I was recently interviewed by Tessa Mauro for KICH Grip Alot Radio.
Tessa and I had great fun talking about the paranormal and I have included most of the interview below.Please join the Paranormal Prowlers Facebook group to keep up to date with the fantastic DJ and her great interviews as she has some amazing guests on her show.
Talk to us about Cork Supernatural Society.
I’ve been with CSS for nearly three years now off and on. I had my own team
for a while but due to work pressures and family we had to call it a day and so
I joined CSS properly.
CSS have been going for
about 5 years and as well as investigating together we all get on well.
We have various members
but currently there are five of us who go out the most regularly.
Some of the places we
go to are quite remote so we never investigate alone.
We travel around Ireland
and have ben to most of the well-known places – Leap Castle, The Hell-Fire Club
and Duckett’s Grove to name a few.
Do you investigate
homes as well as haunted locations?
We are happy to help anyone
out if they are in trouble. We recently investigated a house where the
occupiers were complaining of presences lurking in doorways, feelings of being
watched and an uneasy atmosphere. Their cat was acting strangely too. We
discovered that the emf (electromagnetic frequency) was off the charts in the
house. We traced it back to incorrectly earthed light switches and advised them
to get an electrician to sort it out. They contacted us afterwards saying that
since the electrician had rewired the house, they no longer had any problems.
It just shows that
sometimes the seemingly paranormal can be explained quite easily. We always try
to debunk and when or if that fails, then and only then we call it paranormal.
What made you a
believer of the paranormal?
I suppose I grew up listening
to my Dad and his family telling stories around the fireplace.
My Dad came from a
small farm in Kenmare, Co Kerry and when I was young I would volunteer to go
with my Dad to visit his family as we lived across the mountains in West Cork.
I loved hearing the
strange tales and rather than being scared by them, I was fascinated. In my book ‘True Stories from the Dark Side’,
I share some of these tales as well as talking about things that happened to me
personally before I became an investigator.
How old were you?
I was eighteen when I had my first paranormal experience. I was in an
upstairs room at my parent’s house when I became aware of a lady standing
beside me staring out of the window. She was wearing a dark blue cloak with the
hood pulled up over her head. She was crying. I turned to look at her properly
and she disappeared. The house had been built in the 1850s and she seemed to be
from that time.
Years later we found
out, from visiting descendants of the man who built the house, that his wife
suffered from some affliction, probably depression, and used to stand crying at
that window
To date what is
your most memorable investigation and why?
A
private gate lodge. The whole place was rotting from the inside out. Faulty
wiring, plumbing accidents, equipment malfunctioning, even cars outside
breaking down for no apparent reason. We investigated and when I went over the
data the next day, I could hear children’s voices asking for help. We went back
and attended a clearing ceremony. I had never been to one of these before and I
was a bit skeptical. I was amazed at the things that happened that night. We
could track a movement of cold air moving through the room and through the lady
doing the clearing’s back. We all heard loud movements from the next room as
the energies were called to come towards the light. At a critical point the
lady that lived in the house began to cry and as we took pictures of her we
were unable to see her clearly in the pictures. I felt that an energy was shielding
her, perhaps worried that she was upset and I asked her to tell the energy that
it was released and could move on. As soon as she did this, we were able to
take clear photos of her again.
Do you have a fav
place that you find yourself going back to investigate?
Ballinacarriga
castle. It was the first place I went on an investigation and I immediately
felt an affinity for the place. I always hear footsteps on the upper floor as
someone unseen approaches and can warn investigators to watch the equipment as
things are about to happen. There is a different energy on a lower floor and I
find the energy there very strong and uplifting. I think this energy belongs to
Randall Og who built the castle in the 1600s as it always responds when I speak
directly to it.
Are there any local
haunts where you live?
We have an old mill nearby that has been
converted into a Hostel. It’s a great location and there is a definite presence
there. Ghostly children have been seen playing in one of the rooms, doors have
unbolted and opened themselves overnight, I myself heard loud footsteps on the
stairs although no one was there and the sound of water rushing through the
mill has been captured although the river was diverted many years ago.
While
investigating, what is your favorite tool?
My
favorite tool is the audio recorder. I love listening back afterwards, reliving
the investigation and sometimes getting the bonus of a good evp.
What is the most
active location you've investigated?
Duckett’s Grove in Co
Carlow. I have heard footsteps, carriages crunching over non-existent gravel,
unseen gardeners digging in the walled garden. I have felt hands touching my
hair, found it difficult to stand still in one of the little rooms as the
ground seemed to be almost moving – eight other people mentioned the same thing
that night. A table tipped equipment onto me while I was filming and the chair
one of the team was sitting on was suddenly pulled backwards.
Most memorable
evps?
At Elizabeth fort in Cork city, we caught a class A evp
saying ‘yes, walk away’ and a few seconds later ‘they’re not gone’.
Another night in the
same location I was sitting on my own while the rest of the team were exploring
the attic and I switched on the audio and began to talk. I was asking the
usual, is there anyone there? Do you want to come and talk to me? Do you like
me talking to you? And so on. When I played it back, a man’s voice answers
‘yes’ or mutters something to almost all of my questions.
The evps from the gate
lodge were the most haunting things I have ever heard. They are not very clear
but sound like children asking for help and talking among themselves.
Have you ever had a
spiritual attachment? If so did you know who it was and how did you get rid of
it?
Coming back from Ballinacarriga castle one night, I felt
extremely ill. By the time I was home, I felt alright again but two nights
later I was driving home in the dark when I became aware of someone in the car
behind me. I knew it wasn’t a flesh and blood person so I thanked him – I felt
it was a man from the castle – for coming to visit me but told him firmly that
he needed to go back to the castle as there was nothing for him in the back
seat of my car. I immediately felt him leave and have not had any repeat
performances.
Share some of your paranormal
experiences (investigations, etc)
I have written books on
my investigations and experiences – Irish Paranormal Haunts Vol 1 and Irish Paranormal Haunts Vol 2 and True Stories from the Darkside - They detail my personal experiences as well
as any credible evidence we have been fortunate enough to capture.
Some of the items
include:
Ballinacarriga castle
·
I was climbing a staircase and
I tripped. I felt a hand on my arm steadying me but there was no one close to
me at the time.
·
I was standing in a corridor
on my own with the team leader and a cameraman filming me from the entrance. I
heard the team leader say, ‘where has she gone’ and afterwards he explained
that he had taken two pictures a few seconds apart and I am not in the first
one even though I didn’t move.
·
On the top floor of the castle
I always feel a male presence who always announces his arrival by shuffling his
feet on the rough floor and then lighting up all the K11s. The name Stephen
pops into my mind so I have come to call him that although I cannot find any
reference to him anywhere.
The Magdalen Laundries
·
I had the feeling of girls
running down the stairs behind me – pushing and shoving, although nothing actually
touched me – and our K11s all lit up.
·
In the kitchen area I felt an
overwhelming sadness and later found out that it is called ‘the crying room’.
·
Upstairs I heard a sound like
a nun’s habit swishing as she moved quickly down the stairs.
·
I felt unseen hands on my
stomach in the dormitory, as if someone was examining a pregnant belly (I wasn’t
pregnant!).
·
I also felt someone put their
arm around me but when I swung my torch to see who it was, there was no one
close to me.
·
Another time, I entered a room
and moved aside to let a team member in behind me. I heard them enter the room
and felt their presence but when I turned to ask them something, there was no
one there.
Duckett’s Grove
·
As we walked down the
driveway, I was chatting to one of the team. The others were all ahead of us
but suddenly both of us heard footsteps behind us and we turned around to
welcome the latecomer. There was no one there and we both burst out laughing.
·
In the garden, I was standing
by myself in the dark and I clearly heard an unseen gardener digging beside me.
·
In the kitchen area we could
hear movement in the corridor outside the kitchen and after a lot of
persuasion, we convinced an unseen presence to enter the room with us and walk
among us. We could clearly hear boots stomping around us but we had our torches
on and there was no one visible.
·
During a Frank’s box (spirit
or ghost box) session, I joined the investigation late. A question was put to
the spirits ‘who has just joined us?’ my name ‘Kim’ came clearly through the
static as did the answer to the question ‘where is she from?’ ‘West Cork.’
·
In the little room over the
carriage house, we all sat around a table and at one point a rush of energy was
felt entering the room and the table was lifted. I felt that someone wanted to take
us up on our offer and join us at the table but as there was no room, he got a
bit frustrated.
·
Soon after this, one of the
team had her chair pulled backwards as she sat on it, again, as if someone
wanted to sit at the table.
·
The night ended with one of
the team chasing a figure down the driveway. We all assumed that someone had
broken in to the grounds. The team member was chasing the figure with only a
thermal imager (she didn’t have a torch with her). She took a picture of the
figure but we were unable to find any unauthorised person on the grounds and
when we looked at the heat signature, it was completely wrong – this picture can
be seen at the end of this video
Elizabeth fort
·
We found an old Irish Pound
note in this building - it had been used
as a Garda (Police) station at one time. We jokingly said we would steal the
pound and the K11s went crazy. We got a lot of intelligent responses to our
questions after this.
·
We played host to a team from
Northern Ireland and one of their experiments produced a Class A EVP. The team
leader says that he will put the recorder down and walk away and if anyone
wants to communicate this is their chance. When the recording was played back,
a voice clearly says ‘yes, walk away.’
·
Later, in the old air raid
shelter we got a lot of intelligent responses (K11 hits) as we offered to sing
marching songs. Every time we stopped and asked if we should continue we got
K11 hits indicating that we should keep singing.
I am looking forward to paying a return visit to the Paranormal Prowler show in the very near future!
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