Haunting Cries in the Night: The Galway Ghost House
A chilling true story that takes place in Galway, Ireland in 1996. It started with foul odors, phantom footsteps, and a baby’s cries in the night. This eerie tale will stay with you. 3700 Words.
This creepy tale might touch your soul like it did mine. I originally saw a documentary about this haunting in the 1990s on the, A Haunting TV series. The case stayed on my mind through the years, and I finally decided to research it.
Jackie and Ester Fahey, their daughter Martha, son Michael, and his fiancée Mary, lived in the Council Housing Estates, in Corab, Galway County, Ireland. The city which started as a fishing village reportedly has a lot of ghosts, and in earlier times was associated with Druids.
The Faheys were a close-knit, working-class family who had no idea that their lives would soon be turned upside down.
About a month after Martha gave birth to Sara Louise, the haunting began. At the time, the neighbors were also conducting a major renovation.
It all started with a putrid smell like rotting flesh and urine. Though they searched the house for a source, they found nothing to account for it. Thinking it could be gas or a plumbing problem, they contacted the local housing authority and had the house inspected, but inspectors found nothing out of the ordinary and were baffled.
The foul smell, however, disappeared four weeks later, and the family put it behind them, however, trouble was on the way.
Michael and Mary had looked forward to taking a short trip. The night before they were to leave, they spent hours painting their room. They went to sleep exhausted, and were awoken a few hours later when a blinding light shined through the front window, illuminating the room. Confused, they struggled to stand, but could find no source for the anomaly. They had no idea what the light was or where it had come from, but they knew it wasn’t a headlight as there was no vehicle on the street. Putting the event at the back of their minds, they left in the morning as planned.
While the couple was away, Esther decided to thoroughly clean their room. She hauled her vacuum to the bedroom and was annoyed to find what she thought were paint peelings all over the floor. As they sounded somewhat crunchy as she walked over them, she dropped to pick one up. Her eyes widened when she discovered that the pieces were not paint peelings but eggshells.
When the couple returned and went upstairs to put their luggage away, they also noticed the odd crunch beneath their feet. Thinking someone had deposited egg shells all over the floor, Michael confronted his mother about who’d been in his room.
She explained how she’d vacuumed and discovered the egg shells. The family soon found eggshells all over the house, which was accompanied by strange noises that woke the family up at night. Between one and three a.m., phantom footsteps sounded through the house.
At first they tried to find logical explanations about the peculiar happenings, but nothing made sense. And soon the haunting took a terrifying turn when whatever was causing the issues showed an interest in little Sara Louise, whom the whole household loved and adored.
The inexplicable activity often started in Sara Louise’s room with bangs and knocks on her walls at night. The family would search the room but would find nothing.
One night Michael and Mary returned to the house after seeing a movie and they encountered a deathly pale Martha hysterically screaming in the street. A teenage neighbor girl was trying to comfort her.
The teenager told them that Martha had come to her house and begged for help, claiming that someone had taken her baby.
Upon hearing the shocking news, Mary rushed into the house and up the narrow stairway to Sara Louise’s small bedroom. The room was frigid, inciting shivers, and Mary could see her breath in the air as she shuffled toward the crib.
Much to her relief, the infant was unharmed and sleeping peacefully. Without a second thought, she plucked the baby from the crib and made her way downstairs. As she passed the bathroom at the top of the stairs, the toilet flushed, and the door slammed shut. Fear driving her, she never paused to investigate and fled with the precious bundle in her arms.
The couple learned that earlier, Martha had put the sleeping baby to bed and went downstairs to watch TV. Moments later, a loud thump sounded in the baby’s room. Alarmed, Martha got up to investigate, worried that the baby had somehow fallen from her crib. As she dashed up the stairs, the thumping became louder and more erratic as if someone was tearing the bedroom apart.
Sara Louise was screaming.
When Martha finally reached the door to the baby’s room, she clasped the doorknob, but couldn’t open the door as if some unseen force on the other side held it firm. She tried repeatedly and then began screaming too in fear and desperation.
Not knowing what else to do, she finally fled to her neighbor’s home, seeking help.
Now the entire family knew that something was terribly wrong, and the idea of the supernatural was broached. They discussed it in the kitchen with Jackie having qualms about the whole idea that a ghost was at play.
But nothing else made sense.
Michael had another thought—maybe an intruder was in the house. He decided to call the police.
As he reached for the phone, the temperature in the kitchen plummeted. Michael could see his breath. By now, the family knew that the house grew cold before something happened, and sure enough, something unseen began thumping in the chair beside him.
The activity, however, failed to dissuade him, and he dialed the number only to discover that the phone had been disconnected. He couldn’t call anyone.
He laid the phone back in its cradle while a crash sounded from the front room. They family rushed to the area to find a framed photo of Sara Louise on the floor. It had been smashed into bits.
Absolute shock and terror filled the family. They couldn’t make sense of what was happening.
As they looked around the room, a silver picture frame was hurled from the fireplace by invisible hands. They fled the house, grabbing what they could on the way out. As Michael passed by, the coffee table was picked up by the unseen force and flipped over.
That night they drove 140 miles to Waterford where they stayed for the night.
In the morning, Michael rang their neighbor to find out if anything was happening at the house. The neighbor said that after the family left, the activity in the house had caused such a stir that people gathered in front of the house to watch the strange events unfold. They could see lights turning off and on and hear what sounded like furniture being dragged and smashed.
But the most disturbing oddity was the high-pitched cries of a baby, which came from the house.
The family wished they never had to return to the house, but they had no choice. When they got home, they found that the house had been ransacked–papers, clothes, and broken furniture everywhere.
“I want my house back,” said Jackie. “This is our home. We’re not just going let us put it out of our own home after being there 30 years.”
From that moment on, they all slept in the living room, fully clothed and with suitcases ready so that they could flee quickly if necessary. At first, all was calm and quiet, but the activity soon erupted anew with a baby’s cries in the night, thumping and pounding, and other oddities.
Word about the haunting got out, and Michael received a call from RTE, Ireland’s national radio and television service, who wanted to hear his story. He didn’t hesitate and shared the family’s horrifying tale in hopes that someone out there could help. The audience was fascinated, calling in to the radio station in droves, offering advice, sympathy, and sharing their own stories about things that go bump in the night.
That night, Sara Louise slept peacefully, but at 2:45 a.m., the house filled with her frantic cries. The family rushed to her room to find her sitting up in her bed. Her stuffed animals had been arranged in a perfect circle on the floor.
The scene was terrifying, and the family were at their wit’s end. They were hopeful, however, when the Bishop of Galway, Dr. Lachlan, agreed to conduct a mass at the house.
The mass commenced on May 6, 1997. The family had invited neighbors but the bishop refused to let them take part in the mass, saying the ceremony was for family only. Even so, neighbors gathered to recite the rosary before the mass. In addition, the bishop walked through the house to bless each room. Then the family gathered in the sitting room to begin.
As the bishop prayed, a baby’s cries erupted in Sara Louise’s room. Sara Louise, however, wasn’t in her room. She was in her mother’s arms in the sitting room, and there was no one else in the house.
Sweat popping out on his forehead, the bishop looked disturbed as the cries turned into shrieks. Pale, he paused for a moment, but then continued to pray, stammering through his prayers. Through the mass, the crying continued unabated.
Afterward, Jackie asked the bishop, “What are we going to do? What is this?”
The bishop said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t hear anything. There’s no human explanation for this.”
Refusing to discuss it further, the bishop left.
The mass had given the family no peace or comfort. The terror continued with items being hurled around the house, cries in the night, and other inexplicable activities.
They called the radio station again, seeking help, and were again inundated with calls, but no received no solution. The family was taken in by neighbors. Feeling that they couldn’t bear to live in the house anymore, they contacted the local housing authority, hoping to move, but the housing authority refused to help them.
Aidan Sheehan, a journalist from the Evening Herald, called. She wanted to stay overnight in the house and write a story about the events.
Wanting to get their story out there in hopes that someone could help them, the family welcomed her into their home. The moment she arrived, she made it known that she was a skeptic and didn’t believe in ghosts. She added that she didn’t believe that anything supernatural was happening in the house.
She’d come with her photographer. Both were amazed that the entire family slept in the same room, but she was willing to join them in order to get the scoop.
The ghost didn’t disappoint. At 11 p.m. footsteps plowed the floor in Sara Louise’s room. Then came the typical thumps and crashes as if someone was tearing the room apart. Everyone, including the reporter and photographer, rushed to the room to find it ransacked.
The reporter seemed frightened, realizing that something was going on.
Later, the family gathered in the kitchen where the reporter sat up her laptop in order to start writing her story. Cold air started to fill the room. Even Sheenhan was cold.
When a crash came from the sitting room, Sheehan was the first to enter the room. She was shocked to see that the room had been completely destroyed, and the remains of a large, porcelain dog lay in shards on the floor. In the middle of the floor was a smashed picture of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and the television had been moved to the other side of the room.
The reporter had the photographer take a snapshot of the scene.
The next day, Sheehan’s article about the chilling event appeared in the paper. She referred to her, “Night of Terror in Ireland’s most haunted house.” By now, the haunting was becoming famous, the Galway Ghost made headlines in every paper in Ireland.
Sara Louise’s toys would continue to be stacked, moved, and placed in odd ways. One morning Michael found her bottles stacked in a pile in the bathtub. Suspecting the haunting revolved around Sara Louise, the family pinned a holy medal inside Sara Louise’s jumper.
Later, they noticed a burn mark on the baby’s chest in the shape of the medal. Alarmed, the family decided that they must leave the house for good for the baby’s protection.
Mentally and physically exhausted, in a last attempt at getting help from the Church, the family drove a long trip to see another priest. The priest blessed them and told them that they no longer had to worry as their problem would be resolved. One can only assume that he performed some kind of deliverance ceremony for them.
When the family got back home, they ran into a stylish, blonde-haired woman who offered to help them. She said she was especially worried about Martha and Ester as the haunting was wearing on them, creating dark circles under their eyes.
She was the well-known, British psychic medium, Sandra Ramdani.
At once, they felt as if they’d always known her, and her kindness gave them a sense of comfort. Having no other option, they readily accepted her offer.
According to the Faheys, Sandra filled the house with warmth the moment she stepped in. Everyone felt a great sense of relief when she reassured them that Sara Louise was not in danger.
She asked them to take her to where the haunting was worst in the house and they took her to Sara Louise’s bedroom, and she placed her hands on the walls to get an idea of “what type of spirit was there.”
She asked if there had been any renovations in the house.
They told her a neighbor had done some major renovation work around the time that Sara Louise was born.
She smiled knowingly, saying that the construction work had disturbed a spirit of a baby, giving rise to the haunting. She felt the eggshells were symbolic for birth and new life.
According to Sandra, the ghost baby had become jealous of Sara Louise due to the attention she received and wanted the family’s closeness and love.
She lit incense to and strategically placed quartz throughout the home to balance the energy in the house. She also wanted to give the ghost baby peace.
She had the family gather in the parlor and asked them to join hands and close their eyes and imagine the spirit baby.
“Send all of your energy and love to this baby,” she said. “Imagine it surrounded by a golden light, see it begin to rise. Visualize it rising up out of the house.”
The family did as she bade and soon everyone saw a baby’s glowing form rise upward toward the heavens and disappear through the ceiling.
“I saw this baby in a white cloth going up into the light,” said Michael.
Later Michael said that everyone experienced this ceremony differently, but afterward the house became warmer, and they no longer sensed the presence.
Sandra claimed a vision had shown her that before their house was built, a farmhouse had stood in its place. A young nun who’d lived there had become pregnant out of wedlock. The father was a local bishop. She described a shadowy figure in the background, stern and angry, during the baby’s birth and the mother screaming afterward as her child was wrested away. To keep the pregnancy secret, the baby had been smothered and then buried beneath the floorboards of the house. The bishop and the girl’s father had supposedly responsible for the awful crime.
Oddly, after Sara told her story, a knock came at the door.
The family answered it to find a young man standing on their doorstep.
He said, “I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but I’ve heard your story, and I have something to share about the property. My family owned your land before this house was built. There used to be a farmhouse here, and the family had a daughter who was a nun. I don’t know what happened in that house, but there were rumors, and I do know it was haunted and weird stuff happened all the time. I suppose we thought that when the house was knocked down, it would all stop, but it didn’t. I’m sorry. I should have come to see you sooner.”
The Faheys thanked him and then, speechless, watched him walk away.
For them, however, the haunting truly was over. They soon got back to normal lives in a peaceful, happy home. But a recent interview revealed that they were always afraid that the ghost would return.
Jackie Fahey said, “We just couldn’t go through all that again.”
© Bobette Bryan, 2024
Commentary from Psychic Marie St. Claire
I picked up a copy of the book that Jonathan Fahey wrote about the incident called, Cry From Beyond. I got such a sense of disgust, and a bad case of nausea from the case that I had a difficult time reading the book and could only do so in short measures. I often get this feeling of disgust when there’s a negative spirit involved—and I was picking up on something utterly detestable.
It’s immediately clear that this “haunting” wasn’t the result of a baby ghost, but a demon. The same demon terrorized a family at the Sallie House in Kansas, USA, obsessing on the baby and arranging the baby’s toys in odd circles in the nursery, stacking them, and moving them. Like the Galway case, the demon focused on the most vulnerable soul in the house, the baby.
There are many clues that the Galway spirit was a demon. It started the way that a demonic infestation always starts, with footsteps, foul smells, and knocks on the door. Add to that, the entity attacked religious objects.
The victims said it was as if the ghost could read their minds. It could. And it could put thoughts in theirs as well, very unpleasant ones.
The psychic Sandra described a situation in which a baby was born to a nun and then murdered to save reputations. Sadly, that type of situation did happen in the past, and it may have happened in this case, but if so, it didn’t cause the haunting. A human ghost doesn’t have the power to do the things this entity did.
I’m more inclined to believe that the demon fooled the psychic, put impressions in her head about a nun, a corrupt bishop, and a smothered baby. The demon did this not only to bash the Church, but to further tug at hearts at the thought of a helpless infant, murdered in their home.
Likewise, in the case in Kansas, the demon convinced the family that a small girl in need of love and affection haunted their home. Their communication with the girl gave the demon greater access and control in their lives–in other words, it opened a door wider, creating a daunting escalation.
This Galway haunting, more or less, centered around the living infant in the home, because the infant was the most vulnerable person in the household. The demon played on everyone’s love for the infant, in order to incite greater anxiety about the infant’s well-being and fear. It did this for three reasons: one was so that it could draw energy from the victims. The more scared they got, the more energy it got to escalate the haunting. The second reason is that they might start to think fondly of the “infant ghost,” and open access to their lives, giving the demon greater power and control over them. The third reason is because demons hate humans and attack them in order to hurt God. They want to inflict as much pain and torment on their victims as possible.
The Faheys said the baby rose to the light during the ceremony, and the family all witnessed the event–but differently–in their minds. This was another of the demon’s tricks. It was putting thoughts in people’s heads, which were interpreted differently.
This was just an act by the demon to trick people into thinking it was gone.
Where did it go then?
Nowhere. It’s still waiting and watching in the shadows, and nothing but an exorcism, perhaps more than one, will chase it away. Even then, it will try to make a return, because demons always do.
Then why did this haunting suddenly stop?
Sandra must have done something to vanquish the negative energy in the house, which put the demon on sort of a pause. It simply ran out of energy in which to conduct a haunting.
On the other hand, the family took a long trip to meet a priest who blessed them all. He told them the haunting would stop now, which tells me that he intended to do some serious praying and likely conducted a mass from afar.
When they got home from their trip, Sandra was there. Perhaps the improvement wasn’t Sandra’s doing but the priest who quieted the spirit and sent it back to the hellish cocoon it had come from.
Some priests have greater ability in dealing with demons than others–a special grace from God, that’s why the Catholic church has a specially trained division of such priests who can successfully conduct exorcisms. It’s unfortunate that the family didn’t connect with such a priest from the outset who could have helped them.
Why did this thing haunt the family to begin with?
Unless someone was messing with the occult through séances, a Ouija board, tarot cards, etc., the most likely reason is the neighbor’s renovation project. They’d unknowingly unleashed something nasty, which had gained enough energy to commence a haunting.
There are things one can do in a haunting such as this. Be happy. Don’t let the spirit affect you. Go gray rock if it tries to scare you. If you succumb to fear, its energy and power heighten. Laugh a lot—demons hate laughter and can’t understand it. Never attempt to communicate with it or challenge it. And most of all, pray.
