In 2020, the local history page The Longford Eye shared a ghost story said to have taken place on Great Water Street, Longford, in the year 1900. The account is understood to have been passed down through local oral tradition, and the street itself is one of the oldest in the town — long associated with wakes, family houses, and close-knit neighbourhood memory.

The woman at the centre of the story was remembered as a reliable and respectable figure: steady in temperament, not given to superstition, and known to neither drink nor indulge in fanciful talk. Her testimony, therefore, carried weight among her neighbours. The priest who attended her afterwards was likewise said to have been deeply affected by what occurred in her home, to the point that he prayed for her and for the house for the rest of his life.

The following is the story as it was recorded, unchanged:

One night, forty years ago, there was a woman named Mrs. Maguire who lived in Water Street. She was coming home from a wake. She was at the top of the street when something tipped her shoulder. She did not take notice of it until the third time, and then she looked and saw a white figure.

She ran, and when she came to her own house she went in, lit a candle, and was about to go up the stairs when the candle was blown out. Then she saw a collar and tie. Then she went up to the bed, and the next morning some cups and glasses were inexplicably broken on the floor.

She told the priest, and got the house consecrated because it had not been done before, and she never went to a wake after.