Ireland has nurtured a dark and gruesome history for thousands of years, as far back as human records have been kept. From the creation of dark religious practices, horrific mass deaths, the most haunted buildings in the world and the birthplace of some of the most sadistic other-worldy apparitions, it could be considered that maybe Ireland is even the most inhumanely cursed country in history.
If there was any question of that theory before, we propose another dark twist as proof. Looking to bring organisation to the chaos of Ireland’s horrid past, what if it was all part of a deathly design? A long ago planned set-up that channels and maintains the strength of evil…centred right here in Ireland.
The Halloween Capital of the World
Firstly, Ireland is already known as the Capital and origin of Halloween. It all began with celebrations of the end of harvest by Celtic pagans when they believed spirits could move between here and the afterlife. It wasn’t until hundreds of years later that Irish Christians created All Hallows Day when they prayed for spirits that had not yet reached heaven and instead still torturously walked the earth.
Modern day Trick or Treating also originated in Ireland where a poem or song was traded for a little cake bearing a cross. And ritualistic fires were used to protect homes and families from spirits, while at the same time practicing divination games like scrying, dream interpretation and mirror gazing to access the future telling capabilities of the spirit world.
But what if there was a grander design fueling the undercurrent of ghostly uneasiness that led to the growth of this darkly spiritualistic culture here in Ireland?
Cursed by Design
Through our research, we may have uncovered a whole series of scary coincidences, that paint a much darker picture.
The pentagram is a five pointed star highly regarded in Paganistic practices including here in Ireland.
A pentagram can be used to protect us from spirits or open a doorway to the spirit world. Each point of a pentagram has a meaning and linked to an element. The very top is Spirit. Moving clockwise, the right is Water, bottom right is Fire, bottom left is Earth and the left is Air.
When overlayed onto the map of Ireland, a pentagram can curiously line up with five major urban centres and rural areas. And with each city, there are a series of horrible histories that align to that element like below:
Water – Dublin: The Haunting of Little Mary Masters
Earth – Churchtown: Famine and the Wailing Banshee
Fire – Wexford: The Devil in Loftus Hall
Air – Galway: The Child Stealing Fairies
Spirit – Longford: The Demon of Battles
Read more to find out the haunted history of the five corners of Ireland. And one more secret that links all the evil together!
Water – Dublin – The Haunting of Little Mary Masters
Being a seaside city, one might expect that a water based horror story from Dublin may include a ghost ship or sirens calling sailors to their death but this story is much more gruesome.
What could be scarier than a curse of water able to strike anybody. One that would cause the water in your body to retreat and be slowly expelled through your mouth and wrectum to the point of severe dehydration resulting in sunken eyes, wrinkling appendages, the skin turning cold and blue and finally…an agonizing death.
In the 18th and 19th century, this was known as Cholera, an infectious disease that spread like wildfire in particular in Dublin due to overcrowded conditions, and is expected to have killed more than 65,000 people.
One such sad case, was one of a little girl named Mary Masters, seven, who died of Cholera in 1791 at the site of the Shelbourne Hotel, which she haunts to this day. She is regularly seen throughout the property playing tricks on guests and staff.
Fire – Wexford – The Devil in Loftus Hall
Loftus Hall, built at the time of the black death in 1350, is a dark and looming mansion that stands alone on a bleak landscape. And is infamous for having been haunted by the devil and said to be the most haunted house in Ireland.
In 1775, on a stormy night, the Loftus family welcomed a strapping young male guest in need of lodging into the house to spend the night. The story goes that one of the daughters, Anne, had grown infatuated with the young man. But one night during a game of cards with the family in the parlour room, Anne dropped a card on the floor. While bending down to pick it up, she looked across the floor and was horrified by a ghastly sight. Apparent protruding from the young man’s pant legs were cloven hooves.
When Anne jumped up to accuse him, angered at being identified, he instantly shot through the roof in a ball of flames. The young girl went mad and the family locked her away in the hall until her untimely death later that year. The horror of the flaming devil still imprinted on her soul. Today, you can pay to stay locked in the hall overnight…if you dare.
Earth – Churchtown – Famine and the Wailing Banshee
Churchtown a village in Co Cork, was originally called the Great House of the Pastureland in Gaelic. Anyone that has visited the South West of Ireland will agree it is lush with green fields and forests. Now it’s a gardeners dream but in the 17th and 18th century, it’s where nightmares came true. When the earth itself turned against it’s sowers.
Between the “Year of the Slaughter” in 1740-1741 and the Great Famine from 1845-1849 nearly 1.4 million people died from mass starvation across Ireland killing upwards of 20% of Ireland’s population. The latter caused by a rotting mould festering into potato crops nationwide.
Entire families perished together in their homes. Banshees, irish spirits, who wail and shriek in joy of the death of a family member and are linked to burial mounds and raised graves, would have wept with joy. And they can still be seen scouring the mounds, ruins, graves around The Bottle Tower in Churchtown. If you hear her weeping, turn away or else…
Air – Galway – The Child Stealing Fairies
The most legendary flying creature from Ireland is the fairy but don’t be misled by the Disney version, Tinkerbell. Fairies are mischievous and sometimes deadly. They are fascinated with beauty and are known to take children and replace them with their own children in the form of child only sickly and wrinkly. These are Changelings.
Children would be told by their parents to keep a piece of bread or sweets in their pocket to exchange with a fairy for freedom if captured. Throughout Ireland there are 60 000 fairy forts which are the remains of ancient dwellings and are in a protective circular pattern. Some have stone walls and others are covered in trees.
These are protected by the Irish government and cannot be destroyed. It’s said if you tamper with a fairy fort it will bring to you bad luck or death. There are 2 fairy forts near the town of Gort (which is Irish for meadow), County Galway. One is located near a place called Fairy Hill. You are free to see them but please do not touch.
Spirit – Longford – The Demon of Battles
In Irish folklore, Bocánaigh were airborne shrieking demons that haunted battlefields and areas of combat. The demon has a head shaped like a goat with horns and would cheer at the bloodshed below. For centuries many gruesome battles were fought in Ireland due to countless invasions of its shores by Vikings and Normans. On 8 September 1798 the last traditional land battle on Irish soil was fought in Ballinamuck, Longford which was more of a slaughter.
The Irish rebels and their French allies were outnumbered 10 to 1 against 15 000 British troops. The French surrendered and were taken captive but nearly all the Irish were hunted down, massacred and buried at Shanmullagh Hill. The rest were brought to Dublin and hanged including the brother of Wolfe Tone, widely regarded as the father of Irish republicanism. The Irish revolutionary spirit still lives on, especially in the north and therefore so do Bocánaigh.
The Centre of the Pentagram
Coincidence enough for the pentagram to line up to five centres of gruesome Ireland history, but at the heart of pentagram lies the greatest source of evil of them all.
Dead centre of the Pentagram is the little village of Coolderry, County Offlay and the home of the most haunted castle in the world, Leap Castle. Long before the castle was constructed, the ancient Druids considered it sacred ground and used it for ceremonies and rituals. They are believed to have placed and elemental spirit that still haunts the castle to this day and likely further fuels the elemental energy of the pentagram.
The O’Carroll Clan, a brutal and ruthless people, helped erect and occupy the castle in the early 1500s. With them came stories of horror and bloodshed. Many of their victims still haunt the castle like the priest who was slaughtered in what we now know as the bloody chapel. No less than 10 spirits haunt the place and current owner Sean Ryan says they regularly make known their presence but have never been harmful… recently. You are welcomed to visit the castle and take a tour, but tours abruptly end before dark. For good reason.
Is Ireland Really Cursed?
Come and find out for yourself…
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Thanks guys!
Larry and Chris
