'The white lady' of St. Anne's Park

Paddy Dignam

Hi folks,

Firstly, apologies if this is in the wrong section, I'm new here, so forgive me!

I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of the phenomena known as 'The white lady' which supposedly haunts St. Anne's Park in Raheny? How old are these tales? Has anyone here got their own versions?

Cheers!

Dord

I haven't heard of this one, I've heard many stories of a dark figure that stands around the small bridge beside where the main house used to be. I haven't heard any recent sightings though.

spurious

The white lady is a ghost said to appear in Malahide Castle.

Paddy Dignam

joe robot wrote:

I haven't heard of this one, I've heard many stories of a dark figure that stands around the small bridge beside where the main house used to be. I haven't heard any recent sightings though.

That's interesting. Any theories as to who the figure is meant to be?

I have only come across one reference to the 'white lady', which is mentioned in a book called 'Conspiracy of silence' written by Dermot Butler and Carl Nally. (More info: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Conspiracy-Silence-Ireland-Dermot-Butler/dp/1856355098)

Am curious to hear if there are anymore accounts.

Paddy Dignam

spurious wrote:

The white lady is a ghost said to appear in Malahide Castle.

Yeah, I've heard that one. See my above link regarding the book that I read a reference in.

Cheers!

Dord

Well, my Dad had mentioned it to me several times. He passed the figure numerous times on the way home from work about 30 or 40 years ago. According to what he has told me, it was dressed in a long black coat.

Degsy

There was also a White Lady said to haunt the ruins of Charles' fort in kinsale.Never heard of a ghost in st Annes though and my grandapernets used to live around the corner.

Paddy Dignam

joe robot wrote:

Well, my Dad had mentioned it to me several times. He passed the figure numerous times on the way home from work about 30 or 40 years ago. According to what he has told me, it was dressed in a long black coat.

Thanks Joe, much appreciated. All this stuff is quite fascinating, especially when it happens in suburban Dublin. Not all ghost stories have to be set in castles, etc!!

Paddy Dignam

Degsy wrote:

There was also a White Lady said to haunt the ruins of Charles' fort in kinsale.Never heard of a ghost in st Annes though and my grandapernets used to live around the corner.

Cheers, Degsy. The white lady is certainly a common apparition in Irish places.
I believe Carrickfergus castle in Co. Antrim also has a similar story.

Is it possible, I wonder, that the St. Anne's 'lady' was imported from somewhere else as a means to frighten children from staying in the park too late?

Degsy

Paddy Dignam wrote:

Cheers, Degsy. The white lady is certainly a common apparition in Irish places.
I believe Carrickfergus castle in Co. Antrim also has a similar story.

Is it possible, I wonder, that the St. Anne's 'lady' was imported from somewhere else as a means to frighten children from staying in the park too late?

Or possibly one of the many staues that once stood in teh grounds..maybe seen by somebody in bad lighting or when they were in a superstitious frame of mind.A friend of mine's father claimed to have seen a goblin or something similar at the gates to Santry Demense back in the 60's..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lady_(ghost)

lightening

Millions of herons and little egrets in the park lately. I'm in there every morning. Its an amazing amenity, badger sets (never seen the badgers, just a dead one), foxes, playground, playing games, trees from all continents... A real gem.

Its cleaned up a good bit lately, new front entrance, fancy market on Saturdays. Anyone notice the "Raheny" being scribbled or masked off various posters with the parks address lately? I think the Clontarf set will start claiming the park as their own now that their is markets and not murders in it...

Never seen any ghosts though!

Paddy Dignam

Degsy wrote:

Or possibly one of the many staues that once stood in teh grounds..maybe seen by somebody in bad lighting or when they were in a superstitious frame of mind.A friend of mine's father claimed to have seen a goblin or something similar at the gates to Santry Demense back in the 60's..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Lady_(ghost)

Yes, indeed, could well have been a statue, must check it up.

Thanks for the link!

Paddy Dignam

lightening wrote:

Millions of herons and little egrets in the park lately. I'm in there every morning. Its an amazing amenity, badger sets (never seen the badgers, just a dead one), foxes, playground, playing games, trees from all continents... A real gem.

Its cleaned up a good bit lately, new front entrance, fancy market on Saturdays. Anyone notice the "Raheny" being scribbled or masked off various posters with the parks address lately? I think the Clontarf set will start claiming the park as their own now that their is markets and not murders in it...

Never seen any ghosts though!

Indeed, it's a lovely park. Isn't the Rose garden one of the largest in Europe??
It's about 20 years since I stepped foot in it I'm afraid to say. That's what I get for emigrating to the southside!

I suspect you're right about the Clontarf set - that's life I'm afraid :mad:

lightening

Paddy Dignam wrote:

I suspect you're right about the Clontarf set - that's life I'm afraid :mad:

Its great to see it cleaned up, the only problem is now its all "put that dog on a lead", "stop cycling", "mind my child", "I"M JOGGING HERE" (someone actually said that to me) no kids on skateboards or dogs chasing each other....

Paddy Dignam

lightening wrote:

Its great to see it cleaned up, the only problem is now its all "put that dog on a lead", "stop cycling", "mind my child", "I"M JOGGING HERE" (someone actually said that to me) no kids on skateboards or dogs chasing each other....

Yes, a problem that's endemic everywhere unfortunately - parks are meant for fooling around in!!

Actually, was there once an event in St. Anne's called 'The lark in the park' (or was that the Phoenix Park, forgive my memory, am just calling it a night here with a glass of Jameson!)

Symbolic, I suppose, that we should end on 'spirits' yet again....

admiralofthefleet

the old red stables are a scary place to be at night, they are re-developed into tea-rooms now.
if anyone is in the park at night stand on the hill where the house used to be and look left at the tallest tree, the top is the shape of a dog leaping at the guinness house

Degsy

The Follies within the grounds are cool too,my favourite is teh Temple of The Winds which is the pillared building at the head of the old boating lake.

_blank_

Hmm.

I don't know anything about the White Lady, but I have a question to ask.

It's about the 'Blue Boy' of St David's School, formerly Artane Industrial School. I went to the school and I remember the old Brother's residence, which on the corner of one of the walls had a pattern in the concrete that looked like a face. The building was torn down when the land around the school was sold for housing.

The Blue Boy was said to have either frozen to death while running around the school building as part of some punishment, or jumped to his death from the cross atop the school.

If you ventured inside the grounds on Hallowe'en night at midnight, you could catch a glimpse of him running, or jumping.

Anyone else from the Artane area, or who attended St David's ever hear these stories?

lightening

Yeah, lovely building, pitty they had to knock down the bridge over the river.

Here is a classic winter morning park shot...



And some Autunm shots..

Degsy

seansouth wrote:

Hmm.

I don't know anything about the White Lady, but I have a question to ask.

It's about the 'Blue Boy' of St David's School, formerly Artane Industrial School. I went to the school and I remember the old Brother's residence, which on the corner of one of the walls had a pattern in the concrete that looked like a face. The building was torn down when the land around the school was sold for housing.

The Blue Boy was said to have either frozen to death while running around the school building as part of some punishment, or jumped to his death from the cross atop the school.

If you ventured inside the grounds on Hallowe'en night at midnight, you could catch a glimpse of him running, or jumping.

Anyone else from the Artane area, or who attended St David's ever hear these stories?

Kids used to die like flies in that place when it was the industrial school,even driving by the place now i always get a bad vibe from it.Just finished reading a book called "Fear of the collar" and it doesnt mention the blue boy although given the level of brutality there,the story probably has some basis in fact.

Paddy Dignam

seansouth wrote:

Hmm.

I don't know anything about the White Lady, but I have a question to ask.

It's about the 'Blue Boy' of St David's School, formerly Artane Industrial School. I went to the school and I remember the old Brother's residence, which on the corner of one of the walls had a pattern in the concrete that looked like a face. The building was torn down when the land around the school was sold for housing.

The Blue Boy was said to have either frozen to death while running around the school building as part of some punishment, or jumped to his death from the cross atop the school.

If you ventured inside the grounds on Hallowe'en night at midnight, you could catch a glimpse of him running, or jumping.

Anyone else from the Artane area, or who attended St David's ever hear these stories?

Fascinating story Sean! Have you seen it in print anywhere?

_blank_

Unfortunately not. I just remember it from going to 'Little' David's, the Primary School on the Kilmore Rd. The natural progression was to head on to 'Big' David's for secondary. Some of the lads in the class were telling the story from around fifth class, maybe earlier.

I went to secondary in '92 and the story was doing the rounds, it was an old story though. By the time I was leaving school in '98 the houses had started to be built, and afaik the story started to 'die out'.

At the back entrance to the school, just past the McDonalds, there was a little driveway all the way up to the school, past the now gone Brother's residence, on the driveway there was a big rock with some red staining on it, possibly some iron in the rock maybe. It was said that it was the blood of The Blue Boy and he couldn't pass that rock, it marked the place where he finally fell and died, and that if you were up in the school grounds on Hallowe'en night, looking for him, if he spotted you he'd chase you, but if you could make it past the rock before he caught up with you, he couldn't chase any more.

My god, it's a long, long time since I told that story.

Paddy Dignam

seansouth wrote:

Unfortunately not. I just remember it from going to 'Little' David's, the Primary School on the Kilmore Rd. The natural progression was to head on to 'Big' David's for secondary. Some of the lads in the class were telling the story from around fifth class, maybe earlier.

I went to secondary in '92 and the story was doing the rounds, it was an old story though. By the time I was leaving school in '98 the houses had started to be built, and afaik the story started to 'die out'.

At the back entrance to the school, just past the McDonalds, there was a little driveway all the way up to the school, past the now gone Brother's residence, on the driveway there was a big rock with some red staining on it, possibly some iron in the rock maybe. It was said that it was the blood of The Blue Boy and he couldn't pass that rock, it marked the place where he finally fell and died, and that if you were up in the school grounds on Hallowe'en night, looking for him, if he spotted you he'd chase you, but if you could make it past the rock before he caught up with you, he couldn't chase any more.

My god, it's a long, long time since I told that story.

That's brilliant Sean, and now you have committed it to print!! You should submit it to one of those local history magazines - you have told it well and it's certainly a piece of oral folklore which could easily die out in the next couple of years or so. That's the fascinating thing about oral narratives and how robust folklore is, the continuity of the folk tale.


For further reference, I've just rechecked the mention of 'The white lady' in the book which I provided link to in a previous post. Pages 75-76 deal with it, and it's quite scary. Although the book largely deals with the UFO phenomena,
the tale is appropriate when read in context of a persons experience in St. Anne's Park. If anyone wants a scanned copy of it just PM me.

Degsy

Here's abrief story i manged to unearth about Artane.The industrial school was built on the site of Artane Castle which was built in the 1500's and taken doen in 1825.In 1534 Artane Castl was the scene of a brutal murder of the Archbishop of Dublin,John Alen.This englishman was a friend of Cardinal Wolsey yet it was reported that he had Henry viii's interest in recording monastic lands to be taken over bythe king.Adherents of the disgruntled Silken thomas had heard the cleric was about to do a bunk because things were "getting out of hand".His escape boat was grounded by high winds at Clontarf and teh Archbishop sought refuge with his friend,St Lawrence in Artane castle.He was subsequently discovered and brutally murdered in the castle grounds where for generations the overgrown bushy site was fenced off and shunned by the loacls.The story goes that on a moonlit night,the ghost of the murdered Archbishop can be seen wandering around the spot!

_blank_

I recognise that story.

It used to be told on a number of painted boards facing the tills of Quinnsworth (now Tesco) in Artane Castle Shopping Centre.

admiralofthefleet

lightening wrote:

Yeah, lovely building, pitty they had to knock down the bridge over the river.

Here is a classic winter morning park shot...



And some Autunm shots..

those pics are cool, do you have anymore

lightening

Thanks a million Admiral.

I have a few more, they aren't as good though.

Paddy Dignam

lightening wrote:

Thanks a million Admiral.

I have a few more, they aren't as good though.

Sorry lightening, meant to compliment you about these earlier, fantastic shots, I must ramble over the St. Anne's again one of these days!

(White lady notwithstanding..)

Dord

Paddy Dignam wrote:

I must ramble over the St. Anne's again one of these days!

Likewise, I haven't been there in a while.

lightening

Paddy Dignam wrote:

Sorry lightening, meant to compliment you about these earlier, fantastic shots, I must ramble over the St. Anne's again one of these days!

(White lady notwithstanding..)

Lol... thanks Paddy. You know, I think I prefer it in winter.

JoeSchmoe

back in the 80s, I used to be in the Artane Boys Band, which is located in the grounds of St Davids, and we heard a lot of stories about the Blue Boy, from what I can remember, he was regularly abused by the brothers and one day he snapped and ran up the stairs with the brothers in hot pursuit, he ran to the top of building 5/6 floors and jumped out of one windows.

Why he is blue is said to be explained by the all denim uniform the inmates/students/boys had to wear at the time.

There was regular sightings of him, or at least flashes of blue, in the upper windows of St Davids by various lads, "Tommy saw the Blue Boy on his way home last night" rumours went around almost weekly.

I spent many hours staring up at those windows but I never saw him, I'm not sure anyone did, prob just the reflection of the sky in the windows, still that didn't really matter compared to the fascination it brought to our impresionable minds