Irish Ghost Stories From the Haunted 19th Century

He told more about it to the priest than to others. He certainly had a secret to tell. He might as well have divulged it frankly, for the neighbours all knew well enough that it was the face of dead Ellen Coleman that he had seen. – J.S. Le Fanu

I felt a strange creeping sensation as I looked up the vast black staircase, wide enough for a coach to drive down, and at the heavy darkness bending over it like a curse. – Rosa Mulholland

On and on he glided, like an evil shadow, the very darkness seeming to loathe him as he passed. – Oscar Wilde

To walk through Irish history is to pass through a haunted landscape. Perhaps that’s why so many of Ireland’s finest writers found themselves drawn to the ghost story. This collection includes the work of canonical figures like Bram Stoker, J.S. Le Fanu, Oscar Wilde, and W.B. Yeats, but also a wealth of lesser-known authors like Charlotte Riddell and Rosa Mulholland who were once bestsellers but are now unjustly neglected, all with a keen sense of Ireland’s haunted character.

Each story in this collection is presented with its original publication details, so readers can see exactly where and when it first appeared, and a brief biography of its author. Together, they offer a fascinating cross-section of Ireland’s literary relationship with the supernatural.

Contents of the book include:

The Headless Horseman by Thomas Crofton Croker

Leixlip Castle; An Irish Family Legend by Charles Robert Maturin

A Vision of Purgatory by William Maginn

The Ghost and The Bone Setter by J.S. Le Fanu

The Fate of Frank M’Kenna by William Carleton

The Pot of Tulips by Fitz-James O’Brien

The Ghosts and the Game of Football by Patrick Kennedy

The Ghost at the Rath by Rosa Mulholland

Squire Toby’s Will by J.S. Le Fanu

The White Cat of Drumgunniol by J.S. Le Fanu

Far Darrig in Donegal by Letitia McClintock

Walnut Tree House by Charlotte Riddell

The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly by Rosa Mulholland

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde

The Sexton of Cashel by David Russell McAnally

Teig O’Kane and the Corpse by Douglas Hyde

The Last of Squire Ennismore by Charlotte Riddell

The Judge’s House by Bram Stoker

The Secret of the Growing Gold by Bram Stoker

Daniel Crowley and the Ghosts by Jeremiah Curtin

The Dead Smile by Francis Marion Crawford

A Playhouse in the Waste by George Moore

The Banshee’s Halloween by Herminie Templeton Kavanagh

The Ghosts by Lord Dunsany

The Highwayman by Lord Dunsany

The Curse of the Fires and of the Shadows by W.B. Yeats

The City on Mallington Moor by Lord Dunsany

Courage by Forrest Reid