Irish Ghost-Lore. 35 



and prayer. He fasted four days, " reading " all the time, and the 

 ghost appeared to him. He then compelled the ghost to enter a 

 bottle, but without saying a word to him. " The Word " was 

 sufficient, says my informant. The priest then banished him in 

 the bottle to the Red Sea, where he is to remain for the rest of 

 his " natural life," which was explained to mean " as long as there 

 were people living on the earth." 



There is said to be a tombstone in Newtownbreda Churchyard 

 laid flat on a grave. This covers the bones of a man who said 

 that whatever was done he would not rest quiet in his grave. His 

 wife was resolved that he should, and laid a heavy stone above 

 him. But the restless ghost is always struggling to escape, and, it 

 is said, has already broken two tombstones, and by this time has 

 succeeded in cracking a third. 



A servant girl told me that there is a ghost laid in Ballydrain 

 Lake. She did not know much of the story ; but it seems this 

 ghost used to appear frequently to a Roman Catholic girl who 

 lived near the lake. She complained to her priest, who asked her 

 where she would have it laid. She told him to lay it in the lake, 

 and it was laid there. Many are afraid to pass the place after 

 dark. 



From the same girl I got an account of the best known of all 

 our local ghosts — James Haddock. She gave me the traditional 

 account ; but as she told me she got it " from a newspaper, and 

 also from hearing people talk about it," I cannot be sure that the 

 tradition is still current in the countryside. 



James Haddock, of Drumbeg, at his death, told his wife to 

 keep his farm till his son was twenty-one, and then to hand it 

 over to him. Instead the wife remarried, had a second family, 

 and with them continued to live on the farm. At this Haddock 

 came to a man whom he met on horseback on the road, and told 

 him to tell her to do as he had desired. If she refused, the 

 messenger was to tell her "that he (the ghost) would wreck the 

 whole place." The ghost got up behind the rider to tell him this. 

 At first the man did not go, and Haddock appeared to him 



