In 1929, a small cottage in Brown’s Yard, Newry, became home to Catharine and her husband, Thomas McDermott. Living with them were two of Catharine’s sister’s children from next door. What the family soon learned was that their new home carried a deeply unsettling history: the previous occupant had died by suicide, hanging himself from a rafter above the cottage stairwell.

Not long after moving in, the McDermotts began to experience something unusual. According to their account, the spirit of the former tenant manifested not as a person, but as a large black dog. The animal was seen at various times sitting silently on the staircase—always positioned beneath the very rafter from which the man had taken his life.

On other occasions, the apparition was far more dramatic: the dog would appear in the room and leap across the beds where the family lay. Despite how unnerving this must have been, the McDermotts insisted that the presence carried no malice. There was no sense of threat or evil—only a deep sadness, as if the restless soul had chosen the form of a dog specifically to avoid frightening those who now lived in his home.

Out of compassion, the family developed the habit of praying regularly for the deceased man’s soul. For a time, the haunting eased, only to return again at intervals—as though the spirit drifted between peace and unrest.