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belfastandirishghoststories · 6 years

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Ghostly Hitchhiker on the M1

Opened in July 1962, the M1 made a quare difference for drivers making their way to Belfast from Lisburn and vice versa. It minimised their driving time dramatically and was the height of sophistication to have one of those big ‘highways’ like they did in America.

Of course being in Northern Ireland, it wasn’t long before the stuff of old myths and legends grew around something new, like ancient ivy over new brick work. It all transpired when two years after the M1 was built, with a man by the name of William Nesbitt.

William could be described as a man of refinement and teetotal for that matter. He was making the drive on New Year’s Eve along the stretch of motorway that connects Stockman’s Lane and Broadway. It was along here that he spotted a young woman on the hard shoulder, for which he described as being in her late teens/early twenties.

First part of M1 opened in July 1962

The woman looked like she was looking around, waiting for someone to pick her up. Mr Nesbitt pulled over to offer her some assistance, he opened the car door and she got in. He asked her if she would like dropped off anywhere in particular, did she need to use a phone. There was no answer and as he turned around to look at her, there was no girl sitting in his car. She had completely disappeared, and left nothing but a icy coldness in the car. This ghostly hitch hiker obviously had other places to be!

This phantom hitchhiker is reputed to be a nurse that was killed on the M1 not long after it had opened. She has appeared to people for lifts from 1960′s to 1980′s. It was reported in 1977 that she talked to her driver about the tragic affair of car accidents. Another driver picked her up for her to disappear, for him to see her flagging her hand out for a lift again a couple of miles down the motorway on the same car journey!

Perhaps she is eternally bound by her sense of duty, trying to get to work to nurse her patients. Maybe she serves a wraith reminder to be careful on the roads. Who knows, you could be lucky enough to ask her if she flags a lift from you if you’re driving down the M1.

Until next time, sleep tight...

Sources:

https://digitalfilmarchive.net/media/the-m1-ghost-story-2136

http://www.belfastforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=21060.1785

Ghostly Tales of Old Belfast by John Graham (on Kindle Store)

Photos:

http://lisburn.com/archives/info/news-2007/motorway-driving-in-lisburn.html

#belfastghoststory #irishghoststory

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belfastandirishghoststories · 6 years

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Haunted Bridges-Queen’s Bridge

A device which enables one to get from one place to the next, could a bridge pose as a metaphor for making the journey from one life to the afterlife? What if one is caught in that constant loop of making this journey over and over, which we may ponder is the case of the ghostly case at Queen’s bridge. Maybe walking over a bridge on a dark, lonely night is what attracts ethereal visitors to make themselves known to us?

We start our tale in Belfast circa 1910, where it was a common site to see labourers making their way to work to the local shipyard, Harland and Wolff. Business was booming for the ship industry at this time. One particular worker was making his way to Harland and Wolff over the Queen’s bridge, to which he spotted an unusual looking man in a long black cloak across the road. As the worker turned to point out the strange looking geezer to one of his friends, the strange looking man in the cloak had disappeared without a trace.

Alarmed and assuming the worst, both the man and his friend looked over the balcony of the bridge for signs of the man having jumped to his death. He reported his concern to a local policeman patrolling the area that he believed a man had jumped off the bridge into the Lagan. The policeman informed the labourer and his friend that this was one of many mysterious sightings reported to him that week of the disappearing man in the black cloak.

Queen’s Bridge

The young labourer asked around work at the shipyard if anyone had experienced anything similar to that at Queen’s bridge. Of course he just got laughed at and raked (made fun of) for seeing ghosts as was to be expected amongst a group of burly men back in the earlier part of the 20th century. However some weeks later, a worker with a reputed status as a local tough guy or ‘hard man’ came up to the labourer to say he saw the man on Queen’s bridge with the long coat, who appeared to jump but left no trace in disappearing. The other workers were either too afraid or too convinced by the local hard man’s account to the point they all kept watch for the mysterious man in the black cloak on Queen’s bridge, but no-one saw him again after this.

Fast forward a few months later, a local constable on parole saw a man who appeared to be acting suspiciously at the Queen’s bridge, a certain man wearing a long black cloak. The constable hid to observe what the man was doing, preparing to make his arrest once he witnessed what the man was indeed up to. The man in the black cloak took a leap over the edge, to which the constable ran after him!

Peering over the edge, there was no sight of the man in the water, nor the sound of any splashing. The constable reported the incident and a search was conducted. No body had shown up, nor were there any more reports of the mysterious man in the black cloak.

Bear in mind, the next time you're taking a stroll or drive over Queen’s bridge, beware the sound of a splash on a dark night. Look out for any dark silhouettes in dark shadows. You never know who could be waiting to jump out at you, or in this case, jump off the bridge for you...

Until next time, sleep tight...

Sources:

Belfast Ghost Guide by Joe Baker and Michael Liggett. Available to download at: http://www.belfasthistoryproject.com/belfastghostguide/

Photos: http://archiseek.com/2014/queens-bridge-belfast/

#belfastghoststory #irishghoststory #belfast

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belfastandirishghoststories · 6 years

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Milltown City Cemetery, Falls Road

When it comes to graveyards, the opinion is divided as to whether you’ll come across anything of a supernatural nature. Some believers in the paranormal say that you are not likely to see a ghost in a graveyard, as they are more attached to people and the places they loved in life. The latter group of believers will argue that graveyards are a hive of paranormal activity. In fact I even have a friend who has founded their own paranormal research group and they are forever showing me footage suggesting that the graveyards they have researched are very much active and haunted.

Without a doubt graveyards are enigmatic places, they definitely possess an atmosphere of intrigue and perhaps a creepy vibe which would make the most discerning of minds run amuck if walking alone through one on the darkest of nights! One such place local to Belfast can be found on the Falls Road, otherwise known as Milltown City Cemetery.

Before we get down to the ghosts and ghouls, let’s start with some interesting facts. Milltown Cemetery was founded on 1st August 1869 due to the ever growing population rate of Belfast. Both denominations of the Catholic and Protestant faith were buried here, in fact there are underground walls within the cemetery that were to divide each plot of land according to religion. I kid you not. Even in death, religious segregation was prominent and taken seriously in the 19th century.

These nine foot underground walls also separated a plot set aside for the Jewish community in 1916. It is said that some of the plots were non-consecrated ground. Paupers were buried here, as were the rich and famous. The first members to be buried were two pauper girls. Mortality rates amongst children were significantly higher in the 19th century due to there being a vast amount of poverty, no National Health Service and poor diet, amongst other factors such as children being made to work long gruelling hours from a young age.

Poverty was rife, leading to high death rates among children.

Daniel Joseph Jaffe rests in Milltown Cemetery, the funder and founder of the first synagogue in Great Victoria Street. His son Otto Jaffe was one of the many Lord Mayors of Belfast, who erected a fountain memorial in his father’s honour which can be seen outside Victoria Square today. Daniel Joseph Jaffe was also an active philanthropist and successful linen merchant. However being Jewish made him the target of anti-semitism, leading to his gravestone being vandalised. It is said that the ghost of Daniel Joseph Jaffe stills haunts passer’s by out of wrath for the vandalism directed at his gravestone.

Daniel Jospeh Jaffe’s Memorial

Another tale is retold by a pharmacist working near Milltown City Cemetery who got chatting to a man who came in with a prescription of painkillers. This man is called John and he was meeting his girlfriend at the graveyard for a carry-out of beer and vodka.

John made his way through the graveyard and sat down against a grave marked with the inscription ‘Charles Abernethy...died 19th September 1933′. He opened a cold beer and sat back to enjoy the remaining sunset of that cool winter’s evening. It was then he felt the ground open up and move from beneath, trailing him beneath the soil.

The more he tried to sit up, the more the earth swallowed him up. His mobile phone rang, his girlfriend wondering where he was. He could do nothing but hit the answer button, and hope for someone to come and find him. For this point the gravestone fell on top of him, pushing him further into the darkness the dirt blinding his eyes, blocking his ears, suffocating his airways into dark silence...

Police eventually found him from reports of him being missing from the hostel and a very concerned girlfriend on their case to find her boyfriend. It took a crane to pull the gravestone off John and he was brought to A&E, hence winding up telling the pharmacist his tale while waiting for his painkillers!

What could have possibly happened to John? Did he happen to sit on a crumbling 9 foot underground wall? Did he get sucked into the dark depths of a grave, controlled by the spirit of Charles Abernethy who sought to punish for his lack of temperance on the resting place of the dead? No-one will truly know, but he is very lucky that he was found!

Milltown City Cemetery, Falls Road

Another tale occurred just outside the cemetery, of a woman who got ran over by a black taxi on one wet and dark December’s day. People driving past the cemetery around the same time of year see a young woman run in front of their car and get knocked down. Thinking they’ve ran someone over, they get out of their vehicle to see no sign of anyone there.

One of the things I love about Belfast is there is always something slightly more unusual in its way of life-and perhaps in its way of the afterlife too. I will leave you with a parting article which puts one in mind of the phrase, ‘if only gravestones could talk...’ The following can be found in the Public Records of Northern Ireland (PRONI) archives. It was published in the Irish News. Until next time, sleep tight....

“Wednesday, July 28th 1926 PHOTOGRAPHING SPIRITS Remarkable Service in Belfast Cemetery Our Belfast correspondent states that unusual scenes were witnessed at a Service held yesterday at the City Cemetery under the auspices of the local Christian Spiritualists' Association. The Service took place around the grave of Mrs McDermott, mother of Mr John McDermott, medium of the Association, who died about three weeks ago. Upwards of a hundred spiritualists, some of them carrying cameras, wre present and during the singing photographs were taken. Mr McDermott conducted the Service, which consisted of prayer, singing and an address. Mr. Edwin Graham, secretary of the Association, explained that the Service was purely evangelical, and that many photographs had been taken with the object of photographing the spirits of departed friends of persons present at the grave. "It is a very hard thing," he added "to obtain spirit photographs". He added that when the photographs were developed, in a day or two, they would know whether they had succeeded in their object. Mr Graham explained that a special Service for Mrs McDermott had been held previously in the Hall. She was a native of Glasgow but had been in Belfast for the past year”

Sources:

http://watchinghorrorfilmsfrombehindthecouch.blogspot.com/2012/04/belfast-city-cemetery.html

https://www.paranormaldatabase.com/hotspots/belfast.php

https://www.irelandbeforeyoudie.com/top-10-famous-people-buried-in-belfast-city-cemetery/

https://discovernorthernireland.com/Belfast-City-Cemetery-Belfast-P25366/

https://sluggerotoole.com/2017/04/29/the-dead-are-rising-from-their-graves-in-west-belfast/

http://www.belfastforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=21060.1320

http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article/550/otto-jaffe

http://britishgenes.blogspot.com/2014/10/pronis-spiritualist-photos-and-my.html

Photos:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/offsite/?token=501-585&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsuddendenouement.com%2F2017%2F09%2F27%2Frecombinant-selves-a-collaborative-of-11-writers%2F&pin=744571750866039804&client_tracking_params=CwABAAAADDkzODk3NjQ3MDY5OAA~0

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jaffe_Fountain_-_Victoria_Square,_Belfast_-_panoramio_(4).jpg

https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/1967927/belfast-city-cemetery#view-photo=30152870

#belfastghoststory #irishghoststory #belfast

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belfastandirishghoststories · 6 years

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Grave Talk in Donegall Road

Rumours and legends have a stronghold in being carried for generations, perhaps they are the spirit of facts that live on through the years. One such rumour is that Sandy Row was built upon an ancient grave yard. I have been told this by both my mother and father and passed it off thinking there is no real concrete evidence to it until one day I decided to research it.

Apparently, there is truth within the rumour. A woman years ago, (like when your Grandmother was a child) spent time in a gatekeeper’s house house down the road from the old playground in Sandy Row. In this house objects would mysteriously move across the ledge of the fire place, drawers would open and close, moans and groans would even be heard!

When work was started on the railway in this direction, the old playground was demolished. When the ground was dug up, bones were discovered. The workers discovered they were standing amongst numerous bodies of an ancient graveyard. Records state that the ‘Board of Guardians’ who were founded in 1841 were in charge of a graveyard in this area.

Perhaps it was a mass grave for the poor, cholera victims or both? Maybe they fancied making themselves known sliding ornaments along mantlepieces, opening and closing drawers, moaning in people’s ears, chilling the bones of the living...

A modern day photo of where I’m told the entrance of where the old playground used to be

Sources:

http://www.belfastforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,21060.msg691686.html#msg691686

http://www.belfastforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=21060.1770

Photo:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Donegall+Rd,+Belfast/@54.5887221,-5.9463414,3a,75y,358.81h,82.24t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sP8ILubPdSbKyJNoRlyKmMQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x4861088c6f73307b:0xce96bdbbabc24a16!8m2!3d54.5889063!4d-5.9514204

#belfastghoststory #hauntedbelfast #irishghoststories #IrishGhostStory

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belfastandirishghoststories · 6 years

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Banshee-what is her story?

The ‘beane-sidhe’, or as we know her, banshee. The very mention of the name strings to mind a hag with long white hair, a menacing stare and a scream that cuts into your soul’s core, denominating death. Some say she was bestowed as a guardian spirit by God himself to Irish families, but because her fairy soul was so different, she could not be seen by those she protected until times of death, where she could sound her cry in sadness for the family’s grief. Others say she is linked to the Morrigan, an ancient Irish deity of war, death, the afterlife and magic, who can appear in the form of a black raven or crow. Low and behold the banshee also can take the form of a black bird. She is also said to take on the form of a dog, or even a moth.

The banshee has also been described as a tall beautiful woman with flowing red hair. Other times she is said to take on the form of a stately matron, other times as an old hag with long white silvery hair and flesh that hangs around a bony exterior. Another encounter described the banshee appearing as a bundle in white sheets, seemingly a baby left abandoned in the middle of a field. In looking down on the child, the image of an old hang stared back up, wailing her cry!

The banshee has been linked to Ireland and Irish families, particularly with the surnames beginning with ‘O’ and ‘Mac’ in their surnames. However there have been many without ‘O’ and ‘Mac’ surnames who have heard and witnessed the wail of the banshee to determine hearing of a death. Perhaps intermingling of marriage and some Irish roots down the line has led the banshee to be heard in Australia, America and even Sweden. On the other hand, she has been heard by a German family who moved to Ireland for a year. Apparently, if Ireland becomes part of you, it does not have to be a blood tie to hear the cry of the banshee...

Banshee

Friend or foe? Some fear the banshee. A young girl went to open the blinds to witness the source of the banshee’s wails only to be yanked back and the curtains firmly readjusted shut by her grandmother, warning her young granddaughter that the banshee never wants to be seen. Some have got a foreboding in witnessing her presence. Another story tells of a lady in Carrickfergus who used to go for many night time walks due to insomnia. This lady had the ‘second sight’ and often saw the banshee, just standing by a spot she passed regularly on these walks. She never said hello, just nodded and walked on. When this woman took ill and could not continue her walks, the banshee was often seen standing outside the woman’s house by her granddaughter. She never wailed, or made eye contact. She just seemed to be keeping presence around a familiar friend, a form of support perhaps. The woman eventually died, but the banshee did not cry. Many Irish families with a banshee feel protected by her presence, or have grown fond of her as another part of their family. Others have a reverent fear of her. It is a mixed jar of feelings when it comes to the banshee!

To top it all off, she even has a sister. The Leanan Sidhe seduces young men and if you refuse her love, you become her slave and food source. She slowly sucks the life force out of her victims until they die, and she lives on for eternity. Otherwise known as a psychic vampire. In comparison to that, the banshee only forewarns of death and has never been known to cause any actual harm to people.

Another variety is the ghostly washer woman in Scotland who forewarns death by washing the clothes of the predicted to be dead people in rivers of blood. She is known as Bean nighe.

Some reckon the banshee has last been seen since 1942, but she has both been seen and heard up until more recent years. I have a feeling the banshee’s wail will be carried in the wind for a long time to come...

Until next time, sleep tight!

Sources:

Banshee: modern encounters with the banshee by Cormac Strain and Barry Fitzgerald

Psychic Phenomena in Ireland by Sheila St. Clair

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/byathameandstang/2017/03/the-banshee/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p_M9lC9Dd4

Photo:

By W.H. Brooke - https://archive.org/details/fairylegendstrad00crokrich, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5700663

#belfastghoststory #hauntedbelfast #irishghoststories #IrishGhostStory

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belfastandirishghoststories · 6 years

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Park Centre Ghost Cottages

Many people make the commute day to day up the M1 toward Lisburn using the slip road at Broadway. Not far from this slip road stands the shopping mall the Park Centre. Looking around the area, you would not think anything untoward would have occurred.

However for a group of girls walking past the Park Centre area, that was not the case. These girls were making their way home through a route they knew well. They noticed that something was out of place, a row of cottages they never recognised to be there before.

The girls noticed an old woman standing in one of the gardens. The old woman spoke to them as they walked past, and the girls spoke back to her. Nothing seemed unusual, for this was back in the days were neighbours spoke to one another and strangers bid each other a good day on the street. Thus the girls made the rest of their journey without thinking much unusual about what happened and put the cottages being there down to some reasonable explanation.

The following day, the group of girls made the same route home past the Park Centre. They noticed something was amiss, as the cottages that had been there the previous day had completely disappeared. What happened to the cottages? Were they knocked down that night? Were they ever there in the first place?

When the girls asked around about the cottages, a local resident informed them there had not been cottages in that particular area for a number of years. Did the ghost of the cottages and the old woman appear to them? Did they both meet in the middle of a sort of time loop?

A source known to myself informed me they and a friend travelling in the car up the Broadway slip road onto the M1 lost twenty minutes of time for such a small length of road. Could there be a time loop phenomena in and around this part of Belfast?

Until next time my friends, sleep tight....

Park Centre Today

Park Centre was previously West Side Stores in 1980′s which was built upon Maguire and Patterson’s match factory

Sources:

http://www.belfastforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=21060.180

Photos:

https://www.commerciallistings.cbre.co.uk/en-GB/listings/retail/details/GB-Plus-465545/park-centre-donegall-road-bt12-6hn?view=isLetting

https://www.irelandbeforeyoudie.com/fascinating-old-pictures-belfast-used-look-like/3/

#hauntedbelfast #irishghoststories #belfastghoststory

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