This book is a compilation of different ghost and supernatural phenomena retold to the authors of this book and collected by them in different parts of Ireland. Yet the authors of this book remain objective, so it doesn't have any additional literary tricks employed to make the read feel like fiction. Once the British Isles characterize by a huge number of ghost stories and ghost lore is one of local peculiarities, the accounts in the book are perceived and presented like real. For example, there is even a story about a legal case regarding a haunted house, where the court ruled that the damages of the house should be perceived as such that are caused by a ghost. A truly interesting read for anyone who fancies supernatural and blood-chilling stories.

There is something so natural, and at the same time so unnatural, in seeing a door open when we know that there is no one on the other side of it, or in hearing the sound of footsteps, and feeling that it cannot be attributed to the feet of a mortal. These simple yet compelling narratives provide amazing descriptions of poltergeists and banshees, spirit-filled houses, deathbed scenes, and uncanny fore warnings of death.

There is something so natural, and at the same time so unnatural, in seeing a door open when we know that there is no one on the other side of it, or in hearing the sound of footsteps, and feeling that it cannot be attributed to the feet of a mortal. These simple yet compelling narratives provide amazing descriptions of poltergeists and banshees, spirit-filled houses, deathbed scenes, and uncanny fore warnings of death.

What is it about Ireland' s past that so haunts the imagination? More than one answer can be found in Michael Scott's powerful new collection of 29 tales. To start with, in a newly Christianized Ireland, monks do battle with a devilish monster that has killed a river. All the water in this collection, from rivers to lakes, conceal dangers that men and women would best avoid. Ready to tempt Ireland' s new conquerors -- humankind-- supernatural forces hide beneath waves, in bogs, in the very land, waiting. With his usual inventiveness, Michael Scott juxtaposes the old and the new, the ancient and modern, showing that in everyday situations, the curses of Ireland' s mythic past lie imp- like, threatening destruction.