The days when ghost stories were commonplace in Mayo

by Auld Stock

GHOST stories were commonplace in Mayo and other parts of Ireland long before radio, television and telephones came on the scene.

As youngsters we were advised not to go out after dark.

‘You never know who you might bump into,’ we were told.

Egans’ Gate, a short distance from Turlough village, was reputed to have its own private guardian, a tall headless creature who was said to terrify the most courageous men in the area.

‘The story about the strange man at Egans’ Gate is a lot of bunk,’ Peter McDonnell, Turlough, told me many years ago.

In the late 1940s the late Joe Scully and myself were walking across the lawn in Castlebar when we encountered a strange looking gentleman who was dressed in a very old fashioned suit.

The man carried a walking cane and had a terrier dog on a lead. The man spoke with an English accent and asked Joe and I if we could show him the road to Turlough.

Meeting this strange man wasn’t an incident we imagined. Joe and I were twelve years of age and it was broad daylight at the time.

The ghost of Lord Lucan? Perhaps. Lucan lived a few hundred yards from where Joe Scully and I met the man with the dog. We’ll never know.

Telling ghost stories was a popular pastime during long winter nights.

Tommy Moran lived in Saleen, Castlebar, opposite a glamorous lady named Betty Kenna, reputed to be the first female in Castlebar to wear slacks. No, she wasn’t a ghost even though some locals may have thought they were seeing things when she appeared wearing trousers.