Seeing double: Irish ghosts and spirits

There's a saying in Ireland: If you see a two-headed pig, keep your mouth shut. On the one hand, that sighting might have been caused by the spirit of St Patrick's Day. On the other hand, the Irish might be more willing to see an omen in that pig. Rural areas in particular are steeped in superstitious beliefs. Spells, potions, cures and charms are said to have the power to heal the sick, help the lovelorn, predict the future and ward off evil. Based in a mix of Christianity, folklore and social history, they make Ireland as much home to ghost tours as to pub crawls.

Superstitions will take many forms: Whistling into the wind, for instance, is considered a bad omen. Fishermen and sailors were faced with natural elements beyond their control, but if someone drowned, it couldn't be the result of a natural storm or of human error. Someone on board must have been whistling. Or how about dreams? A dream involving horses is a good omen, foretelling a wedding. Yet dreaming of the wedding itself is considered extremely unlucky. And don't tell anyone your dreams until after breakfast, and then preferably someone called Mary.

On the next page, come explore popular idioms involving ghosts and spirits and all things superstitious.

Anne Hodgson

Irish Folk Tours arranges fairy-tale evenings in Dublin's oldest pub, The Brazen Head, spiriting you away to a time and place "where the unseen world was never far away".

Dublin Sightseeing offers night-time Ghost Bus Tours of the city, taking you to a graveyard and entertaining you with tales of banshees and bodysnatchers.