From the book "True Irish Ghost Stories" by Seymour, St. John D. (St. John Drelincourt); Neligan, Harry L
Occasionally it happens that ghosts inspire
a law-suit. In the seventeenth century
they were to be found actively urging the
adoption of legal proceedings, but in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries they
play a more passive part. A case about a
haunted house took place in Dublin in the
year 1885, in which the ghost may be said
to have won. A Mr. Waldron, a solicitor's
clerk, sued his next-door neighbour, one
Mr. Kiernan, a mate in the merchant service,
to recover for damages done to his
house.
Kiernan altogether denied the charges,
but asserted that Waldron's house was notoriously
haunted. Witnesses proved that
every night, from August 1884 to January
1885, stones were thrown at the .windows
and doors, and extraordinary and inexplicable
occurrences constantly took place.
Mrs. Waldron, wife of the plaintiff,
swore that one night she saw one of the
panes of glassof a certain window cut through
with a diamond, and a white hand inserted
through the hole. She at once caught up
a bill-hook and aimed a blow at the hand,
cutting off one of the fingers. This finger
could not be found, nor were any traces of
blood seen.
A servant of hers was sorely persecuted
by noises and the sound of footsteps. Mr.
Waldron, with the aid of detectives and
policemen, endeavoured to find out the
cause, but with no success. The witnesses
in the case were closely cross-examined, but
without shaking their testimony. The facts
appeared to be proved, so the jury found for
Kiernan, the defendant. At least twenty
persons had testified on oath to the fact
that the house had been known to have
been haunted.
