Tucked off Barrack Street in the heart of Waterford city, the Shortcourse area carries a history that stretches back to medieval times. The name itself is a remnant of an archery range – a practice ground for the short bow, mirroring the nearby Longcourse where the longbow was once drawn. For centuries, the streets here existed in the shadow of a cavalry barracks, and the layers of the city’s military and civic past run deep beneath the surface of what is now a quiet residential neighbourhood.

It was in a rented house somewhere in this area that a tenant, during the 1990s, began to notice things he couldn’t account for.

The first incident was simple – but unsettling for exactly that reason. He had been sitting on the sofa watching television when he stepped into the kitchen for a moment. When he returned, the sofa had been turned to face the opposite direction. He had heard nothing. Nobody else was in the house. It’s the kind of thing that’s easy to dismiss until it happens to you.

On separate occasions, he would be lying in bed at night when he heard footsteps climbing the stairs. They were unhurried and deliberate, and they always stopped at the same place – directly outside his bedroom door. It happened at least once or twice. Whatever was on the other side of that door never came in.