Mr. E. J. M l Kean on Irish Ghost-Lore. 33 



place near Dungarvan, County Waterford, and the Waterford man 

 above-mentioned told me she haunted a road near the town. So 

 strong and fierce was she that she would kill passers by at her 

 caprice. She also at times jumped up on a horse's back behind 

 butter kegs going to the market, and so heavy was she that she 

 sometimes killed the horse. At last a priest laid her " by his 

 calling," and she is now at the Red Sea making ropes of sand. 



Dublin has a copious ghost-lore, but I was unfortunately not 

 much with those who could best tell me it. For this reason I 

 have been obliged to pass over many tales as worthless to me 

 because I know nothing of their origin, or because they are 

 obviously either made or moulded by educated persons. Still, 

 one fine day late in October, 1903, I walked up past Glasnevin 

 Cemetery, and found a labourer leaning against the bridge over 

 the Tolka. He after some time yielded me up the following two 

 stories : — 



There was a house near Glasnevin supposed to be haunted. 

 Some people took it, and one evening when a little girl was there 

 alone a man, or woman, in white came out of a door of one of the 

 rooms and blew at her. The child pined and died. The tenants 

 got a priest to come and say Mass in the house, and since then it 

 has been quite safe. 



He also told me that his grandfather, who lived to be over a 

 hundred, said that once in his youth he knew a man named Mike 

 (I am not quite certain of the name). This man had a piece of 

 land near Glasnevin, and employed there a labourer named John 

 Byrne, who was with him a long time. This Byrne had a 

 daughter who died. Some four years after her death Mike was 

 going along the road to his field, and, as he thought, passed the 

 girl. He wondered, but went on. On his return he again met 

 her, and said, " In the name of God, is that Maggie Byrne ? ' ; 

 " It is," said the girl. " But I thought you were dead." " I have 

 been dead four years : but don't be afraid ! Take your boots off, 

 turn them upside down, and stand on the nails." She then asked 

 him to do for her some commission, which he never told ; and she 



