Spooky nights at chilling Mansion House

It has all the ingredients of a classic ghost movie.

A big old house. Things going bump in the night. And a family — actually, multiple families — refusing to leave the place.

Adding into the mix that the house is for politicians gives it a delicious twist, promising hints of poetic justice.

And, with repeated sightings from many people of things spooky, the film could add the chilling tagline of being ‘based on real life events’.

The setting could hardly be more impressive: The imposing Mansion House, built at the turn of the 18th century and the home of the sitting Lord Mayor of Dublin, located on one of the city’s main boulevards, near that other old closet of skeletons, Leinster House.

And the bumpy things would raise a few hairs on anyone’s head: Eerie sounds of babies crying; sightings (albeit by a child) of a ghostly girl sitting up watching television; adults being roughly pulled; and a bedroom and (yes, it gets better) a light-free basement with minds of their own.

Current Lord Mayor Naoise Ó Muirí said that, some three months ago his then youngest daughter — Briona, aged 4 — told him and his wife that when she came into their room in the middle of the night she saw a girl with dark curly hair watching TV in the sitting room.

He also spoke about the back bedroom, which was “always cold”.

He said: “If I were here late at night on the corridor I would feel someone looking out at you from there: There is definitely something about this room.”

His wife Fionnuala said that, when she was pregnant, she went into the room (no one had warned her about it) and had the “worst hour’s sleep” of her life, saying she “felt a presence in the room”.

And other inhabitants have experienced strange things too in the landmark building, built in 1705.

Former mayor Catherine Byrne, who would not be considered a shrinking violet, said both her daughters — then aged 12 and 18 — said they heard babies crying one night.

Three days before she was due to leave, she said she was walking up the stairs when somebody tugged her coat, but saw no one. “It was real hard, not gentle, in an aggressive kind of way,” said the Dublin south central deputy.

Maybe, not quite paranormal activity, but certainly not Casper the friendly ghost either.