Irish Ghost Tales (20 page)

The news of this second strange happening at the prison travelled quickly and a fear of the night spread through the Liberties. This was compounded by the fact that many women who went out on their own at night around that time were attacked. One woman claimed that she had been attacked by the beast in Christ Church Lane while a pregnant woman was said to have had a miscarriage after an encounter with the beast in the same area. Due to the fear and terror engendered by the black pig, the lanes and alleyways surrounding Christ Church soon became a no-go area after dark.

The fear that haunted the Liberties soon spread to other parts of the city. People noticed that it was always young women who were attacked. Some of the girls who were attacked said that their attacker had the face of a pig. By this time Dublin was a deserted city at night-time, a city that trembled with fear as the long winter nights shrouded the unlighted streets of the Liberties and other areas. Eventually, the nights grew shorter and the attacks ended with the coming of late spring and summer. When autumn came around again, people hoped and prayed the evil monster would not return. November saw their hopes dashed; another young woman was attacked one foggy night. Her cries for help were heard and the attacker fled. However, the girl's story was that her attacker was ‘the black pig'.

Vigilante groups were formed in an effort to catch the Dolocher and, on one particular night, the patrons of a pub on Cook Street set out to kill every black pig they could find running loose on the streets of Dublin. The presence of the vigilantes seemed to force the Dolocher to lie low for a while, but he re-emerged to continue his reign of terror a year later with an attack on a woman at Fisher's Alley, beside Wood Quay. People grew fearful once again and some families barred their doors at night-time. A couple of weeks passed and a couple more women were attacked before the weather took a hand in things.

It was a late November evening and the weather was fine, so a blacksmith from the edge of the Liberties decided to take a walk to his favourite tavern on Thomas Street for a drink and a chat with his friends. Time passed quickly. Eventually the blacksmith decided it was time to go home. When he came out of the tavern, he discovered it was raining. He had brought no coat with him, so he returned to the tavern owner for the loan of something to keep the rain off. The tavern owner gave him a long hooded cloak belonging to his wife. The blacksmith set off to walk home through the dark streets and alleyways of the Liberties. He had just reached the end of a dark alleyway when a figure sprang at him and attempted to punch him to the ground. In a flash, he realised that his attacker was the black pig and the black pig realised that this was no frail woman. Within a few minutes, the blacksmith had his attacker on the ground and had pulled off the black pig's head mask the man was wearing.

By this time, three or four men had arrived on the scene. They were in no way gentle with the perpetrator as they dragged him to his feet and brought him to the police station. The next morning the man was identified. The blacksmith had delivered a fatal blow to his attacker, who was identified as the missing sentry. Before the man died, he confessed to aiding Olocher in his suicide and orchestrating the slaughter of the pigs. He had spread the rumour of the black pig himself, taking advantage of the resulting atmosphere of fear and superstition to attack and rob the innocent women of the Liberties. In some ways, he was Dublin's Jack the Ripper.

In the townland of Muckduff or
Muc Dhubh
, which means ‘black pig', there is a large mound. It is believed to be the grave of a giant black pig. The story of how the pig came to be buried there starts in south Donegal, where an evil spirit took possession of an old pig. Once the pig had been taken over by the evil spirit it, began attacking and eating local people. A band of local hunters set out on a mission to kill the pig. They chased it from County Donegal down into County Sligo, eventually arriving at Lenadoon, Easkey, County Sligo, where it disappeared into the sea. Thinking it had been killed, the hunters headed back home to County Donegal.

The pig eventually surfaced at Enniscrone, where it came ashore and started killing the local people. However, the locals armed themselves with long-handled pikes and fought back. They chased the pig until they caught and killed it in a place that now bears its name,
Muc Dhubh
. Unfortunately for one of the townspeople, it was discovered that the pig was covered in poisonous hairs that could kill a person, so the local people to decide to bury it where it fell by simply covering it with large amounts of stone and earth.

T
he black cat also features widely in Irish folklore; there are tales of spectral cats, such as the
cat sidhe
, talking cats and shape-shifting cats. A traditional Irish greeting upon entering the house was, ‘God save all here, except the cat.' This was because of cats' association with evil. Strangely, it was considered lucky for a stray cat to enter the house.

This poem is about an incident that occurred in an army barracks in Kilkenny in 1798. There is some dispute about the poem and other versions have been put forward.

There once were two cats from Kilkenny; each thought there was one cat too many.

So they fought and they fit and they scratched and they bit

And instead of two cats, there ain't any!

The viciousness of the fight has lived on in the folk memory and the phrase ‘to fight like a Kilkenny cat' is still used to this day for a particularly tenacious fight.

A cat sitting with its back to the fire is a sure sign of bad weather.

It was once believed that the bite of a cat was poisonous.

It's a sign of bad luck to meet a magpie, a cat or a lame woman on a trip.

In mythology, the cat was believed to have great influence on the weather. Witches who rode on storms took the form of cats. The dog, an attendant of the storm king Odin, was a symbol of the wind. Cats came to symbolise downpours of rain and dogs came to symbolise strong gusts of wind. This may be where we got the phrase, ‘It's raining cats and dogs.'

Sailors used cats to predict how their voyages would be. Loudly mewing cats meant that it would be a difficult voyage. A playful cat meant that it would be a voyage with good and gusty winds.

Some people believe that cats are able to see the human aura, which is the energy that surrounds the human body.

It was believed that cats could see spirits and ghosts.

A black cat crossing one's path by moonlight means death in an epidemic.

Some believed that black cats carried demons.

If a funeral procession encountered a black cat, people believed that another member of the family would soon die.

Druids thought black cats were people who had committed indiscretions in a previous life.

Some believe black cats are witches in disguise; others that black cats are witches' familiars.

It is believed also that if a black cat is killed and a bean placed in its heart, the beans that grow from the soil were the cat is buried will confer extraordinary power; if a man places one in his mouth, he will become invisible.

The Druidical or royal cat, the chief monarch of all the cats in Ireland, was endowed with human speech and faculties. It was said to possess great and singular privileges. It is described as ‘a slender black cat, wearing a chain of silver'.

The fear of cats, especially black cats, started in Europe during the Middle Ages – England, in particular. It was the cat's independence, wilfulness, stealth and the eyes that shone in the dark that put people on edge. With the explosion of rats at this time came an increase in the cat population. These cats were often fed by poor, lonely old women who were then accused of witchcraft. The cats were considered their familiars.

Some people believed that the cat had supernatural powers and could hypnotise you.

To kill a cat brings seventeen years of bad luck.

In England and mainland Europe there was a superstition that if a cat was built into a house wall it would protect the house from rats and evil influences.

The cat represents guardianship, detachment and sensuality. The goddess Brigid had a cat as a companion. Because the cat was associated with the goddess and the feminine, it was sometimes perceived as ‘unholy'. The cat's ability to see and work in the spirit world makes it an ideal ally for a magician. The Church's fear of such powers resulted in the torture and death of thousands of cats in Britain and France. It was when Pope Gregory IX announced a link between the cat and the devil in the tenth century that persecution of the cat became widespread. It has been suggested that this persecution actually contributed to the devastation of the Black Death (bubonic plague) in the twelfth century because of the huge increase in rats. In the thirteenth century Pope Innocent VIII ordered that every cat in Christendom be slaughtered because of their supposed supernatural powers. It has been suggested that this was because of their association with paganism. However, there are those who consider a black cat to be a symbol of good luck.

T
his horned, bearded, cloven-hoofed mammal (genus
Capra
) appears often in Celtic traditions, usually representing fertility.

In Irish folklore, a
bocánach
is a goat-like supernatural being or demon that haunted the battlefield and shrieked over the warriors. It was often associated with the
bánánach.
Bocánachs
shrieked in the air when Cú Chulainn fought Ferdia.

The
glaistig
is a water fairy and is part seductive woman, part goat. She tries to hide her goat-like attributes under a long, flowing green dress. She lures men to dance with her before she feeds, vampire-like, on their blood. Her nature is typically fairy-perverse for she can also be benign and sometimes cares for children or old people. She will occasionally herd cattle for farmers. The
glaistig
was a solitary supernatural being, known in both the Scottish Highlands and Ireland. Some believed she could also appear in human and animal form. Her skin was grey, and long golden hair fell about her body. Like many of the fairy races, she was often seen clothed in green.

She frequented lonely loughs and rivers and is sometimes described as a half-earth, half-water sprite, although her name literally means ‘water imp'.

In one aspect she even takes the role of the banshee, wailing at the death of important people. She was also thought of as a trickster, throwing stones and leading travellers astray. She was closely linked to cattle and in some forms is seen as a herder of domestic cattle and wild deer.

Libations of milk were poured for her, especially on bullaun stones (often regarded as sacred in their own right). This veneration may be linked to older fertility customs. It is easy to speculate that the
glaistig
's roots are as a goddess guardian of cattle and the fertility of the herd.

Puck Fair can attribute its roots to Irish folklore and the story of King Puck. The story goes that many years ago Oliver Cromwell's men were plundering the areas of Kilogonet and Shanara near the base of Kerry's MacGillycuddy's Reeks, when they came upon a herd of goats, which fled into the hills. The head male goat, ‘Puck', went in a different direction to the herd, making his way instead towards the town of Killorglin. His distraught appearance in the town gave the residents warning of the coming danger, the people had time to protect themselves. They were so thankful to Puck for his help that they decided to honour him with a festival and so Puck Fair was born. It has been held every year since.