Ulster Folklore

Parents' Educational Union Lecture in Belfast.

"What this part of Ireland needs is a Sir Walter Scott to rescue our folklore and traditions before it is too late," said Mr. Geoffrey Garrod, M.A., headmaster of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, presiding yesterday at a public meeting of the Northern Ireland branch of the Parents' National Educational Union, held in the Grand Central Hotel, Belfast.

He was expressing the sense of pleasure he had experienced in listening to a lecture on Ulster folklore delivered by Mr. E.J. McKean, KV, who dealt with his subject in a most able manner, describing the various spectres, banshees, and ghosts of ulster tradition, and touching also upon the believed influences of 'the evil eye,' or 'blinking' as it is still known in country districts.

Mr McKean said that Ulster folklore was very clear and definite in its outline. There were, for example, the well-known spectres of the "Gray Man," who haunted Fair Head, and "Button Cap" of Carrickfergus Castle, which appeared as an indication of trouble to come. Several of the banshees, the little, old women, believed to have red hair, and who were identified by their highly-pitched voice, were mentioned by the lecturer, particularly the banshee of Shane's Castle. This banshee occupied an attic of the castle, and the bed was made up for her daily, but, according to the legened, when the then Lord O'Neill decided to put the room to another use and to eject the banshee, the castle was destroyed by fire.

The stories of the ghost of James Haddock, Malone; the Beresfore ghost in County Tyrone, and Lord Castlereagh's "Radiant Boy" were also related by Mr. McKeen. Speaking of "blinking" and the counter-spell, he said they were mentioned quite recently in a court case at Dungannon.

Belfast News-Letter, 13th November 1931.