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Published: June 26th 2007
We were not sure what to expect but we thought the tour would be cheesy---it wasn't.
The night begins with boarding the world's only ghost bus, affectionately known as Molly. The inside of the bus is converted and decorated to look like a dungeon and it most certainly did. The seats in the lower floor had been removed and the entire floor was in darkness, except for the glow of a lantern, which glowed with the effect of a candle. The windows were covered with thick red velvet curtains. We proceeded upstairs accompanied by dark and gloomy music. The upstairs was decorated in much the same way as the lower level and was lit up by a red light. After getting settled and taking dozens of pictures, our tour guide appears. He has black hair and is very pasty and is wearing all black and a trench coat. He begins with a very creepy voice giving us an overview of the tour. He related many stories to us during the journey through 1,000 years of turbulent, dark Dublin, but I am only going tell you about a few of the most interesting stories.
Bram Stoker, the author of
Dracula, grew up in Dublin. His mother shared his fascination with the dark side and related many stories of her childhood to Bram. She grew up among the cholera outbreaks. At one point nearly everyone in her village died. She would tell Bram the stories and include the darkest and smalledt details. He based much of his work on her stories.
The most interesting part of the tour related to bodysnatching. We went by the medical school and found that the school was in such need of bodies to dissect that they resorted to paying for fresh bodies. Next we went to St. Kevin's church. It is in ruins and is reputed to be haunted. We learned that the town council would hire men to watch fresh graves at night (hence the term graveyard shift) to prevent the bodies from being snatched and because of the watch the body snatchers had to work very quickly. Instead of digging up the entire grave they would dig up the head of the grave and bust through the top part of the coffin. But how do they get the bodies out? Our guide asked for a volunteer and as one stepped forward
he pulled a very large hook out of his bag. It was very similar to a hay baling hook. It was big enough to hook around the volunteers neck. He asked us how we thought the hook was used to pull the bodies out. There many answers from hooking under the rib cage or by the collarbone to the eye sockets, but no the hook was hooked onto the chin and then the body was pulled out. Before taking the body the medical school the snatchers would strip the body of all valuables. YOu would think that valuables would only include jewelry and clothing, but it also included teeth (sold to the dentist to make dentures) and the hair (sold to wig makers). The snatchers would usually get 7 to 10 pounds (14 to 20 dollars) per body depending on the condition of the body (the fresher the better). This was equal to about 3 months of wages for a common person.
The tour continured with a stop in front of St. Stephen's Green (a very beautiful park). The park was the site of many executions of Irish people by the mercenaries hired by the British to keep order.
One of the mercenaries who was near 7 feet tall was one of the worst of the mercenaries. If he arrested a citizen and determined that they should be executed, he would go to a particular side gate of the park and tie a noose around the prisoners neck. He would then sling them over his shoulder and drage them around the park until they strangled to death. The gate is still said to be haunted by the mercenaries ghost.
There were many more stories told but these were my favorite. The tour was part history, part legend, and part very good theatrics. The tour guide was extremely good at coming off as a creep.
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Aunt Dian
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Postively Ghostly
Kirsten, now that is my kind of tour! The bus decor is neat. I love spooky with no gore to see. Lots on interesting history involved there. Horrible to think that type of torture occurred and unfortunately still does in other countries. That part of it creeps me out tho.