Peter Haining - Great Irish Tales Of Horror

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Peter Haining (ed.) -Great Irish Tales of Horror (Souvenir Press, 1995: Barnes & Noble, 1995)

Caspar David Friedrich, The Abbey in the Woods

Peter Haining - Introduction

1. Lurking Shadows: Stories Of Fear.

Jack Higgins - The Morgan Score
Charles Maturin - The Doomed Sisters
Fitz-James O'Brien - The Child That Loved a Grave
Shane Leslie - The Diplomatist's Story
Dorothy Macardle - The Portrait of Roisin Dhu
L. A. G. Strong - Danse Macabre
Elizabeth Bowen - The Happy Autumn Fields
Brian Cleeve - Mr Murphy and the Angel

2. Wake Not The Dead: Traditional Terror

William Trevor - The Raising of Elvira Tremlett
Gerald Griffin - The Unburied Legs
Bram Stoker - The Man from Shorrox'
Sax Rohmer - A House Possessed
George Bernard Shaw - The Miraculous Revenge
J. M. Synge - Five Pounds of Flesh
John Guinan - The Watcher o' the Dead
Peter Tremayne - The Samhain Feis

3. To Make The Flesh Creep: Chilling Tales.

Brian Moore - Fly Away Finger, Fly Away Thumb
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - Footsteps in the Lobby
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn - The Cedar Closet
Vincent O'Sullivan - Will
M. P. Shiel - The Bride
Mary Frances McHugh - Encounter at Night
Catherine Brophy - Arachnophobia
Neil Jordan - Last Rites

Acknowledgements

Blurb:

Horror is in the mind and of the darkness. Those who seek to indulge in nightmare will find more than enough here to set their pulses racing - satanic figures grope in the shadows, people long dead return to haunt the scenes of their lifetime, victims fly shrieking from a doom they cannot escape. Drawn from 200 years of short story writing, Great Irish Tales of Horror includes twenty-four of the most powerful examples of horror ever conceived. Many of them are all the more terrifying because the looming dread is understated or unseen; food for the imagination.

The writers extend from the giants of classic horror fiction - Bram Stoker, Sax Rohmer, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, and M. P. Shiel - through such masters as George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, and Dorothy Macardle. Also included are some of the great modern exponents of the genre, among them William Trevor, Brian Cleeve, Peter Tremayne, Jack Higgins, and Hollywood director Neil Jordan. Each brings his or her unique flair for creating an atmosphere that sends shivers up the spine and leaves the reader with the uneasy sense of being watched.

Peter Haining has chosen the best of Irish horror stories, from classic tales of the supernatural to modern, more sophisticated psychological thrillers. The Irish fascination with fear permeates these works, making this perhaps the most frightening collection of stories ever published.

Douglas Cameron

Am pretty certain he's messed around with the original titles of a few of these. There's also a companion volume. Not got a copy, but here are the details.

Peter Haining (ed.) - Great Irish Stories of the Supernatural (Souvenir Press, 1992)

Peter Haining - Introduction
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu - The Spectre Lovers
Patrick Kennedy - The Ghosts and the Game of Football
Mrs. J. H. Riddell - Hertford O'Donnell's Warning
Elizabeth Bowen - Hand in Glove
Sean O'Faolain - The End of the Record
Bram Stoker - The Judge's House
Micheál Mac Liammóir - The Servant
L. A. G. Strong - Let Me Go
William Trevor - Autumn Sunshine
Peter Tremayne - Aisling
James Stephens - The Carl of the Drab Coat
William Butler Yeats - The Curse of the Fires and of the Shadows
Liam O'Flaherty - The Fairy Goose
Frank O'Connor - The Old Faith
Catherine Brophy - The Science of Mirrors
Dr. Douglas Hyde - Teig O'Kane and the Corpse
Thomas Crofton Croker - The Haunted Cellar
A. E. Coppard - The Gollan
Lord Dunsany - The Crock of Gold
William Carleton - The Three Wishes
Donn Byrne - Tale of the Piper
J. M. Synge - The Devil of a Rider
James Joyce - The Devil and the Cat
Gerald Griffin - The Brown Man
George Moore - A Play-House in the Waste
Daniel Corkery - The Eyes of the Dead
Benedict Kiely - The Dogs in the Great Glen
Mary Lavin - The Green Grave and the Black Grave

Blurb
No country is more richly endowed with faerie folk and restless spirits than Ireland, and Irish folklore contains hundreds of tales of ghosts, devils and witches. This collection includes chilling tales by writers ranging from Brams Stoker to W.B. Yeats with stories grouped according to the type of spirit. Intriguing titles include The Spectre Lovers by Le Fanu, The Fairy Goose by Liam O'Flaherty, The Eyes of the Dead by Daniel Corkery and many more.

[cauldronbrewer]

Great Irish Tales of Terror is the anthology that introduced me to Peter Tremayne. "The Samhein Feis" is also included in his excellent Aisling and Other Irish Tales of Terror.

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Dorothy Macardle - The Portrait of Roisin Dhu: (Earth-Bound: Nine Stories of Ireland, 1924). An exhibition of canvases by the late Hugo Blake, tortured genius, who only once painted a human face. Blake travelled Ireland for a beauty to sit for his portrait of Roisin Dhu, eventually settling on the Nuala, the King of the Blasket Isles' daughter, though the monarch and his sons were far from pleased. "Tis not good to be put in a picture; it takes from you." Still she accompanies Blake to the mainland. Once back in his studio, Blake grows stranger by the day, painting her "better than God created her," but at huge cost to both himself and his model. He should have heeded the adage that the loves of Roisin Dhu must die.

Charles Maturin - The Doomed Sisters: (The Literary Souvenir, or Cabinet of Poetry and Romance, 1825 : as Leixlip Castle: An Irish Family Legend). Tragedy befalls the three daughters of Sir Redmond Blaney. An abduction by evil fairy woman (very creepy), an unforeseen wedding day massacre (the groom inexplicably goes gaga in the bridal chamber) and an ill-advised innocent dabble in witchcraft goes awry. Top gothic misery.

J. M. Synge - Five Pounds of Flesh: County Clare. O'Conor wishes to wed a rich farmer's daughter but lacks sufficient gold to meet the dowry. Enter one of those mysterious old guys who make a point of hanging around at crossroads. The mystery man lends him the loot on the understanding it is repaid in full a year to the day, or else O'Conor must forfeit five pounds of flesh. The deal is struck. O'Conor weds his dream bride. All is happiness and contentment until he puts her fidelity to the test, setting in motion a series of bizarre and bloody events.

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John Guinan - The Watcher o’ the Dead: (Cornhill Magazine, June 1929). "What is the good of talking of common sense! Half the world is stupid with common sense, if there is any such quality."

Tim McGowan has not been right in the head since he laid his wife in Gort Na Marbh, "the field of the dead," knowing that the last to be buried therein must keep nightly vigil over the rest. Tim volunteers to replace his bride as watcher, but now he lies on his death bed, who will take over the role? Another delightfully miserable folk tale. Moral. Each and every one of us has his or her own agony. Existence is torture, etc.

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William Trevor - The Raising of Elvira Tremlett: (Joseph Hone [ed.], Irish Ghost Stories, 1977). Sad history of a lonely Catholic child of shame who falls in love with the long dead English girl commemorated on the wall of a Munster Protestant church. "I began to imagine her, Elvira Tremlett of Tremlett Hall in the county of Dorset, England. I gave her long hair and her smile and her elaborate earrings, and I felt I was giving her gifts. I gave her her clothes, wondering if I had got them right. Her fingers were delicate as straws, lacing together the first of her daisy chains." Not sure quite how, but seems that the boy took the fantasy too far, as he's been committed to the Mallow Road asylum this past 34 years. It's come to something when even your fantasy lover rejects you.

Gerald Griffin - The Unburied Legs: (Holland-Tide; or, Munster Popular Tales, 1827). Shoresha Hewer encounters the tireless "well-shaped, middle-sized legs without either hip, body or head" while making his way to Mass in Abbeydorney. Hewer leads a crowd of villagers in following the disembodied legs over the moor and across the River Gale to the ruins of an old church at Newtownsands where, finally, they fade into thin air. What can it all mean? An old lady recalls a terrible crime from her youth; the grisly hatchet murder of a young man by a jealous love rival.