Month: October 2023

From the Daily Express, 23 January 1890:

“A HAUNTED HOUSE IN DROGHEDA

(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT)

Drogheda, Wednesday

At the Quarter Sessions to-day, before his Honor Judge Kisbey, a very amusing case was heard.  It was a process brought at the suit of Miss Weir against Mr Kinney to recover a quarter’s rent, £5 15s, for a house, her property, situate at the Marsh, Drogheda.

The defendant was examined and stated that he moved into the house on a Monday night.  They heard noises in it on the read more

There are few reports of members of the Irish bar witnessing a ghost, but the story of Edmund Lenthal Swifte, called to the Irish Bar in the early years of the 19^th century, is the exception that proves the rule.

Mr Swifte, whose obituary in the Irish Law Times of 1876 records him as 99 years old at the date of his demise, four times married, and with twenty-eight children, the eldest of whom was 74 at the date of his death, had by 1817 forsaken the Law Library in the Four Courts for the post of read more

From the Belfast Morning News, 24 September 1863:

“A TALISMANIC RELIC’

An extraordinary case was heard at last Loughgall Petty Sessions, county Armagh.  A woman named Sarah Hagan charged her husband, James Hagan, with having assaulted her and threatened her life, at Ballywilly, in Armagh.  He became the possessor of a strange relic, ‘a dead man’s finger!’ when or how is not material; but its possessor seems to have used it for very bad purposes, his wife having sworn that he kept read more

From the Galway Express, 7 December 1912:

“At a special court held at Lucan on Monday, Mr Vernon Russell, described as a member of the Irish Bar, living in Leeson Street, Dublin, was charged with attempting suicide by jumping into the Royal Canal.  After evidence the defendant was returned for trial to the County Commission, bail being allowed.”

Mr Russell’s trial a few days later was recorded in the Freeman’s Journal of 11 December 1912:

“Vernon Russell, a young man, pleaded not read more

From the Drogheda Argus and Leinster Journal, 10 November 1877:

“The Prime Minister Mr Gladstone spent Tuesday in visiting various places of interest in Dublin.  Having inspected the graving dock at Dublin Port, the party returned towards the city, Mr Gladstone proceeding alone to St Michan’s Church, where he was joined by Lord Monck. 

The church is remarkable in many ways.  The registry dates back to 1636 and contains the entry of the baptism of Edmund Burke.  The Church read more