'There was a time when nine out of 10 Irish people would believe in fairies'

BE AFRAID. Be very afraid. The ninth annual World Ghost Convention happens tonight in the spooky confines of Cork City Gaol Heritage Centre. The convention is akin to a highbrow ghost story session, complete with academics, white witches and psychics. And that’s just the expert panel.

Every year since 2001, paranormal devotees have travelled from all over the world to attend the convention, some to swap ghost stories, others to admit their supernatural sightings for the first time. What started as a discussion between friends has now evolved into the society event of the supernatural calendar.

The brainchild behind the convention is writer Richard T Cooke, who receives calls from members of the public on a regular basis detailing their ghostly sightings.

Cooke says his engagement with the supernatural began at a young age, when he became aware of a benevolent presence around him. “My first experience was when I was about nine years old and fell off a bridge during a fishing trip,” he said. “There was a heavy flowing tide and I saw a face. I didn’t know anything else until I woke up on slip about 600 yards from where I fell.

“A few years later, I was in a boat by Blackrock Castle in Cork, and the boat capsized. I was sinking like a stone as I had big boots on me and I saw the face again. It made me become aware and calmed me down and I managed to get to safety.”

Over the years Cooke met many people reluctant to share their supernatural experiences for fear of ridicule and so he started the convention as way of allowing people swap their ghost stories in an understanding environment.

Ghost convention organiser Catherine Courtney says the event has been embraced since its inception and now draws a loyal following. The event is launched by the lord mayor of Cork each year and included in the audience are doctors, lawyers and teachers.

“There is an awful lot of interest in Ireland in the supernatural and from people from all walks of life who have had experiences or are just curious,” Courtney says.

Organisers expect upwards of 150 people to attend this year and the event begins at 8pm and runs until close to witching hour – sorry, midnight. The setting was chosen because of its supposed supernatural connections.

“The gaol itself has its own resident ghosts,” Courtney says. “Some members of the audience who will be there for the convention have seen them. The White Witch of Cobh, Helen Barrett, saw an inmate and two guards coming through their cells. And another speaker saw the ghost of a man standing on a balcony looking down at the audience.”

This year’s speakers include Peter Matthew, who will speak on spirits; Helen Barrett, the White Witch of Cobh, will talk about the ancestors who surround us.

Dr Margaret Humphreys from the folklore department in University College Cork will deliver a lecture on the sixth sense, elaborating on “why some people are able to see and communicate with the dead while others never have the pleasant or unpleasant experience”.

Humphreys says the place of the paranormal or supernatural within Irish culture is shifting and we are becoming less concerned or believing in our ghostly kin.

“We have changed over time. There was a time when nine out of 10 Irish people would believe in fairies; nowadays you’d be lucky to get one out of 10. Those that do believe in fairies and the like are afraid to admit it in case people laugh at them.”

Humphreys says in the past, natural scientific occurrences were explained by paranormal beliefs. “In olden times, if someone died of a brain haemorrhage for instance, it was associated with fairies maybe because the scientific knowledge wasn’t there. Untimely deaths were associated with the other side,” she says.

She believes that our olden customs and beliefs are eroding and the Ghost Convention provides a platform for people to re-engage with certain aspects of our folk tradition. “Society is ultra modern now in the way we communicate. We are not sitting around the fire telling ghost stories anymore. The event Halloween, or Samhain, has been commercialised and is all about fire and fireworks now, where once it was about marking the onset of the darkness.”

The 9th World Ghost Convention takes place tomorrow at 8pm in the Cork City Gaol Heritage Centre