What is it about Ireland' s past that so haunts the imagination? More than one answer can be found in Michael Scott's powerful new collection of 29 tales. To start with, in a newly Christianized Ireland, monks do battle with a devilish monster that has killed a river. All the water in this collection, from rivers to lakes, conceal dangers that men and women would best avoid. Ready to tempt Ireland' s new conquerors -- humankind-- supernatural forces hide beneath waves, in bogs, in the very land, waiting. With his usual inventiveness, Michael Scott juxtaposes the old and the new, the ancient and modern, showing that in everyday situations, the curses of Ireland' s mythic past lie imp- like, threatening destruction.

Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle, a land of history and mystery, beauty and enchantment. But there's much more to this jewel of the North Atlantic than meets the eye. Hans Holzer is a renowned ghost hunter who has traveled the world trailing the elusive spirits of souls anxious to be sent beyond the Veil. Here he recounts his fascinating journey across this island in search of its soul...and its spirits. There is an 18th-century swordsman who defends the hidden treasure of Ballyheigue Castle, a proud house now gutted by fire; Princess Orloff, originally known as Angelica Parrott, who returned home to haunt a jealous sister; Lilith, a young inhabitant of eerie Skryne Castle, who was strangled with foxglove fronds in 1740; Mary Masters, a young girl who refuses to forget her horrible death and continues to haunt Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel; the ghost at Number 118 Summerhill, Dublin who sends workmen into a panic; and many more.

Irish-born playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett, one of the most individual voices of post-war literature, famously said: 'Personally, I have no bone to pick with graveyards, I take the air there willingly, perhaps more willingly than elsewhere, when take the air I must.' In a similarly phlegmatic spirit, Wordsworth Editions presents this spellbinding collection of chilling Gothic tales of the macabre, all drawn from the rich and varied literary tradition of a culture long in thrall to things supernatural. The Irish, as William Butler Yeats remarked, 'any day prefer a ghost story or a fairy tale to The Times newspaper'. Featuring the imaginative writings of such towering masters of the genre as Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Patrick Kennedy, Thomas Crofton-Croker and George Moore, this volume of ghoulish masterpieces from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is an encapsulation of the arcane lore, magic realism and fantastic creativity of the Irish.

Ireland’s Haunted Women tells the chilling tales of nine modern Irishwomen, and one young girl, who have experienced hauntings. This is not just another ghost book – no rehashing of old tales or stories borrowed from other collections. These cases are told here for the first time, collected from women the length and breadth of Ireland – women who are vulnerable to seeing ghosts, to house-hauntings and to demonic possession. We have come a long way from headless horsemen, pookas, banshees and the like. The modern ghost has to be more sophisticated than that. On the other hand, poltergeist activity has remained virtually unchanged down the centuries; scenes of past wickedness continue to haunt the living; the spirits of the deceased stubbornly insist on returning. Riveting, suspenseful, these tales of the paranormal will draw you in and leave you petrified! Whether you accept them as truth or reject them as delusion or false memory, we guarantee that they will leave you shaken and slow to switch off your bedside lamp for many nights to come.

Illustrated with atmospheric photographs and supported by extracts from original documents, this guide will appeal to anyone with an interest in things that go bump in the night. The sites covered are open to the public.

Reports on sightings of UFOs over County Roscommon in 1997 set in train a passionate interest in the paranormal and inspired Dara deFaoite to write this probing and scholarly book. Paranormal Ireland goes beyond recounting stories of ghosts, haunting, strange creatures in woods and poltergeists to reveal a rare insight into what science has failed to explain.Superbly readable Paranormal Ireland recreates from interviews and notes the appearance of big cats in Tipperary, sightings of UFOs over Roscommon, the harrowing experiences of a family in Galway at the hands of a poltergeist, amongst other mysterious tales. DeFaoite has produced a book with all the feeling and depth of fiction but more shocking because it’s true. It also includes a Travel Guide to the Paranormal in Ireland.

Blend the wild and fevered Irish imagination with a wonderful facility for recounting a dark, compelling tale, add a dash of the supernatural, and you have a potent brew of spine-tingling tales. This anthology of the best ghost stories from Ireland and Irish writers includes contributions from such masters as Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, W. B. Yeats and Rosa Mulholland. Within these pages you will find strange accounts of haunted houses, death warnings from beyond the grave, and revengeful spirits, all guaranteed to stir the imagination and chill the blood. The haunting tales featured in this beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of Irish Ghost Stories have been selected and introduced by David Stuart Davies. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.