During the potato famine in County Clare and County Gallway(some of the
worst affected areas) people drew blood from the necks od cattle in order to make the ghastly "relish cakes".
Fresh blood mixed with oatmeal and greens and baked into tiny cakes;used to stave off hunger pains. Starving villagers
were known to drink blood directly from the veins of cattle, or bit the heads off chickens in order to gain nourishment.
In Counties Roscommon
and Mayo, the starving people were said to drink the blood of dogs. After the potato famine, it was said that some of
those who had tasted blood had become addicted to it and secretly continued to drink it, becoming human vampires.
THE FIR GORTA(MAN
OF HUNGER)
An emaciated creature somewhere between a spectre and a fairy, tramped the roads with a staff in one hand and a small
begging cup in the other. At houses it passed, it would rattle the cup and make a faint call for alms. If those
in the house did not leave a coin or a piece of food by the back door for him, sickness and perhaps death would descend upon
them.
DULLAHAN
A headless horseman who thundered over the nightime countryside with disease under his cloak, infecting the households
he passed.
Legend of Carrickaphouka
Castle
In 1601, for instance,
Cormac Tadhg McCarthy of Carrickaphouka Castle near Macroom, County Cork, was made high sherrif of the county. Carrickaphouka
had a sinister reputation, the name means "the rock of pouka, the pouka or pooka being a type of demon that terrorized
many places in Ireland. Sometimes it appeared as a great horse;sometimes as a ferral goat with long curling horns.
The rock on which the McCarthy Castle stood was supposed to be inhabited by one such being and its evil was reflected in its
cheif inhabitant; Cormac Tadhg McCarthy, a fierce brooding man.
After he died, his body was said to return to the castle, animated by dark forces in order to attack
and drink the blood of passers by.
In 1874, the Irish Monthly used the term "derrick-dally" is probably an anglicized corruption of the ancient
Irish name for such ghosts(dearg-dulai or dear-dul). It translates as "red blood sucker" but is taken to mean
"one who drinks blood". For ancient Celts, blood was the symbol of life; it was the essence of a person; the
source of his wisdom, skill and strength.
LEAP CASTLE
Tadhg O'Carroll, was the owner of LEAP CASTLE in southern Offaly. Its anme comes from the
ancient Irish "Leim ui Bhanain" (The leap of the O'Bannnions) and has its own blood soaked legend.
The O'Carrolls, a fierce and cruel sept, settled
in the ancient Kingdom of ELY, which stretched right across Offaly and part of North Tipperary. These lands wre inhabited
by a number of clans, one of which was the O'Bannions. The O'Carrolls killed off all their enemies except for the O'Bannions.
In an attempt to resolve the situation, a weird deal was hatched. Near the site of an ancient Christian Foundation at
Sier Kieron stood two great rocks, some distance apart. If an O'Bannion champion could jump between them and survive,
his clan could retain its lands; if not, it passed into the hands of the O'Carrols. The leap was made, but the warrior fell
short of the stone and was dashed to pieces on the ground below. To celebrate the "victory", a castle was
erected on the spot, the stones of its foundation were held together by mortar mixed with the blood of the fallen O'Bannion.
But the Castle, Leap, was cursed the words of the curse being "raised in blood; blood be its portion" and many O'Carrolls
died there, some from mysterious circumstances.
In the 1500's One-eyed Tadhg of Leap Castle, killed his own brother, Tahddeus MacFir, a priest, slitting his throat
while he said mass. The chapel was then turned into a banquet hall and Tadhg had an oubliette installed. This
was a fearsome drop, like a dumbwaiter that fell all the way to the base of the tower. Into this his enemies were thrown
and then bricked in, and forgotten about(the name oubliette comes from the French Oublier-to forget). In one night,
he threw 40 of the O'mahon's, an enemy clan he invited to a banquet on the guise of making peace, into the pit and sealed
them in. His cousin murdered him and in 1688, the O'Carrolls finally left the area in return for a grant from the English
of 60,000 acres of land in Maryland in America. It is considered the most haunted site in western Europe today.
| oubliette where enemies where thrown and sealed up |
|
|
| Leap Castle, Ireland |
MARBH BHEO
Tadhg O'Carroll and Cormac McCarthy
are counter among what the Irish have called the Margh-bheo-the walking dead. There is a tale of a blood-drinking fairy
or coprse that haunts the road between Dun Chaoin(Dunquinn) and Baile Feirtearaigh (Ballyferinter) on the Dingle Pennisnsula
in County Kerry. The dearg-dul is said to be particularly active along a stretch of roadway near a place known as Casadh
na Graise, where two streams meet. In County Galway, the area Glan na Scail is taken to mean "the valley of the
phantom" or "dark-supernatural being".
There are stories of fairies
in the far hill, that would attack travelers in order to suck the blood from their arms and legs!
Abhartach
An
Irish Chieftan who ruled mercilously over his people, he killed his enemies brutally and was known to have a lust for blood.
Another chieftan named Cathan was hired to kill Abhartach. He did, burying him standing up, a befitting burial for an
Irish Chieftan. The next day however, Abhartach was back demanding a basin filled with blood from the wrists of his
subjects in order to sustain his vile corpse. Cathan came and slew him again and buried him in the same place.
The following day, the ghastly cadaveor came back again with the same grisly demand for blood. A druid priest came to
the conclusion that Abhartach was not dead but in a state of suspension due to his dark arts. He had become "undead"
and can not be killed. He was then killed with a sword made of yew wood and buried upside-down and a large stone was
placed on top. To this day, locals will not go near the field after nightfall.
