Dublin Ghost Tour

The week Amy was in Dublin flew by since between work and other prior commitments, I did not have enough time to think straight. But Thursday we scheduled a Dublin Bus Tour around the city. It was a double decker bus all painted up spooky with thick red velvet curtains over the windows. I think Karen and the tour guide were the only Irish on the bus, all the rest were Americans, so needless to say Amy and I fit right in without really wanting to. As we edge slowly through the evening traffic towards the River Liffey, we are joined by James, our guide for the evening, dressed in an immaculate high-collared white shirt, cravat and waistcoat. James introduces the rest of the crew: the driver, 'Francis "Blood-on-the-tyres" Schumacher. While crossing O'Connell Bridge, we pull back the curtains - it seems far too bright and sunny to be on a ghost tour.

As we wheel up D'Olier St., passed the offices of the Irish Times, James reels off a list of famous writers who had studied in the approaching Trinity College - including, of course, Bram Stoker. We learn of the year of Stoker's birth - 1847, or 'Black 47' - the worst year of the Irish Famine, his sickly childhood and Ballybock Cemetery, his habitual play place.

The tour guide was a trained actor and did a good job telling a few ghost stories as we drove past the old College of Physicians. The old headmaster used to pay good money for fresh corpses that were stolen from the non-religious cemeteries. They would then learn on them for anatomy, which at the time was very hard to get human bodies. Dr. Clossy, whose spirit is still seen walking the corridors carrying a bucket of human entrails was one of the few stories told. It was at this College that a Dr. Samuel Clossey operated his school of anatomy, apparently between 1786 and 1803. A 'tall, mean, overbearing' individual, he seems to have eschewed the frivolities of religion and emotion, to (paradoxically) revel in the delights of shocking his students - slicing up bodies to show that we are little more than meat. Clossey himself met a rather unsavoury end, thanks to his miserliness and bloodthirstiness. The same graveyard that the bodies were taken out of is where Bram Stoker used to hang out as a child which led to his most famous work, Dracula.

Our first stop off the bus was at an old cemetery, St Kevin's Graveyard on Camden Row, that has since been converted to a park. All of the old tombstones were dug up and placed around the perimeter of the park with the ruinous church right in the middle. It was a good night out, dusk and you could hear Bruce Springstein playing in the background since he was putting on a concert. We were shown how they use to take a large hook and pull the bodied out of the ground by hooking it under the chin and in one swift movement would pull the body out of the ground. Sort of creepy. Back on the bus and a few more ghost stories.

We went past Stephens Green where there was another story of the Walking Gallows, the notorious judge, jury and hangman dispatched his victims in a most gruesome fashion. A very tall and large British Soldier would deem an act punishable by death, tie a noose around the persons neck and go for a job which would slowly suffocate them on his back. Terrible!

The last stop was at the old Dublin steps, St Audoen's and the Forty Steps, which are said to be very haunted. This is one of Dublin's best kept secrets, few people get to pass through the ancient gates of this ost haunted place. It is situated in he heart of what old Dubs used to call 'Hell' where tales are told to this date about mysterious lepers, ghostly bells and Dublin's notorious Hellfire Club. It was great seeing the old gate, which is locked at night, that used to be the main entrance into Dublin. It was great to imagine what it would have been like hundreds of years ago to walk under that gate for the first time. We took lots of photos, but no glowing floating blobs for us to show up on the film. On the southern end of Hell, over on Fishamble St., a new pub called 'Darky Kelly's' can be seen. Kelly was an 18th century madame who kept a house known as 'The Maiden Tower' in the building in which the pub now resides. It was said to be 'notably labyrinthine' by officers of the law who once raided the place, probably because they spent so much time there before leaving... Darky Kelly was executed, for the alleged murder of her child, the body of whom was never actually produced. Her prosecutor? One Simon Luttrell, Sheriff of Dublin, alleged Hell-Fire Club member, and reportedly the father of the child... Her ghost can be seen running down into the labiryinthine after possibly dropping off the child at the church.

Not necessarily a scary night, but it was a lot of fun just the three of us, and I loved the history. Would recommend it if there was nothing else to do and maybe if you had a few pints before going on the bus!