"LISSADELL, SLIGO, February 1891.
"On the 10th of April 1889, at about half-past nine o'clock A.M., my youngest brother and I were going down a short flight of stairs leading to the kitchen, to fetch food for my chickens, as usual. We were about half-way down, my brother a few steps in advance of me, when he suddenly said, 'Why, there's John Blaney; I didn't know he was in the house!' John Blaney was a boy who lived not far from us, and he had been employed in the house as hall-boy not long before. I said that I was sure it was not he (for I knew he had left some months previously on account of ill-health), and looked down into the passage, but saw no one. The passage was a long one, with a rather sharp turn in it, so we ran quickly down the last few steps and looked round the corner, but nobody was there, and the only door he could have gone through was shut. As we went upstairs my brother said, 'How pale and ill John looked, and why did he stare so?' I asked what he was doing. My brother answered that he had his sleeves turned up, and was wearing a large green apron, such as the footmen always wear at their work. An hour or two afterwards I asked my maid how long John Blaney had been back in the house? She seemed much surprised, and said, 'Didn't you hear, miss, that he died this morning?' On inquiry we found he had died about two hours before my brother saw him. My mother did not wish that my brother should be told this, but he heard of it somehow, and at once declared that he must have seen his ghost.
"MABEL OLIVE GORE BOOTH."
The percipient's independent account is as follows:—
"March 1891.
"We were going downstairs to get food for Mabel's fowl, when I saw John Blaney walking round the corner. I said to Mabel, 'That's John Blaney!' but she could not see him. When we came up afterwards we found he was dead. He seemed to me to look rather ill. He looked yellow; his eyes looked hollow, and he had a green apron on.
"MORDAUNT GORE BOOTH."
We have received the following confirmation of the date of death:—
"I certify from the parish register of deaths that John Blaney (Dunfore) was interred on the 12th day of April 1889, having died on the 10th day of April 1889.
"P. J. SHEMAGHS, C.C.."The Presbytery, Ballingal, Sligo,
"10th February 1891."
Mr. Myers originally received an account of the incident viva voce from Lady Gore Booth, and subsequently at his request the percipient and his sister, aged at the time ten and fifteen respectively, wrote the accounts given above.
Lady Gore Booth writes:—