Sep 10 2016
‘This is Radio Luxemburg…’
Our old Wireless was great all the same. We could tune into Radio Luxemburg or the BBC Home Service and just by turning a knob we could listen to a whole load of different languages from all over the world. I remember one particular time of a winters night and we were all sitting around the fireplace with no light on or anything and all the ghostly shadows dancing across the kitchen ceiling. The Da’ was telling us ghost stories of things that happened in the tenements when he was a young fella. ‘…and then a hand came out from under the table…‘ says he ‘…just a hand and nothing else and it crept across the room to where the old woman was lying…‘ Well I can tell you that at this point in the story the sisters were all crying with fright and the lads weren’t too far behind them. ‘…and then it caught the woman by the throat…‘. Then all of a sudden the Da’ would grab one of us by the back of the neck and the screams and roars of us, sure even the next door neighbours told us the next day that they could hear us screaming. Then the Ma’ says ‘Turn on the light, it’s nine o’clock and time for bed’ and with that didn’t the oul wireless come on, all of its own accord, honest to God and there was no one anywhere near it. Well I can tell you now that the Ma’ was the first one out of our kitchen that night and her galloping and roaring all the way up our stairs with a gang of kids after her. Then the Da’ pulled the wireless plug out of the wall and banging our kitchen behind him he took to his heels and taking the stairs two at a time ran into the toilet and locked the door. Now, there was never any explanation or reason given as to why our wireless came on that night and we never heard another ghost story out of the Da’ either…