Samhain Spirits

Hello everyone, and welcome to LukeLore. A quick deep dive into a folklore topic, where I share some of the stories from around the world that have piqued my interest.

It's that time of year once more, this is the 2026 Halloween special!

Which presents something of a problem for me, as I've done how many Halloween specials now? Five or six. Yeah... That means I've covered a lot of the specifics of the holiday's history and its most obvious stories. But I'm not out of spooky steam just yet! There's some trickier topics to take I'm not quite ready for yet, but this year I have A Plan. We're going to check out some Irish folklore, looking at some of the Celtic spirits that go bump in the night which a classic Jack-o-lantern was meant to turn away.

So I hope you've been carving, whether it's a traditional turnip or the more presently popular pumpkin, because we're naming names this episode and names have power. You aren't going to want anything here for a house guest.

Apologies in advance for terrible Englishman pronunciation of Celtic words, consider that a festive trick and roll with it. Let's get spooky for Samhain.

SECTION BREAK – The Irish Vampire

Vampires are somewhat codified now, thanks to the popular of Dracula. While Slavic revenants hungering for the living spread all across Europe, there was no one agreement on quite what that looks like. Catching a few episodes of Buffy won't come anywhere close to preparing you for regional variations of the ravenous dead. To get traditional for Halloween, that brings us to the Irish version of the vampire myth.

The Abhartach.

So, folklore being folklore? This is a little muddled. No news there, but it gives us some interesting variations to weave together.

It appears to have first been recorded in 'The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places' from 1870 by Patrick Weston Joyce, but just finding it written down for the first time isn't necessarily where folklore began. This comes from Slaghtaverty in Derry's parish of Errigal. Abhartach is also Ireland's word for dwarf, a bit of a chicken and egg moment with this word as the legendary Abhartach was indeed a dwarf. Whether that's hinting to fantastical little folk lineage, or just the happenstance of human genetics, the Abhartach of Slaghtaverty was able to use magic and was a right terror with it. Using these powers to subdue and abuse the local people, the Abhartach established himself as a fearsome, and widely feared, chieftain. Just ruling was not enough, he hungered for more. More power, and more playthings to hurt. This brought him into conflict with a neighbouring chieftain.

In some stories this is the Irish hero Cathain, other stories Fionn Mac Cumhail, or else leave the chieftain nameless. Whoever this was, tales of the tyrant Abhartach reached them and they responded by tracking their vile neighbour down to slay him. The oppressed people rejoice, and the Abhartach is buried in a standing posture.

This being a story of Ireland's version of the vampire, you can probably guess how this goes. The next day, the Abhartach is back, terrorising the survivors of his reign in life only even crueller than before. The hero of the story comes right back to kill him again, putting him back in the ground.

To which, the Abhartach responds by coming back again, even more powerful than before. Now, he roams the whole of Ireland at night, demanding bowls of blood in tribute and wreaking havoc if refused. At this point, his twice slayer seeks professional help. In recent versions of the story he goes to a Christian priest for guidance, which is much less interesting to me than when he went to see a proper Druid in the older stories. Our would be hero has a problem violence is not only not solving, but actively making worse. The simplest version of this tale is that once you kill someone whose dark magic is bringing them back, you need to bury them upside down. This isn't like some old legends where you confuse the corpse as to which way is up, this is specifically to counter the magic: Being buried upside stops any of the powers the body possessed, so the magic user couldn't respawn with another level up. The more complicated versions of the vanquishing are somewhat more poetic.

The returning menace will still need burying upside down, but first the Abhartach will need slaying with a sword made of yew. I'm not sure if this is an early staking, or ultimately a beating to death, but the power was specifically in the yew tree. Then after being returned to the grave upside down, a huge rock needed placing over the grave and thickets of thorns need planting around the capstone. Only then is the undead magician finally sealed away.

There's some recent speculation among at least one Irish folklorist that the Abhartach was a direct influence upon Bram Stoker for Dracula. The Transylvanian setting of that story does indicate there were more tales drawn into the literary melting pot, but a lecturer for Celtic history and folklore at the University of Ulster called Bob Curran has drawn the comparisons of folklore much closer to home for Stoker and has even said the real 'Castle Dracula' was between the towns of Dungiven and Gravagh.

You can visit the legendary grave of the Abhartach today at Slaghtaverty Dolmen. It can also be known as 'The Giant's Grave', which seems odd for an evil dwarf. It's a large rock with two smaller rocks overgrown by hawthorn bushes. It's hopefully where the Abhartach remains without even a Samhain pass, but just in case – or worse yet, if it ever got cleared out for a building project – have your Jack-o-lantern ready! Keep your blood on the inside, and powerful vampires out of your homes.

SECTION BREAK – Another Irish Vampire

The Abhartach isn't alone, there's also a blood seeking spirit to worry about over on the Emerald Isle. The Dearg Due, which means Red Bloodsucker as a clue of what we're in for.

She is a spirit who thirsts for the blood of men. Specifically the blood of men who lust, and those who betray women. So, she's one of those traditional evil spirits who's also kind of awesome in the right light. A vengeance from beyond the grave that stalks Waterford and Munster.

Her story begins in tragedy. A beautiful girl deeply in love with a local boy was given away in an arranged marriage to a brutal Chieftain who wanted to posses her. Having caught sight of her one day, this horrid specimen rode into town throwing treasure around and making threats. To keep the peace, and the riches, the girl's family was pressed to give her away to the notorious Clan as a prize for its leader.

A great party was thrown for the marriage! Guests were cavorting all night, feasting and dancing, all the while the poor girl sat as far away as she could get from the noise. She had a growing resentment for the town that threw her to the wolves, especially her weak father who just let it happen. She was filled with thoughts of vengeance as her miserable marriage began. She was kept as a thing, not a person but a trinket of the one who owns her. Locked away at all times as a prize, and used like a toy whenever the Cheiftian felt like it. The cruel man taking delight in keeping her away from everyone else to be his trophy plaything. She withered away in this horrible captivity, with her spirit broken the life in her body so too faded, at which point she was thrown away and the Chieftain moved on to his next distractions.

A year passed.

Then, on the anniversary of her death, the shade of this poor girl burst forth from her grave, filled with terrible vengeance at losing the life of love she should have had to be some thing traded away to a monster. Her first stop was her father. The furious spirit returned to her childhood home and made her way to the bed of the weak man who gave her away. The shade kissed him on the lips, sucking the lifeforce out of him in its entirety leaving a corpse behind. The newly invigorated, and very much still furious, Dearg Due would then move on to finding her widower.

She found the rancid Chieftain having fun with a group of women. This did not help to lesson her rage.

The frightful apparition burst into the room screeching with fury, sending the women fleeing as she pounced upon the man who ruined her life. She latched onto his face, and ripped from him not only his life force but every last drop of blood from his body. A profane act that left her incredibly powerful, allowing her to become an immortal force of vengeance. Leaving the shrivelled up corpse of her abuser behind, the Dearg Due went forth into the night to look for more abusive men to strike down. Her hunger now was like her rage, unquenchable.

She would go on to be something of a seducer. She would float around looking beautiful, luring men not thinking with their brain away from the safety of other people where she would then be able to latch onto their throat and drain them of their blood. Her grave is in Waterford at Strongbow's Tree, there's a local tradition of placing rocks upon her grave before nightfall on the anniversary of her death. Whether its the ritual, the general remembrance, or just weighing her down some more; this should in theory keep her underground. Still never dying, but not roaming the nights hungry for blood. Should this not be done however, or not be done enough to overcome the revenant's thirst, then the Dearg Due will burst forth once more to begin roaming in search of victims. I presume she will need resealing in the day to keep her below ground once she returns to rest, so please do keep up the good work people of Waterford!

Now, listener, you're probably safe from her. On top of being sealed away in one specific part of Ireland the Dearg Due has a type, and a little common sense goes a long way when it comes to not falling for fatal thirst traps in the dead of night. Anyone with a twinge of guilt going on, maybe do better going forwards and whip up some extra jack-o-lanterns now we've spent a segment invoking her by name. Others of you? Enjoy your new icon of feminine rage.

SECTION BREAK – A Fatal Kiss

It feels like we're on something of a roll here, so lets go on to another haunting seducer who hunts for men.

This is an even more behaviour and location specific one, so you're probably safe. Unless you're a man that lives in County Monaghan, in which case watch out at funerals. Because Errigal-Traugh graveyard has quite the unfortunate supernatural celebrity known as The Demon Bride. That name should give you a hint of how careful you need to be.

So the tales go, going back for at least 200 years, should you be a young man attending a funeral in Errigal-Traugh, you really shouldn't linger. You absolutely should not be found alone in the graveyard after everyone else has moved on. It's hard to say what, exactly, The Demon Bride is. Actually a demon, some sort of spirit, or something otherworldy; this isn't clear but it seems to make this graveyard its home and a funeral will summon it. Unseen, perhaps even unseeable as yet, it hides among the gravestones watching the ceremony committing a loved one to the ground, waiting for this to end and a chance to hunt to present itself. She, or perhaps more accurately It, lurks in hope of catching an unwitting young man who falls behind everyone else. Maybe they're mourning, maybe they just fancy a smoke alone, or possibly even this entity has begun to influence them already... But being caught alone is when The Demon Bride appears to them, changing her form each time to be that of a young woman the unwitting victim would desire most.

With no witnesses, and in the guise of the most lust inducing temptress the man's own mind can conjure, The Demon Bride teases and lures its prey into an agreement. They should meet one month from now back in the graveyard where they can then be together, all it will take is one little kiss to seal their promise. If no one intervenes and the young man falls for the fatal snog, they get a quite  passionate kiss before The Demon Bride vanishes. Left stumbling out of the graveyard in confusion, the dazed victim comes out from under the influence of his hunter to realise he is now doomed. He sold his life away, maybe even his soul, for a single kiss.

Although to be fair, the stories DO talk up what a great kiss it is.

For a whole month he will be plagued by visions of what happened, and what comes next, his sanity will fray and he will suffer raving in greater panic until the day finally comes. Obviously stricken by madness, his friends and family will do what they can but ultimately nothing can help. The young man will die, from there to be interred in the very graveyard he was doomed in. The Demon Bride has claimed another toy, while also setting up the next chance to hunt.

I didn't find all that much on The Demon Bride, but she seemed an interesting follow up to the  Dearg Due. If any listeners from around County Monaghan have any extra details I would love to hear them, like what may happen if you don't bury the victim in the same graveyard to fulfil their fate or if you try extreme measures to save a marked man. Anyone engaging in an Irish funeral on October 31^st should be bonus careful anyway, but young men always watch yourself at an Errigal-Traugh graveyard ceremony. This doom feels like a pretty unforced error, just don't dilly dally.

SECTION BREAK – Don't Pet The Demon Kitty

For this Halloween's final segment, I want to divert into some classic Halloween iconography with a Black Cat. Quite specifically, The Black Cat of Killakee House. Another specific regional one, this being County Dublin, but it's a great reason to up your Jack-o-lantern game if you happen to be around there over Halloween.

So the story goes that this is something sighted for centuries. A great black beast, spotted lurking among the forests around the old Killakee House. While speculation, it seems more than a coincidence this house, back when it was known as The Steward's House, was a part of the local Hellfire Club's debauchery that just happened to include the ritual burning of black cats. The Steward's House was one of three buildings that made up something of a paranormal triangle men of high social standing would rampage about doing terrible things. I think I will save the Irish Hellfire Club and what they got up to for a near future Dublin episode, for now let's turn to the dense woodlands of Killakee.

So, we have our likely inciting incident of historically terrible people doing an assortment of terrible things back in the 1700s. The Steward's House would go on to be sold, becoming the Killakee house, after some more mundane misadventures of the rich led to property being sold off in the 19^th century.

The thick forest of Killakee is the story all of its own in the intervening time. That's where warnings of the shadowy beast antagonising the unwary would be passed about in Dublin. All of which were ignored by the O'Brien's who bought the Killakee house in 1968 to renovate it into an arts centre and tearoom. Strange events would plague the property all through into the 70s. There was famously a door that could not stay shut no matter what measures were taken to secure it: when something wanted to come in from, or else return out to, the nearby woods this one portal would always allow this. Inexplicable chills that don't match the ambient temperature, casual poltergeist activity that especially liked to mess about with worker's tools, and the rather unsettling reoccurring voice wherein someone would have the following whispered into their ear when no one else was around:“You cannot see me, but I can see you.”Perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of workers would quit this job. There were also visual manifestations, ones which would famously tie into the tale of the local wandering beast. People would see a giant black cat, reported one time it was seen using the impossible to keep closed door as “the size of an Alsatian”. As well as using the door it likes whether a resident or tradesman wants it to or not, it would also pop up at times to menace people around the house. Glaring with blazing red eyes, or full on hissing and snarling at someone before vanishing. An angry enough regular black cat could be worrying, a dog sized demonic looking one is probably a good reason to quit laying new skirting board.

The O'Brien's specifically got even worse targetted treatment for their audacity in trying to take the building away from whatever here had a prior claim to it. Poltergeist activity went from mischievous misplacement to violence as objects were thrown at family members, and on one occasion someone being shoved down a flight of stairs.

The apparition was also seen wandering about as a disfigured 3 foot tall human seeming being, which doesn't appear to be a separate entity as this version has been observed transforming into the giant cat. That the giant cat also appears able to talk, and sometimes has a strangely human face, suggests we're looking at one angry mostly feline thing about the Killakee House. The artist Tom Massy was a witness to these events several times while helping decorate. He gives the description “A monstrous black cat with red-flecked amber eyes crouched there in the half-light” staring at him on one occasion, and he was one of two witnesses claiming to see the small humanoid apparition change into the giant cat thing. The body of what appears to be a small man was found during renovations, along with an effigy of a demon, so on top of the Hellfire rituals it does seem like a messed up enough place to be worrying.

This would eventually lead to an exorcism in the mid 70s, a priest called in to cleanse the house appears to have calmed the resident monster cat down. Sightings stopped for a while, and there are some reports that unnatural mischief around the house may have continued but in other stories everything went quiet for a while... Up until the point a group of film students held a seance at Killakee house, and everything kicked off again in full force. Which is why you don't faff about poking forces you don't understand with spirit boards and the like!

Unfortunately, the Killakee house was turned into a private residence in the 2020s. I got excited when I saw it was a modern tea room, I started looking to see if I could go visit it but was disappointed to find it's no longer a public business. Tom Massy did make a painting of The Black Cat of Killakee which you can search up to have a look at. The woods are well known to birdwatchers these days, I expect it's fine if you stick to the daylight. Come the sunset, you may need to worry about what may be watching the birdwatcher...

Definitely don't go Jack-o-lanternless in this part of Dublin. We already know it can open doors whether you like it to or not!

SECTION BREAK

And that's it for this spooky season's special episode. I hope you enjoyed tales of some infamous individual spectres known to roam Ireland, and anyone who happens to live in these areas definitely don't be shy carving up some household protection. None here would be a welcome guest for Samhain. Any newly minted Dearg Due fans, please comment “good for her” where you listened to or share this episode. It'll be fun to get an idea of how many of you are out there.

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