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Top ten Irish Halloween scary spirits - SEE PHOTOS


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SEE PHOTOS - Irish Halloween scary spirts - click here

1. Dracula

The book was written by Bram Stoker from Dublin. A spirit  you can get your teeth into.

2. Leprechaun

Not the cuddly one, the one from the 1993 movie Leprechaun who almost knocked off Jennifer Aniston in one of her first roles. Pity he didn’t succeed.

3. Banshee

A sheet with eyeholes will do. She is heard  only when a loved one is dying. Literally means female fairy.

4. Devil

Devil, as in Darby O’Gill, not the sanitised Walt Disney movie, but  mythology where he is a much more wicked character. In Ireland he usually appears as an attractive man at a dance but if lady smitten by him looks down she will see his cloven hoof.

5. Headless Horseman

 A difficult Halloween costume to produce but keep your head up. Dullahan is his name and he is said to inhabit an Irish wood near Westmeath
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6. Werewolves of Tipperary

Ancient texts refer to the half man half wolf who inhabited this area. Old Gaelic chieftains used to visit and pray for their support before a battle.

7. The Undead Priest

An old priest from the Dublin mountains, who locals swear appeared to them after his death in the 1920s. Many independent verifications were received

8. The Mayo Vampire

Said to have existed during the famine, likely based on people who fled their homes during the hunger and lived in the woods near Westport but locals swore he came for their children at night.

9. Jack O’Lantern

Jack O’Lantern is where the modern pumpkin came from. Said to be a ghostly spirit who trapped Satan in a cross-shaped tree hollow. When Jack died he was barred from Heaven and Hell, suspended in a black abyss with only an ember in a carved-out turnip, the Devil's flashlight to help him navigate.

10. The Meredith Monster


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8 Comments

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i will admit the banshe has a we bit in common with an ex girlfriend
Love information relative to history, folklore, and customs. Interesting.
@gaeilgesdamhsa Congratulations on trying to put a bit of realism into twee Irish Central articles... but you might as well be trying to hold back the Shannon.. ;) I like to count how many they actually get right out of ten.. normally about 2... ;)
@eiregirl Bertie Ahern, the scariest monster of them all.. apparently he hides in closets ..
Years ago I started to watch one of those so-called documentaries on the historical roots of Halloween. It began with a moonlit Stonehenge as a backdrop as the narrator intoned "In ancient Britain lived a race of people known as the Druids..." I changed the channel.
Two spirits MOST connected with this season are the PÚCA and the CAILLEACH BEARA. Both are shape shifting spirits. As a child growing up in Ireland, I always heard about these two. Google them and enjoy.
What about Charles Haughey? He was an evil spirit alive, so pretty sure he's one dead.
It would be well to point out that Samhain is the forerunner of Halloween. In ancient times, Samhain marked the end of the “lighter half” of the year and the beginning of the “darker half.” Therefore, in the Celtic lands, Samhain announced the beginning of the New Year. On Samhain, the vale between this, and the other world was lifted. It was believed that the dead returned to wander among the living, so the custom of wearing costumes and masks was an attempt to copy the spirits or placate them. Turnips were hollowed-out and carved with faces to make lanterns. These were used to ward off harmful spirits. As we know, this ancient festival became associated with the Christian “All Saints Day” and has influenced the customs now connected with Halloween, a name that first came to light in the 16th century as a Scottish shortening of the fuller, All-Hallows-Even. Happy New Year!
 




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