THE GHOST SHOW OR SÉANCE

NOTE: This would be a good performance for a live internet broadcast.

THE ELEMENTAL NAMED "IT"

This would be good séance material.  The calling of the Elemental spirit named "IT"
The occult was the fashion of the day, and Mildred Darby did some innocent dabbling, despite the castle's history and reputation for being haunted. Mildred's dabbling with magic awakened the elemental with ferocious velocity.

In 1909, Mildred Darby wrote an article for the Journal Occult Review, describing her terrifying ordeal. "I was standing in the Gallery looking down at the main floor, when I felt somebody put a hand on my shoulder. The thing was about the size of a sheep. Thin guanting shadowy..., it's face was human, to be more accurate inhuman. Its lust in its eyes which seemed half decomposed in black cavities stared into mine. The horrible smell one hundred times intensified came up into my face, giving me a deadly nausea. It was the smell of a decomposing corpse."

The elemental is thought to be a primitive ghost that attaches itself to a particular place. It is often malevolent, terrifying and unpredictable. After Mrs. Darby's experiments in the black arts, Leap Castle has never been the same. Haunting plague Leap leaving a sinister air throughout the castle. The Darbys remained at Leap until 1922.

LEAP CASTLE

Ireland

Home of the elemental "IT"

Through turbulent centuries, Leap Castle kept watch for the lords of Ely O'Carroll and still stands fortress-like on its perch overlooking a vast stretch of the countryside. It guarded the pass from the Slieve Bloom into Munster. From here the O'Carrolls set out for victory and defeat, here they brought their brides and captives. Within lurks Ireland's most intriguing elemental presence - unique in that it is reputed to give off a hastly ghostly odour. The Gaelic name for the castle is "Leim ui Bhanain" - which means the Leap of the O Bannons. The O Bannon clan were the first owners of Leap. Before the O Carrolls went to live in the Castle the O Bannon family were under chiefs of the O Carrolls. Leap Castle is a keep.

The keep it self was built in the fourteenth or fifteenth century Around 1604 or 1605 some of the territory of Ely O Carroll was attached to Kings County which is now known as Offaly. There is a rumour that an O Carroll daughter helped a Darby to escape from the castle and then married him afterwards. Following the failure of the Revolt of the Earls, in 1619 the plantation of Ely O Carroll took place. The English rulers settled the area with loyal Protestant Scots and Englishmen and deprived the local Gaelic population of their land. Leep Castle passed into the hands of the Darby family A Darby son of an English knight married one of the O'Carrolls daughters and he came from Godsby hall, Lincolnshire. Admiral Sir Henry Darby, K.C.B. commanded a ship at the battle of the Nile, which was called the Bellerophon. It also brought Napolean into exile. He died in 1823. General Christopher Darby died in 1832.

John Nelson Darby devoted most of his life to writing and travelling around the world. He wrote thirtytwo volumes in all. Mrs. Jonathan Darby wrote about the poor whereas most of the English would look down on the poor. She wrote about the Famine in a book called "The Hunger". She also wrote "Anthropoid Apes", "The Green Contry", "Paddy Risky" and an "April Fool". Her husband told her not to write any more books after she wrote "The Hunger". Jonathan Darby had 4,376 acres in 1871.
On Sunday 30 July 1922 to Monday 1 August 1922, the Leap Castle was destroyed. Jonathan Darby claimed 30,000 compensation. The castle began restoration some years after.

Recent updated reports from the last 10 years, tell of inexplicable lights in one of the windows that goes on by itself; a mysterious, hideous 'ELEMENTAL' known as "IT"; a tall female clothed in red from head to toe, a ghostly, shaven Monk; an elderly lady and an old man.
Simon Marsden, one of the most internationally acclaimed photographers of ancient structures and castles, has said of Leap Castle "Without a shadow of a doubt the most sinister and frightening building I have ever photographed"

Leap Castle
Roscrea Co. Tipperary
Tel. 0509 31115/087 2311034
Open all year round. Entry: Adults
£3, Children £1, Group rates.
(no accommodations)

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