Not all tunnels are created equal, especially in Ireland where robbers, explorers, and the elite of society used them to avoid being seen.

Many underground passageways were mere legends before being unearthed in the last century. Others were completely unknown and revealed mysteries that still confound archaeologists and explorers alike.

Which tunnel would you most like to explore?

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10 When You Gotta Go

In 1985, a gang of bank robbers decided to dig a tunnel to Dublin’s Allied Irish Bank on Dame Street. However, when they came up for air, they found themselves in a ladies’ restroom instead.

The raiders began their underground escapade outside Dublin Castle, which was right beside the city’s main police communications center. They started on the Thursday before Easter and finished the tunnel on Easter Monday.

The gang built a 23-meter (75 ft) tunnel to the bank’s wall. By accidentally entering the restroom, they set off an alarm that warned police of their whereabouts on that long Easter holiday weekend.

After all that trouble, the miscreants were forced to flee without the loot. But even if they had succeeded, it wouldn’t have been that lucrative. Supposedly, the vault only had about $147,000 on hand. Even so, a bank spokesman didn’t believe that the would-be thieves could have pierced the strong room where the money was kept.^[1]

9 Staircase Tunnel Discovered In Cork After 230 Years

Although Spike Island in Cork Harbour was once used as a prison and a defensive structure, it is now a popular tourist attraction. Originally a monastic settlement from the seventh century, the island may have been used as a smugglers’ port in the 1600s, too.

The first artillery fortification was built there in 1779 as a result of the American Revolutionary War. The island was also a port for Britain to supply goods to its forces in North America and the West Indies. In 1790, the first permanent fort was built on Spike Island by the Irish Board of Ordnance.

In August 2020, a tunnel was found after a wall was removed that had blocked the underground passage for decades. The tunnel, which runs under the walls of the fort, is called a “sally port.”

A sally port is a small exit or entryway. It is usually protected with a wall or door that must be circumvented to gain entry and that protects against enemy fire from a great distance. After the door to the tunnel was opened, the staff found a spiral staircase that seemed to float like something out of the Harry Potter stories.

The rediscovered tunnel at Spike island leads out to the moat from the inner fort. A second fort was built on the island in the early 1800s. So it’s likely that the tunnel was blocked off because it was made redundant by the newer construction.^[2]

8 Frescati Stream
Blackrock, Dublin

A tunnel ran under the grounds of the Frescati House where the family of the Trinity College provost lived in 1739. The passageway was built by a later owner—Emily FitzGerald, Duchess of Leinster—to bring seawater to the estate. However, the tunnel is now blocked off. In fact, the exact location of the structure remains a mystery.

In the 20th century, the Frescati House was demolished and the estate was redeveloped into a shopping center. But the Frescati Stream (aka Priory Stream) remains beneath the shopping center car park. From there, the stream visibly passes an apartment complex, ducks under the main road, and ultimately emerges at Blackrock Park.

In earlier times, the course of the stream may have been used by residents to escape raids by the Crown Militia from Dublin Castle.^[3]

7 The Goggins Hill Tunnel
County Cork

Since its closing in 1961, the Goggins Hill (also spelled “Gogginshill”) Tunnel has been Ireland’s longest abandoned tunnel at 828 meters (2,717 ft). Once used as a railway passage, it was carved out by 300 men under the village of Ballinhassig in 1850–51.

The area is overgrown and spooky now, looking very much like a tunnel to the underworld. It has three ventilation shafts. Some sections are hewed from the original rock, while others are lined with bricks to prevent collapses.

For any would-be explorers reading this, be warned that the tunnel is on private land and permission to explore should be asked of the current owner. Trespassers are not welcomed. But with permission, visitors will be allowed entrance.^[4]

6 The Ballymore Tunnel, County Kildare, And Casino Marino, Dublin

In 1852, the Ards estate was inhabited by Lady Isabella Tasca Stewart-Bam, a well-to-do and pious woman. She commissioned the construction of the Ballymore tunnel so that she could walk to church without being seen by the nearby peasants.

In the same vein, a tunnel was built at Casino Marino in Dublin so that servants could travel between the main house and the garden without spoiling the view. In the 18th century, the Casino was a pleasure house for James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont. The house had eight tunnels leading from it.

It’s possible that the Earl of Charlemont wanted the tunnels to run all the way to the sea. However, as he ran out of money and died before that happened, their purpose will remain a mystery.^[5]

In 2016, secret tunnels discovered beneath the grounds surrounding Casino Marino were opened to the public. These passageways were used by Irish soldier and revolutionary politician Michael Collins and others to test-fire submachine guns during the Irish War of Independence in the early 1900s.

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5 1,000-Year-Old Souterrain Discovered In County Cork

In 2015, workers discovered an underground passageway in the Caha Mountains in County Cork that had been dug through solid rock about 1,000 years ago. This passage is called a “souterrain,” which comes from the French word sous-terrain meaning “underground passageway.”

Archaeologists believe that the idea of a souterrain was brought to Ireland from Gaul in the late Iron Age. Souterrains are associated with settlements and usually found near ringforts.

The workers discovered the tunnel while excavating to widen a tourist road in Bonane. The Caha Mountains in Cork stirred little archaeological interest until then, although they were known to have traces of Neolithic settlements.^[6]

4 Sinkhole In Dublin Reveals Brothel Tunnel For Politicians

In 2015, a sinkhole opened up in one of Dublin’s main streets. Dame Street leads toward Trinity College Dublin and up to Christ Church Cathedral. The 1.8-meter-deep (6 ft) hole collapsed into an old cellar under the road.

According to historian Gerry Cooley, Irish politicians were believed to have sneaked through a tunnel in the 19th century to access brothels. This cellar may be a piece of that tunnel. It was probably used until the building for the Irish Parliament House became the Bank of Ireland in College Green after the Act of Union in 1800.^[7]

3 Underground Jail Cells
County Meath

A secondary school in Trim, County Meath, was being renovated when jail cells were unearthed in underground tunnels. The cells were found intact after a wall was pulled down under the school.

The school had been built near the site of the old Trim Gaol (jail) that was demolished in the 1950s. Initially, the industrial school was set up to prevent pauper children from going to the workhouses by educating them in a trade instead.

Some strange deaths are associated with the site. In 1912, a teacher was murdered in the schoolyard by boys with sticks and brushes. Forty years later, two men died in a fall when the jail was destroyed. The men were placing explosives on the third floor to demolish the building when a wall came down on top of them and sent them plunging to the basement.^[8]

2 River Poddle
Dublin

The River Poddle runs beneath Dublin Castle through the city center and toward Wellington Quay where it flows into the River Liffey. There are passageways to the Poddle that can be accessed by opening manhole covers and dropping into the water.

This is exactly what two men decided to do in 2012. They were caught on CCTV wearing waterproof clothing and gloves outside Dublin Castle. The Garda (Irish police) sub-aqua unit searched for the two men. But they couldn’t be found even though their voices were audible when the manhole cover was lifted.

Gardai thought that the men might be urban explorers scouting the tunnels, but others wondered if they could be searching for treasure. The waterways pass close to the Assay Office that holds gold and silver, and the Poddle Tunnel also goes beneath the Central Bank on Dame Street. As of this writing, nobody has identified the two men caught on camera in 2012.^[9]

1 The Streets Under Limerick

In the early 20th century, Limerick’s aboveground streets were renamed after the Irish Free State was established. Beneath every renamed street, however, lies a sewer with its original English name. For example, when you walk down O’Connell Street, you are directly above George’s Street (which was named after King George III).^[10]

Supposedly, it was once possible to walk from one side of Limerick to the other completely underground. However, many of the underground tunnels have been concreted over and only some can be found today.

Many holes in the tunnel ceilings show where coal was delivered into bunkers under the aboveground streets. At the time, the tunnels were connected to sewers and drained away rainwater. They must have been quite unpleasant to walk in.

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About The Author: Alexa still lives in Ireland and will do so until the money runs out.

From the late 1960s until the late 1990s, Northern Ireland was a killing field, one whose tentacles often extended to the Republic of Ireland in the south and England to the east.

The root cause was simple: Catholics living in British-controlled, predominantly Protestant North Ireland wanted more of a say over their own destiny. They’d been deemed second-class citizens for years, and as the 1960s unfolded, civil rights movements in the U.S. and elsewhere fueled an Irish uprising.

What resulted was what happens when negotiations fail and extremism reigns. Here are ten tales from The Troubles.

Related: 10 Crazy Attempts To Turn Humans Into Suicide Weapons

10 Troubles Brewing: The Roots of the Conflict

It’s impossible to understand The Troubles without comprehending modern Irish history.

In 1916, with British forces bogged down in World War I, Irish nationalists sensed an opportunity. And while their short-lived rebellion was crushed, both the uprising and its harsh British crackdown made independence more popular.

This culminated in the partitioning of Ireland in 1920, with 26 predominantly Catholic counties divorcing themselves from Great Britain. Six northern counties whose population were majority Protestant—largely due to English and Scottish colonization during the early 17th-century Plantation of Ulster—remained loyal to the crown, giving birth to the UK-aligned state of Northern Ireland. Notably, the original Republic of Ireland government was dominated by Sinn Féin, which half a century later would become most recognized as the political engine behind the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

From its inception, Northern Ireland has contained a sizable Catholic minority that favors a united, fully independent Irish island. And while Christian denomination—namely, “Catholics vs. Protestants”—was the most media-friendly way to encapsulate the violence that began in earnest in the late 1960s, the underlying causes were accusations of England-aligned suppression of those who’d rather be citizens of a free Ireland than subjects of the British crown.

In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement ended The Troubles pretty much where they began: Northern Ireland remains part of Great Britain, utilizing the Pound rather than the Euro and, most recently, complicating the UK’s exit from the European Union.^[1]

9 The First to Die

While 1969 is considered the year The Troubles began in full force, the first known victim was murdered three years earlier.

On May 27, 1966, a 28-year-old Catholic man named John Scullion was shot near the front door of his Belfast home. The attackers were members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a paramilitary group loyal to Great Britain. Scullion died two weeks later.

In the ensuing weeks, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)—Northern Ireland’s official, Britain-aligned police force—claimed Scullion was stabbed rather than shot, leading to widespread accusations of a crown coverup. Scullion’s remains were exhumed to confirm his cause of death. Later, it emerged that a neighbor of Scullion’s handed the bullet shell to an RUC officer…who then kept it from being entered as evidence.

The triggerman was reported as UVF gang leader Gusty Spence, who gunned Scullion down as he returned from a local pub. (So much for minding your Ps & Qs.) Soon, two more people were murdered by the UVF: a Catholic man named Peter Ward and a Protestant, Matilda Gould, who was killed by mistake. Spence would serve 18 years in prison for Ward’s death.

Scullion’s headstone reads: “Murdered for his faith.” While no one could have fathomed it at the time, his death was just the first of over 3,500 killings spanning more than three decades of sectarian violence.^[2]

8 Among the First Victims Was a Nine-Year-Old Boy

In August 1969. British troops were deployed to restore calm in Belfast as Catholics protested and ultimately rioted for fairer treatment and expanded economic opportunities. It was among The Troubles’ first major conflicts.

Streets regarded as Catholic were burned by loyalist mobs, and members of the long-dormant Irish Republican Army (IRA) fought back. As violence escalated, Divis Flats resident (and father of six) Neely Rooney left his loft to investigate. “‘I think it’s getting bad outside,’” his wife, Alice, recalls him saying. A nearby pub was on fire, he noted.

In front of Divis Flats, British troops then tried to disperse protesters by firing over their heads with mounted machine guns. Several penetrated dwellings in the Divis Flats. “The bullets ripped through the place,” said Con Neely, one of Alice and Neely’s now-adult sons. “They came through the windows and ripped through the plasterboard, everything.”

“I saw all the flashes of the tracer bullets going past the flats, and as I opened the door, I must have been grazed with one of them,” Alice remembers. Her husband was hit as well. “Alice, I’m shot,” he muttered. Luckily he would survive.

But then, Alice recalls, her nine-year-old son Patrick “slumped down the wall. I said, ‘God, he’s fainted’…but when I lifted him up, the blood was coming from the back of his head.” The boy died shortly after that, and the shooting was never prosecuted.^[3]

7 Safety in Numbers: Belfast’s Self-Segregation

As violence escalated, Catholics and Protestants no longer felt comfortable living shoulder to shoulder. As a result, Catholics in predominantly Protestant neighborhoods moved to Catholic areas and vice versa—a self-segregation that found relative safety in numbers. In short order, entire neighborhoods were discernible primarily by their Christian denomination.

Unfortunately, an unintended consequence was that someone’s sectarian affiliation—previously hidden by the opposing sides’ shared ethnicity—could be easily discerned simply by learning an address. Overnight, the reply to “where you from?” became fighting words.

In late 1969, the British government began erecting a series of walls between Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods—complete with gates that closed each evening. They stayed shut until the next morning; the goal was coexistence via separation. The most prominent of these barricades, now called the Peace Wall, stretches several miles and has been signed by more than four million visitors since The Troubles came to an uneasy end in 1998’s Good Friday Agreement.

Still, just because the violence has subsided doesn’t mean former enemies are becoming fast friends. Many residents still have fresh memories of sectarian bombings and killings. In an area where identity is largely defined by whether one favors Irish nationalism or British loyalty, the willingness to put down arms has outpaced the desire to shake hands.

For example, in 2013, Northern Ireland’s government announced its intentions to remove all sectarian partitions by 2023. As that deadline approaches, over 100 still remain, often dotted with memorials to victims.^[4]

6 Sunday, Bloody Sunday

The incident that inspired U2’s hit song occurred on January 30, 1972, in the western city of Londonderry—which, for obvious reasons, is simply called “Derry” by Irish nationalists. It became a pivotal event in The Troubles, with many marking it as a point of no return.

On that day, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association had organized a protest march. Despite the protesters being neither armed nor riled up, British soldiers fired upon them with live ammunition. Fourteen people were killed, with 15 others wounded.

The fallout was swift and severe. The next day, a nationalist Northern Ireland MP slapped a loyalist colleague in the face for lying about the extent of the tragedy. The day after that, Dublin’s British embassy was bombed.

But the most consequential result was a spike in violently nationalist sentiment. In the days and weeks following what soon became known as Bloody Sunday, countless vengeful young men joined the IRA, swelling its ranks. The British government’s subsequent exoneration of the soldiers involved only worsened the animus.

The proof is in the body count. In the three years leading up to Bloody Sunday, The Troubles claimed about 200 lives. In 1972, 479 people were killed—the deadliest single year in the three-decade conflict. The annual death toll wouldn’t fall below 200 again until 1977, entrenching the bitterness and emboldening extremists on both sides.^[5]

5 The Deadliest Day, and Other Lowlights

On May 17, 1974, a series of four coordinated bombs detonated in the Republic. Three hundred people were injured, and 33 civilians—plus a full-term unborn child—were killed. It was The Troubles’ deadliest day.

Organized by the Ulster Volunteer Force, the same group involved in the Scullion murder above, three explosions went off during the evening rush hour in Dublin. A fourth occurred about 90 minutes later in the border town of Monaghan.

Two years earlier, the nationalists executed their most orchestrated attack. On July 21, 1972, the Provisional IRA (or PIRA, the militant outgrowth of the original IRA) set off 22 bombs in Belfast over a 75-minute span. Dubbed Bloody Friday, the event killed nine, including two British soldiers. In March 1973, the group attacked England for the first time, setting off four car bombs in London that injured more than 200 people. Miraculously, no one died save for a 60-year-old who suffered a heart attack.

In fact, while many point to the April 10, 1998 Good Friday Agreement as the cessation of widespread violence, the carnage would continue for some time. In August of that year, a dissident republican group calling itself the Real IRA exploded a bomb in Banbridge, Northern Ireland, injuring 33 civilians and two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers. Two weeks later, the same group detonated an explosive in Omagh, Northern Ireland, that killed 29 civilians—including a woman pregnant with twins.^[6]

4 Doctors of Doom: Assassinated in a Hospital

Máire Drumm was Vice President of Sinn Féin—the IRA-affiliated nationalist political party—and a commander in the Irishwoman’s Council. Among other exploits, she broke through lines of British troops during the July 1970 Falls Curfew, a British police operation that began as a search for illegal weapons but devolved into skirmishes with residents of the Catholic nationalist neighborhood. Drumm and several others risked arrest and harm by taking food and supplies past troops into the encircled area, prompting a de-escalation.

Soon, though, Drumm’s peaceful protest days were over. In 1971, a year before assuming Sinn Féin’s vice presidency, she was arrested for “seditious speech” for encouraging a Belfast audience to join the IRA. She was jailed again in 1976 after threatening to destroy Belfast “stone by stone.”

That fall, Drumm entered a Belfast hospital for eye surgery. Rumor had it that the 57-year-old woman was in ill health and would be resigning her Sinn Féin post and moving to Dublin. On October 28, two members of a secretive loyalist paramilitary group called the Red Hand Commando disguised themselves as doctors, snuck into the hospital, and shot Drumm dead in her bed. Many nationalists saw the lack of adequate security as a British conspiracy to rid themselves of a longstanding thorn.^[7]

3 Power Hungry: The Prison Strike That Spurred IRA Recruitment

Whether regarded as a hero or terrorist, Robert “Bobby” Sands was responsible for surging recruitment into the IRA. This is because of how he lived and, especially, how he died.

In 1976, Sands was sentenced to 14 years for bombing a furniture company in retaliation for a British bar bombing. In prison, he was implicated in a fight and sent to the punishment block. There, his cell contained a mattress, chamber pot, water container…and nothing else. Protesting the conditions, Sands refused to wear a prison uniform. Guards responded by keeping him naked for 22 days.

Sands’ obstinance brought notoriety. He had several letters and articles published in the Irish Republican An Phoblacht newspaper and, in 1980, was elected Officer Commanding of the Provisional IRA Prisoners of Maze Prison. Quite the title for a guy in the slammer.

Then Sands started something that showed his utter dedication to Irish nationalism. Under the guise of protesting for better prison conditions, on March 1, 1981, he refused to eat. His cohorts joined the hunger strike at staggered intervals to maximize publicity. A month later, a still-starving Sands was even elected to Parliament.

Sands went 66 days without food, dying of malnourishment on May 5. Nine others starved themselves to death in a prolonged episode credited with changing the course of The Troubles. Sands’s death prompted days of rioting in Northern Island’s nationalist areas, and more than 100,000 people lined his funeral route.^[8]

2 The Hateful ’80s

While violence certainly flowed from both sides, Irish nationalists were the clear aggressors throughout the 1980s. Republican groups initiated the overwhelming majority of killings during the decade, many having the look and feel of vulgar, indiscriminate terrorism.

It’s one thing to blow up military ceremonies in London’s Hyde and Regent’s Park, killing 11 British soldiers (and seven horses), as the PIRA did in July 1982. It’s quite another to stick a bomb in an apartment building’s drain pipe—which the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) did in August 1982. Despite killing a British soldier, it also killed two children (and Catholic children, no less).

The following year, INLA killed three civilians at a Protestant church service, while the PIRA exploded a bomb outside of London’s famous Harrod’s department store, killing six and injuring 90. In 1984, PIRA bombed a hotel where England’s Conservative Party—including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher—was congregating. Five died, including an MP.

The nationalist killing spree goes on. On November 8, 1987, 11 civilians and an RUC officer were killed when a bomb exploded during a Remembrance Day ceremony in the ironically named town of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. The next year, PIRA tried to blow up a High Court Judge in the equally ironically named border town of Killeen, North Ireland. They missed, instead killing a family of three, including a six-year-old boy.^[9]

This is not the way to rally the world to your cause, people.

1 A Troubling Truth: Northern Ireland Today

For Northern Ireland to evolve beyond its ugly past, many older residents may need to take their intractable grievances to the grave. The Troubles may need to age out, leaving Northern Ireland to a generation that grew up in peace, however uneasy.

Even today, many young adults in Northern Ireland remember scarring sectarian violence. “The worst thing I ever saw,” said 20-year-old Luc Baxter, “was an exploding head of someone who’d been hit by a bullet. I was 11 years old then.” This means the incident occurred over a decade after 1998’s Good Friday Agreement.

And while this emerging generation doesn’t share its parents’ animosities, it is still very much affected by them. To this day, fewer than 10% of students in Northern Ireland attend religiously integrated schools. Promisingly, parents and teachers have started the “Are You ‘In’?” campaign to expedite Catholic/Protestant school integration.

Older citizens are typically less forgiving. “There were so many people killed just walking around this area,” recalls Frank Brennan, 70, of Short Strand, a working-class Catholic neighborhood in Belfast that runs along the Peace Wall. Brennan, who served prison time for his involvement with the Irish nationalist movement, will likely never be ready to intermingle. “I live on a peace line, and I feel safer with those walls up,” he claims, echoing the stance of many in his generation.^[10]

The Emerald Isle of Ireland is undoubtedly a beautiful and historic place, filled with amazing cities, gorgeous landscapes, and a thriving culture that stretches back centuries. However, with that storied past come some bloody, spooky, and troubling interludes. So, what are the ten spookiest mysteries in Ireland? Let’s dive in and find out!

10 The Murder of William Desmond Taylor

The name of this Irish director might not be known to you now, but in his day, he was pretty well known. He became more famous still after his violent and mysterious murder. As most successful directors do, William Desmond Taylor moved to Los Angeles to continue his craft. Once there, he began a relationship with the comic actress Mabel Normand and was stalked by an obsessed former child star named Mary Miles Minter.

The women in his life suddenly became murder suspects as soon as he was shot to death in his LA bungalow. It was well known at the time that Normand had a drug problem and could’ve shot Taylor in a fury. Perhaps it was Minter or Minter’s mother, both of whom were near his home at the time. Finally, Taylor’s cook and valet, Henry Peavey, was also a suspect and died in an asylum from syphilis-induced dementia nine years later. All these people were involved to some extent, but the murderer was never found and never brought to justice.^[1]

9 The Vanishing Triangle

When we think of mysterious and spooky triangles, we normally think of the Illuminati or Bermuda—rarely do we think of Ireland. However, in the mid-1990s, around the Leinster area of Ireland, a series of women disappeared without a trace. When mapping this area, a triangle formed, and the media thus dubbed the area “the vanishing circle.”

In total, eight women—all of similar ages—went missing and were never found. One of the most disturbing things is that most of the women were taken in broad daylight! The leading theory was that a serial killer was operating in the area. Although this has never been confirmed, the disappearances did stop in 2001 when a rapist and attempted murderer was caught in the nearby Wicklow Mountains. That being said, the man never admitted to being involved in the other eight disappearances. The case remains unsolved.^[2]

8 Who Is Peter Bergmann?

Fake identities and mysterious drop-off points are both things we associate with spy movies, but not in Sligo in 2009. Coming into Sligo from Belfast, a man who gave the alias Peter Bergmann checked into a hotel and each day would wander the town with a plastic bag full of belongings, leave them in different places, and return to the hotel with an empty bag.

He then asked a taxi driver to take him to a place where he could swim, so they drove up to Rose Point, upon which Bergmann asked the driver to take him back to the hotel. The next day, people began to notice his weird behavior. He was in the cafe by the bus station reading scraps of paper, tearing them up, and disposing of them in different bins. He then got on a bus to Rose Point, and it was there that his body was found the next day. His clothes were strewn about the beach, and all identifying labels and objects were removed. So, who was Peter Bergmann really? We’ll likely never know.^[3]

7 Aer Lingus Flight 712

Few things are more concerning or bizarre than a missing plane or a mystery surrounding a plane crash. After all, how can something so big, with so many trackers, just disappear? Back in 1968, Aer Lingus Flight 712, going from Cork to London, crashed just off the coast. All 61 people onboard died, and the agencies looking into it were none the wiser.

Of course, plenty of things can bring a plane down, but there were conspiracies surrounding this plane’s demise. Rumors included a Welsh training missile misfiring and taking out the plane accidentally or a collision with a training flight by the French/Irish Air Corp. Neither was confirmed, but years later, a crew member of the HMS Penelope discovered that part of the plane wreckage was secretly removed and taken by the UK, further fanning the flames of a cover-up.^[4]

6 What Happened to Mary Boyle?

When a six-year-old goes missing, it always makes the news, and everyone sets out to find the kid in question. Back in 1977, on St Patrick’s Day, a young Mary Boyle was spending time with family at her grandparents’ house.

At one point, her uncle left to visit the neighbor’s house, about a third of a mile away (500 meters). The path was across a marshy area, and at some point, Mary decided to turn back to her grandparents’ house. She’s never been seen since, and this remains Ireland’s longest-running missing person’s case, with celebrities even lending a hand to try and find her.^[5]

5 The Tale of Joseph Michael Maloney

Murder, asylums, poison, and a mysterious escape, this next spooky tale has it all. A man of Irish descent from Rochester, New York, throws a joint fifth birthday party with his estranged wife. Suddenly, the wife dies of poisoning after drinking a spiked drink. The husband, Joseph Michael Maloney, pled insanity and went to an asylum.

Unbeknownst to the judge or prosecutors, Maloney used to work in the asylum and knew how to escape. Years later, in Dublin, the police were called to a burglary. They took the prints of a man called Michael O’Shea, who lived there, to eliminate his prints. When they ran the prints, they found a match to a case in the U.S. This was Maloney, who was now sought after by the FBI and Interpol, but there was no extradition between Ireland and the U.S. at the time. When it did become legal, a technicality meant Maloney/O’Shea wasn’t prosecuted. Even then, O’Shea insisted he wasn’t Maloney.^[6]

4 The Stranger at Loftus Hall

Moving onto the spooky folklore of Ireland, we have the tale of the stranger at Loftus Hall. Located on the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford, a ship sought out shelter from a storm, with the stranger coming up to the house and being greeted by Lord Tottenham.

The daughter of the lord, Anne, became quite taken with the stranger. They sat by the fire and played cards throughout the night. Anne dropped a card, and when she leaned down to pick it up, she saw that the stranger had cloven hooves. Traumatized, young Anne screamed. The devil disappeared through the ceiling in a plume of hellfire. Anne never recovered, and now Loftus Hall is one of the most haunted places in Ireland.^[7]

3 What Happened to Shergar?

While not exactly spooky, the mystery of Shergar is certainly intriguing. Shergar was an elite but retired racehorse that was worth around £10 million. In 1983, an armed group decided to storm the yard and steal the horse for ransom.

They asked the syndicate that owned Shergar for £2 million for the horse’s unscathed release, but the owners said no. Their logic was that if they paid up, it would open the door for more people seeking to make a quick buck. What happened to Shergar after that? No one knows. The gang didn’t claim to kill the horse, nor was the horse ever released. We still don’t know for sure who the gang even was.^[8]

2 The Monster of Glenade Lake

Many cultures have tales of terrifying beasts that lurk under the watery depths of the country’s lakes, and Ireland is no different. The legend of Dobhar Chu in Glenade Lake has been around for centuries. It’s alleged that Dobhar Chu is a giant water hound that looks like an otter and a dog but is the size of a crocodile. Feared by the locals, Dobhar Chu is as adept on land as underwater and has a mighty shriek.

In 1722, a woman named Grainne Ni Conalai was minding her business washing clothes in the lake when Dobhar Chu came for her. She screamed, and her husband came running, but he was too late. After stabbing the beast, its scream awoke a second Dobhar Chu, leading to an intense fight, which the husband won. That being said, sightings have been reported as recently as 2003…^[9]

1 The Vanishing Island at Ballycotton

People might go missing, but it’s unusual for an entire island to appear and disappear the next day. That’s the case with the vanishing island at Ballycotton. In 1878, the locals looked out from the beach and saw an island emerging out of the mist, with distinct features including mountains and valleys.

Excited, the fishermen headed out to explore, but the island disappeared. Was it an illusion? Was it the mystical island of Hy Brasil, as promised by St. Brendan the Navigator? If it is the latter, the human eye can only see the island for one day every seven years before it again disappears from view!^[10]