Wednesday 28 September 2016

MAYNOOTH - GHOST ROOM



MAYNOOTH'S GHOST ROOM?





MAYNOOTH / GAYNOOTH SEMINARY has a GHOST ROOM
Here is a piece about it:
If you visit Maynooth today, you might come across an old building on the campus called Rhetoric House. You might notice that one of the windows on the top floor is boarded-up and you might wonder why. If you ask someone, they will tell you this is The Ghost Room.
Many years ago, students who went to Maynooth would live on the top floor of the building. There was one young man who was assigned to sleep in Room No.2. One day, when he didn’t show up for lectures, his friends went looking for him. They found his dead body lying in a pool of blood on the floor of Room No.2 with his throat slit from ear to ear. Clutched in his hand was a bloody razor and it appeared that he had taken his own life.
Ireland was a Catholic country and, at the time, suicide was seen as a terrible sin. The matter was hushed up by the college and the student was buried in an unconsecrated part of the college cemetery, away from the other graves.
For the rest of the year, the room lay vacant, but when the next year began, it was assigned to another young man. To the shock and horror of everyone involved, this young man was also found dead under the exact same circumstances. He had slashed his own neck with a razor.
The college authorities were horrified to have two suicides on their hands. The fact that they both happened in the same room was even more unsettling. However, they decided to hush it up again and the student was quietly buried and everyone tried to forget what had happened.
Despite all of these forboding events, the very next year, the college assigned another young man to live in Room No.2. One morning, after mass, the student jumped out of the window of his room and landed on the ground outside Rhetoric House. He had broken most of the bones in his body, but he was still alive. In his hand, he was clutching a razor. When they brought him to hospital, the student had a terrifying tale to tell.
While he was in his room that morning, he happened to glance in the mirror and was horrified to see a demonic face staring back at him. Suddenly, he was overcome by a powerful urge to kill himself. Unable to control himself, he grabbed a razor and was about to slit his own throat. Struggling against the demonic force, he managed to throw himself out the window and this is what saved his life.
After hearing the young man’s story, the college authorities decided to investigate. They asked one of the priests to stay the night in the haunted room. In the morning, they found him curled up in a ball, gibbering and shrieking like a maniac. His hair had turned completely white and he refused to say a word about his harrowing experience.
The college president decided that enough was enough and nobody else must ever be allowed to spend the night in Room no.2. He immediately ordered that room was to be turned into an oratory. The window was boarded up, the front wall was knocked down and the door was removed. A shrine to St. Joseph, the patron saint of Peaceful Death, was placed on an altar at the back of the room.
If you go there today, they say you can still see bloodstains on the wooden floor. Nobody is ever allowed to bring a mirror into the room. The graves of the dead students still stand in the cemetery and their names are carved on a bronze plaque in the college as a grim reminder of the horrific events that occurred there.
PAT SAYS:
Its very easy in a religion focused society to put events down to ghosts and spirits that in reality have a perfectly normal or scientific explanation. In the past Ireland was much more superstitious than it is today. The Devil and evil spirits were blamed for a lot of things that may have been done by humans.
As a believer I am perfectly open to the possibility of the supernatural breaking into the natural - but I like to exclude natural explanations first.
What could the natural explanation of the Maynooth suicides have been?
1. Was there a murderer or murderers on the staff?
2. Is the Maynooth Gay Cabal phenomenon older than we think and did the seminarians self harm and kill themselves because they were stalked, sexually harassed or even assaulted by someone?
3. Was there mental illness or some other serious psychological dysfunctionality present in Maynooth then too?
4.   Were these deaths / injuries down to lover's tiffs?
5. Was some predecessor of Diarmuid Martin taking extreme action to stop "strange goings on"?



6. Did something go wrong when the seminarians were been quizzed about their wet dreams and erections by a Director of Malformation of the day?

Who knows?
In any event it would be very interesting if some modern Ghost Buster could be given the job of trying to get to the bottom of it all. 
Turning the room into a chapel to St Joseph and banning mirrors is hardly very scientific? St Joseph is not a scientist. He is a carpenter. 
Anybody out there got any ideas?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:


“Now I know what a ghost is. Unfinished business, that's what.” 





TODAY'S VERSE:
Father Death Blues by Allen Ginsberg




Hey Father Death, I'm flying home
Hey poor man, you're all alone
Hey old daddy, I know where I'm going

Father Death, Don't cry any more
Mama's there, underneath the floor
Brother Death, please mind the store

Old Aunty Death  Don't hide your bones
Old Uncle Death  I hear your groans
O Sister Death  how sweet your moans

O Children Deaths go breathe your breaths
Sobbing breasts'll ease your Deaths
Pain is gone, tears take the rest

Genius Death  your art is done
Lover Death  your body's gone
Father Death  I'm coming home

Guru Death your words are true
Teacher Death I do thank you
For inspiring me to sing this Blues

Buddha Death, I wake with you
Dharma Death, your mind is new
Sangha Death, we'll work it through

Suffering is what was born
Ignorance made me forlorn
Tearful truths I cannot scorn

Father Breath once more farewell
Birth you gave was no thing ill
My heart is still, as time will tell.


TODAY'S PIC:

44 comments:

  1. My local curate told me the story of the famous ghost room over 30 years ago. I was very surprised at such a genuine gothic horror story in such a hallowed spot.
    I agree there was probably an element of mental illness that led to the tragic deaths, at this distance from the events we will never know if there was an element of bullying or sexual aggression.
    The ghost room was used as a storage room when I visited maynooth 16 years ago. The suicides are buried in the beautiful college graveyard. They are marked by crosses but aren't named. I was again surprised that they are buried in consecrated ground given this happened in the bad old days.
    The college guide book which describes the sad events was written by none other than the great mgr michael ledwith.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ps. I was surprised no attempt was made to cover up or deny the facts that such terrible deeds/sins had occurred. Maybe it was so long ago the powers that be thought it didn't matter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Monsignor Ledwith is an expert on ghosts in rooms / cupboards.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Maynooth/Gaynooth is an evil institution. I want to thank you Pat for providing a voice for the voiceless on your blog. It must not be easy being on the receiving end of abuse and intimidation from the "Gaynooth Goons". You have a brother in Fr Gerard McGinnity who encountered such scurrility and opprobrium for exposing the truth about Ledwith. The slime of Ledwith's tentacles still covers many in Gaynooth.

    God bless you Pat.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Saw Mickie Byrnes 'friend' today, he looks depressed

    ReplyDelete
  6. I agree. I'm afraid that Monsignor Ledwith's tentacles (testicles ??? ) still cover Maynooth.

    Father McGinnity suffered greatly.

    I hope he writes a really thorough and detailed memoir.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm sorry Mickey Byrne's friend looks so depressed / sad?

    Can he not talk to his German friend Hans about his pains.

    By the way - we were never given Mickey Byrne's friend's name?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Gaynooth should be bulldozed to the ground and the left over rocks burnt in an incinerator.

    The destruction and filth unleashed by that horror house deserves nothing better.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I remember as a teenager hearing a story that you, Fr Pat, had been contacted by other teenagers who had supposedly experienced the not so pleasant side of the ouija board in a house in a more Catholic street in Larne. The outcome was that you had blessed the house and teenagers. I don't know if this tale or myth is true but I wonder how often you have come up against a supernatural or preternatural force or have encountered spirits, ghosts or demons, aside from those that lurk inside all of us. Any comment?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Those students of long ago were belonging to someone's family
    Could their names be researched in the archives.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No doubt their names were recorded on the famous college register (discussed previously on this blog). Maynooth college has very good archives whatever about the rest of the institution.

      Delete
  11. It's the type of characters they admit that's the problem. These lads expect to be raised to great things, to have the people look on them as gods and then to live a carefree lifestyle - no mortgage, no massive bills, education paid for, stipends to pay for the 161 Audi and foreign holidays. They parade up and down the halls of maynooth with their heads in the air and wouldn't care to bid people the time of day. Sure why would they! They are above the people.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Who in their right mind would want to be a priest , today. You're damned if you do and you're damned if you dont.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Bishops, priests and seminarians are the cause of their own woes with abuse of power and cover ups.

      They have a lot of work to do to win back the respect of the Irish people.

      Judging by the most recent scandals, the clergy still think they can do what they like and take the Irish people for fools.

      Gaynooth and its f****d up formators need to go.

      Delete
    2. When I was a seminarian in Maynooth there was a tangible stench in the place. I am not speaking figuratively, but mean there was a real, olfactory particular smell in the Seminary building. One could also feel a spiritual oppression when walking through the door that led to St Mary's wing.

      I heard stories about seminarians waking up and being pinned to the bed by an invisible force from the seminarians themselves.

      I firmly believe that Satan and his horde have infested Maynooth. The place is evil.

      Delete
    3. That "tangible stench" was King Puck's feet! Seminarians being pinned to the bed? Well that's certainly true.

      Delete
    4. What became of puck? Surely to god they haven't demoted him and put him in a 4 bedroom house with an industrial wage?

      Delete
  13. I have been asked, during my 40 years in the priesthood, to bless houses in which strange or evil manifestations were happening.

    I have generally celebrated Mass in the affected house or room - often to give comfort to those experiencing problems.

    I do believe that evil exists - and that it occasionally manifests itself in strange, unnatural ways.


    But I also like to exclude natural, medical, psychological causes etc.

    Its a very strange area and has to be approached with sensitivity, commonsense, intelligence and compassion.

    I personally felt that I met Satan - physically - on 3 occasions in my 64 years on this earth - once at the grotto in Lourdes, once in a rural priest's house and once in a retreat house chapel at 3 am in the morning.

    ReplyDelete
  14. St Patricks College Thurles seems to me as bad as Maynooth if not worse, judging by the tragic events recorded on this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  15. 15 53 most old building have that stink, no proper foundations...rising damp and clay

    ReplyDelete
  16. 15.13
    Time to

    A) have the place exorcised
    B) examined for 'meruleous lacrimabs' - dry rot.' Natural possibility in an old building
    C) failing theses - close the place down.

    My old PP regards the young fellows coming out now as

    Brief Case clerics
    Business men
    Glory hunters
    Cosying up to bishop types
    Extremely hard liners - what can be done or said at funerals, weddings etc. My way or no way!
    Know alls who would not even have the knowledge presented in a the old - strangely In this context - Maynooth Catechism,

    Send for - on this day - for the Archangels, and especially for Michael
    Sam

    ReplyDelete
  17. Bishop Pat, re: your comment "I personally felt that I met Satan - physically - on 3 occasions in my 64 years on this earth - once at the grotto in Lourdes, once in a rural priest's house and once in a retreat house chapel at 3 am in the morning."

    Can you elaborate please, are you speaking metaphorically or figuratively??


    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  18. Many old buildings have ghost related stories It is the stuff of TV shows. Many of these stories have some relation to fact. It is worth digging the Maynooth archives in the interest of separating fact from fiction.

    ReplyDelete
  19. So what is DM hiding? First time in uears the Priest Appointments have not been published in a public forum. Brough is now in Arklow but Chris Derwin remains in Balbrigan.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anon 16.55 that made me laugh.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I know the smell of rising damp and dry rot in old buildings. The smell of evil in Maynooth was a stench I never encountered before. Also, that spiritual oppression was real and eerie. That place is going through a serious spiritual purification and Old Nick has a free hand there with many willing accomplices eager to do his bidding. The funny thing is that none of the Seminary Council or most of the seminarians in Gaynooth believe in the existence of Satan or evil, when all the while he is pulling their strings.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Any word on Clive these days? How's things going for him in the German department now he's been made permanent. Great department it is ;)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Pat, how many many years ago.?
    Can u get someone to do a historical search regarding those long ago suicides ?
    If it's true it's shocking no matter how long ago.
    As bad as the buried babies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The information you seek is readily available. Two young men died from suicide in room 2 rhetoric house 19 years apart.
      Sean o grady from limerick aged 21 died from injuries after throwing himself out of a window on 1st March 1841.
      Thomas mc ginn from Co Wexford aged 27 died from cutting his throat on 21st April 1861. It was said he saw a devil behind him as he was shaving who motioned to him to cut his throat.
      The room was exorcised and converted to an oratory dedicated to st joseph -patron of a peaceful death.
      There was no cover up. It was a tragedy probably involving mental illness. The possible presence of the demonic is a matter of faith.

      Delete
  24. Any word from London Bishop Pat on thon big Dean that used to do all the singin here way the wee lads. Gawd we miss him so much around the cathedral parish.
    Lizzie from the Loney

    ReplyDelete
  25. I see your joke today comes from 'Earl'.......you sure that's not 'Earls' as in Doctor Earls from the German Dept. young deacon's friend???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I doubt earls and the deacon are friends, considering earls was supposedly threatening to out the deacon and his friend. But I have it on good authority that earls is now denying he has anything to do with it. Byrnes 'friend' will eventually break or one of his mates will come forward. Maynooth is a small place. I sit in expectation.

      Delete
  26. +Pat, can I say I have come to the conclusive reality that Christianity and Romanism are two different entities. Each is not the other - that's my view.You see +Pat, my faith does not hinge on a statue, nor on a relic, nor on the hallucinations of Margaret Mary or Faustina nor on a vial of finger-waving John Paul ii's blood. No doubt, a torrent of verbal sewage will be printed with full gusto as some faceless, patronising, know-it-all, oppressive human encyclopedia will be straining at the leash to attack me. But, with the Holy Bible as my armour - why should I give a toss? Because, to put it lucidly: I'm for faith alone, on Christ alone, in the Precious Blood alone, for the glory of God alone - and - wait for it: I'm proud of it! People who love to parade their knowledge on Calvanism and Jansenism would do well to remember an event known as the SPANISH INQUISITION. Ever heard of the HUGENOTS? Ever heard of the ALBEGENSISTS?
    Jarlath Vaughan - embracing sacred Truth

    ReplyDelete
  27. The Irish bishops are comprised of stupid cowards, snivelling liars - who love putting on a display of crocodile tears for the media, and downright dangerous deviant b******s.

    And to top it all that thundering disgrace, "The Wounded Healer", is still protecting his "little boy" in Gaynooth just like he protected and moved that other family and soul destroying b*****d, Fr Brendan Smyth.

    Almighty God please deliver us all from the above wasters.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Golly,
    You are really a vey sick fella

    ReplyDelete
  29. Those Gaynooth idiots on Grindr masquerading as seminarians, deacons and recently ordained priests are just what I say: idiots.

    The above dumb asses are being/were being enabled by corrupt formators and brain dead/compromised bishops.

    Gaynooth is the laughing stock of the world-wide Church.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Years ago we had what was called 'made priests' in families..thank god that seems to have stopped
    So I expect in the 19 centurary there was a lot of that going on....especially with mental illness kept hidden too.
    Those poor suicide victims of long ago should probably have been referred to a psychiatrist.t




    '

    ReplyDelete
  31. anon 10:55 you are the sick one trying to defend the aforesaid sickos who have wreaked havoc on innocent people in recent Irish history. You are probably another f****d up inhabitant of Gaynooth.

    ReplyDelete
  32. What makes you think I am a "fella" Anon 10:55? I am actually a mother who has heard a lot about certain people in Gaynooth. Or are you another man-fixated Grindrholic?

    ReplyDelete