'Ghost' of Irish martyr Saint Oliver Plunkett captured on video?

Author of books on paganism and witchcraft claims find while on vacation in Ireland

By: KENNETH HAYNES | Published Saturday, April 17, 2010, 8:50 PM | Updated Wednesday, October 20, 2010, 11:46 AM

A British author thinks she has captured a ghostly apparition of martyr and patron saint of Irish peace Saint Oliver Plunkett on video while visiting Ireland.

Vikki Bramshaw says she only discovered the image of "the ghost" of St. Oliver Plunkett peering out of the prison door in Saint Peter’s Church in Drogheda, County Louth, when she viewed the video taken with her cell phone cam later on.

The glimpse of the face, which appears briefly a few times at the hatch of the 15th century cell door, can be seen on the video footage available at right.

"I don't really believe in ghosts or anything like that, so I was a bit spooked out to see it when I was checking my video when I got home," Bramshaw told a local Irish newspaper.

"I visited Drogheda between March 10-17, and was taken around Newgrange and other tourist sites, and Saint Peter’s was just one of our stops," she says.

"I was just filming the cell door with my camera phone, and didn't notice anything unusual at the time, but when I checked it that night, I was definitely a bit spooked by what I saw."

The video shows what appears to be a face that appears at the small hatch in the door a number of times.

"I watched it again and again to see if it was a reflection, but there are other things reflected in the glass, and they're not moving, and this does," says Bramshaw, who lives in Southampton.

"I consider myself quite a down-to-earth person, and am keeping an open mind on what it might be."

There have been no other reported sightings of St. Oliver Plunkett in the church, and Bramshaw had no idea why he would have chosen her to make a first appearance.

Of course, Bramshaw is not exactly a stranger to the paranormal. She is the author of many books on witchcraft, including her latest, "Craft of the Wise: A Practical Guide to Paganism and Witchcraft."

Her biography on Amazon.com says "Bramshaw is a student, teacher and author of the esoteric mysteries and initiatory witchcraft. Having trained for almost 10 years under respected elders, she now runs her own coven who work on the edge of the New Forest, in Hampshire."

"I suppose I should be very honored if he did pick me," she adds, "but it was very unnerving and a little bizarre to watch it back."

Born in 1629, he Plunkett's ministry was set in troubled times. The Catholic cause suffered greatly after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, which eventually resulted in a ban on the public practice of Catholicism. Many Catholic clergymen were executed, and Plunkett spent much of his life in hiding, working to advance faith in the Church from behind the scenes.

He built schools both for the young and for clergy, whom he found "ignorant in moral theology," and took on the problem of alcoholism in the clergy, writing "Let us remove this defect from an Irish priest, and he will be a saint."

On July 1, 1681, Plunkett became the last Catholic martyr to die in England when he was hanged, drawn and quartered after a kangaroo court "trial." He was beatified in 1920 and canonized in 1975.

In 1997, he became a patron saint, adopted by a prominent prayer group campaigning for peace in Ireland, and was named Saint Oliver Plunkett for Peace and Reconciliation.