A Dublin Ghost Story

Marsh's Library in Dublin

The library was designed in 1701, but time has wrought no great change in its appearance.

Marsh's library is noted chiefly for its historical and literary connections, but it also enjoys another distinction. It is said to be haunted by the ghost of an Archbishop!

A brilliant scholar, Archbishop Narcissus Marsh was eccentric and obstinate. He did not believe in marriage and remained a bachelor all his life. His niece acted as housekeeper in his comfortable home beside the newly-built library.

The niece, Grace Marsh, met a young minister who, though poor, was hand-some and charming. She fell deeply in love with him but dared not let her uncle know about the affair. The lovers did not get the chance to meet very often because the Archbishop always seemed to be around. So they kept in touch with each other through written messages.

Whenever they wanted to send a message they just scribbled it an a piece of paper and placed the note carefully between the pages of a book, known to them bath, but seldom sought by users of the library.

In October of 1695, the young minister and the Archbishop's niece decided to elope to England. Eleven o'clock on one early October Eve the date fixed for the elopement was fixed, and in the meantime the lovers continued to correspond with each other through their secret "post office."

All during that fateful week the Archbishop's niece was particularly anxious that her uncle should not discover their plans. She felt that he suspected something. He seemed to frequent the library more often than usual.

On the morning of the elopement, snow fell heavily in Dublin. In an inner bay of the library the Archbishop's niece sat reading a note from her lover, which gave final instructions for the elopement that night.

On her way out, however, the note fell from her pocket. It was found next morning by a shocked and angry Archbishop. It was too late. The previous night, two figures had met at the entrance to Marsh's library in Dublin, not a stone's throw from busy Patrick's Close. There was a hurried conversation, then the figures moved together.

For days after the elopement, the Archbishop was like a man in a dream. Shock was gradually replaced by loneliness, then by bitterness. It is said that he never forgave his niece for what she had done. In the months that followed his health went from bad to worse until, some years later, he died at the age of 75. It was said that he had died of a broken heart.

Now, while Dublin sleeps, the ghost of the Archbishop is said to wander through the library, searching the shelves for the secret love messages of his niece.

The Archbishop's remains rest in a vault in St. Patrick's Cathedral churchyard. A short distance away stands the library. How the Archbishop’s niece, Grace, and the young minister fared has not been recorded but Grace lived to be 85 years old and it is nice to know that she was, after her death, buried in the same tomb with her uncle the Archbishop.