AT THIS TIME of year, things can get a little bit spooky.
For one night only – people are willing to suspend their skepticism and accept tales of the paranormal.
Tonight Steve Parsons, known for his appearances on ITV’s ‘Most Haunted’ series, will be leading a ghost hunt through Enniscorthy Castle in County Wexford.
The tour will see around 40 people brought on the hunt around the 800-year-old Georgian mansion.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie about the hunt, Parsons described the crowd that he is expecting.
“It is a broad spectrum. There are some people who have a serious interest in the process – and others who are there more for entertainment. Obviously, at Halloween there is a much stronger interest in the paranormal and the supernatural”, said Parsons.
It is primarily to give people an experience – and there has to be an entertainment aspect to it, although there is a serious aspect too. Some of it is to give people an idea about some of the techniques used.
Edu-tainment I like to call it.
While Ireland may not have any more ghosts than anywhere else – Parsons feels that our folklore tradition keeps people more in touch with the ones we do have.
As a nation Irish people are very much in touch with their cultural history. There is a reverence there for people’s ancestors – for the fairies and the mounds. For some of the more remote regions, the 21st century hasn’t corrupted them as much as the rest of the world.
The history
It is fair to say that a large number of us regard the idea of ghosts and the paranormal with a healthy dose of cynicism.
However – regardless of your feelings about the existence of the occult – it does hold an attraction for many.
As part of a project for the Irish Research Council Fellows – a group of scholars has been looking into what it is about the supernatural that holds a fascination for people.
As part of the project they have looked at zombies, mummies, the ‘murder pamphlet’ phenomenon and the dark side of Arctic exploration.
The Mysterious Arctic: ‘Terra incognita”
In his research, Dr Shane McCorristine looked at the interest the Arctic held for those in the Victorian era.
In that time, people were regaled by stories of haunted explorers, inuit mummies and entranced female clairvoyants.
On his research, McCorristine said, “by highlighting how the Arctic represented a terra incognita of the mind, these kinds of spectral stories reflect the complex ways that men and women actually thought about the far North in the past”.
More information about the how we viewed the paranormal in the past can be found here.
More details about Steve Parsons and his ghost hunt in Wexford can be found here.
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