A Dublin Ghost Story

There is an old Georgian house in North Great George's Street, Dublin, in which a sobbing child is said to be heard at night. The old house, once a building to be admired, is set in apartments and is now dilapidated.

It was first occupied about 200 years ago by a man named Marsden, a miser who, it was rumoured, had a special room built in which to store his money and valuables. The secret room was known only to himself and the man who built it, and when the latter was killed in an accident it was hinted that Marsden had arranged his end to ensure that nobody but himself should know of the existence of the secret room.

At night when his servants had gone to bed, old Marsden would disappear into his secret room and spend hours gloating over his wealth. The story goes that one morning he failed to turn up for breakfast and his butler wondered why. A thorough search of the house was made. But the old miser could not be found - and was never found.

Eventually the house was put up for sale.

It remained unsold for some time because it was said that the ghostly figure of Marsden had been seen moving about in it at night.

Then a new owner came along. He was a wine merchant and he and his wife were devoted to their five-year-old daughter. For a while they were happy in their new home but then strange knockings at night began to disturb them.

One stormy night the knockings became so loud and terrifying that nobody in the house could sleep. Alarmed, everybody got out of bed; including the wine merchant's little daughter, who ran panic stricken from the nursery to the rear roams of the house. Her parents followed her, but then they reached that part of the house to which she had gone, they could find no trace of the child.

The little girl was never seen again. The horror of it hastened the mother's death and caused the father to sell the house. Some people say that the little girl had accidentally gone into the old miser's secret room, where she was kept captive by his ghost in case she told of the whereabouts of the roam. This room, they say, will remain hidden until the old house is demolished.