Ghost busters get in the spirit at gaol

GHOST watching in Ireland’s most haunted place is not a dying business.

Psychic Mike Fallon, better known to his fans as the Sandman, has been scaring the living “night” out of visitors to Wicklow Gaol.

Twice a week, the former boiler engineer conducts guided tours through the haunted cells of the tourist attraction where skeletons do not stay in the closets.

Mike, whose mother was May Kavanagh, a renowned Dublin faith healer in the 1950s, is the seventh son of a seventh son and paranormal activity “doesn’t scare me at all”, he declared.

That’s not to say he remains unaffected by his frequent contacts with spirits from the “other side”.

Along with Irish psychic, Louise Kings, he has managed to profile many of the restless souls which inhabit Wicklow’s historic gaol.

“It’s not always about seeing, I also feel the emotions of the spirits and interpret events they experienced hundreds of years ago,” he said.

One of his most deep-felt experiences happened in the cell of a seven-year-old girl called Grace, whose mother was an inmate. The Sandman was visited by Grace who died of gangrene after breaking her leg in a fall when she shared the gaol with her parent, probably during famine times.

“On our visit last Saturday night, the presence of a child called Grace was very strong. She reacted to my call for her to respond.

“The whole group heard it – three very light, very low knocks. We knew she was there.”

“Louise and I first met Grace two years ago on our first visit to the haunted jail in Wicklow. As I walked around I felt something pulling at my clothes. Louise also saw her and felt her presence. On one occasion as Louise was sitting in the area they call the ship, someone took a picture of her. When we looked to the picture there was an orb and there was a clear picture of the little girl in the orb.”

The gaol was opened at the turn of the 1700s and closed in the late 1800s.

The earliest recorded prisoner was Fr Owen McFee, a 72-year-old priest, who was convicted of saying Mass in the county contrary to the law.

One of the most active ghosts at the gaol is known as ‘the monk,’ which has been captured on film.