He told more about it to the priest than to others. He certainly had a secret to tell. He might as well have divulged it frankly, for the neighbours all knew well enough that it was the face of dead Ellen Coleman that he had seen. – J.S. Le Fanu
I felt a strange creeping sensation as I looked up the vast black staircase, wide enough for a coach to drive down, and at the heavy darkness bending over it like a curse. – Rosa Mulholland
On and on he glided, like an evil shadow, the very darkness seeming to loathe him as he passed. – Oscar Wilde
To walk through Irish history is to pass through a haunted landscape. Perhaps that’s why so many of Ireland’s finest writers found themselves drawn to the ghost story. This collection includes the work of canonical figures like Bram Stoker, J.S. Le Fanu, Oscar Wilde, and W.B. Yeats, but also a wealth of lesser-known authors like Charlotte Riddell and Rosa Mulholland who were once bestsellers but are now unjustly neglected, all with a keen sense of Ireland’s haunted character.
Each story in this collection is presented with its original publication details, so readers can see exactly where and when it first appeared, and a brief biography of its author. Together, they offer a fascinating cross-section of Ireland’s literary relationship with the supernatural.
Contents of the book include:
The Headless Horseman by Thomas Crofton Croker
Leixlip Castle; An Irish Family Legend by Charles Robert Maturin
A Vision of Purgatory by William Maginn
The Ghost and The Bone Setter by J.S. Le Fanu
The Fate of Frank M’Kenna by William Carleton
The Pot of Tulips by Fitz-James O’Brien
The Ghosts and the Game of Football by Patrick Kennedy
The Ghost at the Rath by Rosa Mulholland
Squire Toby’s Will by J.S. Le Fanu
The White Cat of Drumgunniol by J.S. Le Fanu
Far Darrig in Donegal by Letitia McClintock
Walnut Tree House by Charlotte Riddell
The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly by Rosa Mulholland
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
The Sexton of Cashel by David Russell McAnally
Teig O’Kane and the Corpse by Douglas Hyde
The Last of Squire Ennismore by Charlotte Riddell
The Judge’s House by Bram Stoker
The Secret of the Growing Gold by Bram Stoker
Daniel Crowley and the Ghosts by Jeremiah Curtin
The Dead Smile by Francis Marion Crawford
A Playhouse in the Waste by George Moore
The Banshee’s Halloween by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh
The Ghosts by Lord Dunsany
The Highwayman by Lord Dunsany
The Curse of the Fires and of the Shadows by W.B. Yeats
The City on Mallington Moor by Lord Dunsany
Courage by Forrest Reid
