Tuamgraney Woods Manifestation - Ireland

On the 31st October and around Halloween generally, some choose to avoid Tuamgraney Woods in County Clare, it is said that the hollow changes into dense woodland from which one can not escape, and within lurk dark creatures with glowing red eyes.

One tale tells of a young man who decided to ignore the warnings, he entered the woods carrying a large stick when soon a feeling of melancholy and fear came over him, the woods quickly became so dense he could not find the footpath to get out again.
Shortly after this, he saw a large black hound in front of him, with glowing red eyes, it glared at him a while before vanishing, this was followed by a hare, usually a passive  animal, but this one was also menacing, when it disappeared a large, hissing cat was seen, he could feel the threat and anger in the beast and he turned to run. However, the trees were so tightly packed, and the ground so uneven that he could not flee, he simply stumbled headlong into the branches. As it started to grow dark, the man appeared in a clearing where he saw an imposing black ram with the same glaring red eyes, and a cowering deer which was clearly near death following an attack. He became emboldened now, and attacked the ram with his stick, his blows went straight through the ghostly beast, but it in turn knocked him to the ground. When he awoke, the woodland had returned to normal, the trees were easy to navigate and the feeling of fear was gone...but he felt the physical pain of the struggle with the ram.

On telling this tale afterwards at home to his family, they said that others too had this experience, and Tuamgraney Woods were definitely best avoided at Halloween.


Sources: www.yourirish.com www.paranormaldatabase.com

Rewatching Old Favourites

It seems to be a time of year when there is nothing on TV, unless you like reality shows and depressing political news, so with the wonder of a Firestick we are re-watching some old favourites in the evenings, namely Battlestar Glactica, a few sci-fi / horror films as well as documentaries, and the good old X-Files on DVD (remember those?!). I think I've seen most of the true crime things, just waiting for some new series to come out, any recommendations?

Evil Has A Name - Podcast on Audible.

I, like many of us, am very interested in true crime, the psychology of it, methods used to apprehend perpetrators and justice being done. When a case goes unsolved for so long that this doesn't seem possible however, it is terrible.

Evil Has A Name is just such a tale, broken down into 14 podcasts it tells the story of years of cat and mouse style frustration by those involved in trying to catch the Golden State Killer, entire careers devoted to it, profiling, searching and attempting to connect many, many dots. It tells of how science progressed over the decades to facilitate new lines of enquiry, and how people from different branches of the criminal investigation worked together towards the same end.

Without giving anything away, I will say that I highly recommend this podcast, it certainly gripped me as I 'binge-listened' to it. Real people speaking of real events, often harrowing but always interesting.

Available on Audible, just my personal recommendation, I receive no perks for this post.

Autumn Vibes

Hi folks, I don't know about you, but as soon as September starts I feel the spooky autumn vibe. Meteorology here in the UK considers September 1st as the start of autumn, and the weather seemed to oblige this year, a definite chill in the air and somehow a smell too, maybe a subconscious thing, maybe an inner sign of things approaching but I feel the need to buy hot chocolate, visit family graves, plan Halloween and look forward to the ever increasing dark nights. Bring it on! 🎃🦇🦉🍂👻

Guillotine first used on this day 1792

The sound of a shearing, falling blade is the stuff of nightmares and brings to mind a head falling into a waiting basket...portrayed in comedy, cartoon and horror films alike, however on the 25th April 1792 it was used for the first time in France for real.

The first 'customer' for the angled blade was highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier and the guillotine (named after inventor Joseph-Ignace Guillotine) remained as France's principle method of execution right up until the abolition of capital punishment in 1981! Very much in living memory for those of us at a certain age.

The last person to be put to death by guillotine in France was Turkish farm worker Hamida Djandoubi also known as 'The Pimp Killer' on 10th September 1977, he was found guilty on all counts of horrific crimes which included the kidnapping, torture and murder of his ex-girlfriend Elisabeth Bousquet. This event was also the last time a western country executed an person by beheading.

Gorleston-on-Sea Black Dog

While on duty at the rescue headquarters on the 19th April 1972, Graham Grant is said to have watched a very large black dog running on the sand, it would stop every so often to look around, then before his eyes vanished in the middle of the beach!

There are lots of books about Norfolk Folklore, here's a good place to start:

On this day in 1857 - The Spirits Book.

On this day - April 18th in 1857 - the famous book, regarded as the most important in the spiritist movement was published, The Spirits Book by Allan Kardec.

It is composed mainly of a collection of questions about the origin of spirits, what the afterlife entails, the concepts of good and evil and ultimately the purpose of life. The answers were provided by a group of spirits who called themselves 'The Spirit of Truth' and he communicated with them in many sessions during the 1850's.

It contains many concepts that we still grapple with today, and is still available (on Amazon would you believe it?! See link below) including do spirits pre-exist and survive physical matter, are there good and evil spirits, reincarnation and guardian 'angels'. Fascinating stuff, and groundbreaking especially for the time.