Irish ghost stories are deeply intertwined with ancient Irish culture and mythology, with many tales going back to the pre-Christian days, sometimes retold in more modern forms. The old people had a great belief in the afterlife and in places where the world grew thin, or places where spirits could most easily pass from one realm to the next.
Many's the strange apparition and phantom that has accosted weary travelers on dark country roads, and these tales they shared with others as they went, warning and telling ghost stories of things stirring that had no right to move!
The most ancient Irish ghost stories are often the most unsettling, so when you listen to these tales this evening, think about all of those who came before and listened to them being told, perhaps in a drafty cottage or in a great hall, or even gathered around a peat fire when the world was younger and ghost stories were the doorway to those long gone into the dark valley to meet their maker.
There's nothing quite like a good ghost story to chill the blood on a dark evening around the fire, especially at times like October 31, Samhain, as it used to be called, when the darker half of the year begins. Few tales are quite as chilling as those that can be found on the Emerald Isle! Out of the mists and across the veil the unquiet spirits of those who came before stretch out their ghostly hands to tell their own stories through their encounters with the people of Ireland.
Comments