Customer Reviews

True Irish Ghost Stories

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The authors go out of their way to avoid implicating any individuals or locations in these tales. They give the people who have had ghostly sightings generic names (ie. Mr A, Mrs B, their daughter C), and only mention locations in very general terms ( ie. a house in County Kilkenny). A ghost story loses its "kick" when you can't connect it to a time and specific place or at least provide some background. The authors fly from old stereotypical story to old story about "doors slamming" and "bumps in the night" rarely devoting more than a page to each tale. For all anyone knows these guys are making all this up. Furthermore given the title of this book, I expected it to have an Irish theme. With the exception of the chapter on banshees, most of the stories are so generic they could apply to any western country or culture. All in all, a very dull read.

I found this book to be a wonderful find. Instead of the typical horror shlock, this is a compilation from supposed real life experiences. A Church of England priest helped compile these stories from Victorian-era Ireland. If you are a fan of Victorian Ghost Stories buy the book, turn off the lights and read it by candle-light on a sotrmy night.

This book is the offspring of an article in a newspaper, where the authors asked contributors to send their Irish ghost stories. It covers those tranditional stories of banshees and like. It appears long-winded by nonetheless an interesting read.

This is more of a simple documentation of various ghost stories and happenings. There is no suspense or excitement. This is not to say it is a bad book.. the tales are interesting enough.

I really love books such as this very much in the line of True Ghost Stories by Townsend and Maude ffoulkes...Traditional,a little stodgy but with the ability to transport you back to a quieter and in my opinion far saner world...so it isn't just about the ghosts for me...just to spend a little time with people who have been ghosts themselves for some time now is enjoyable...but I find the ghostly stories themselves pretty good in this book and I love the old fashioned way they are told. The editor is an Anglican priest and it's funny to hear him taking a stand about the supernatural that was pretty controversial in his day. The official church didn't even give their official approval to supernatural phenom till the 1970's I believe...
For all you fans of the traditional ghost genre this is a book for you.

The last thing I ever expected to be with a book of Irish stories was bored. Yet this book quite literally put me to sleep twice. The authors intense desire to put everything on a very factual, dry level has completely sucked the juice out of these Irish stories.

There were quite a few stories here. All of them attested to by people who were not drunk or otherwise untrustworthy according to the author. He does change the names and places for those who did not wish their names to be published for fear of loss of reputation, but he tells us that the full letters with the real names are held by him and available for research. A good many of the stories are second hand or passed through the family. The author apparently meant to take a good start at real paranormal research in it's early days. Because the letters are no doubt long lost and he gave few real names and locations the book is now more or less useless to current paranormal researchers, although it might be an interesting read for them at least.

As a writer, I can certainly see using some of these stories as a nice take off point for writing a ghost or paranormal story. But for pleasure reading I don't think this book works on any level - and this from someone who loves old books.

I like ghost stories especially those that are thought to be true. This book was interesting but not captivating and a book that held you in the story. I had to read it in pieces.