Granard is a hilltop market town in the heart of County Longford, dominated by the mound of an Anglo-Norman motte and the statue of St. Patrick that crowns it. In 1988, it became the setting for one of the more disturbing domestic hauntings on record in the Irish midlands.

The Flynn family – Jimmy, his wife Jackie, and their nine children – moved into a four-bedroom council house on Trumra Road. The trouble started on the very first night they were there.

In the beginning it was easy enough to dismiss. Drawers in the kitchen began opening and closing after dark. A loud pounding started up inside the bedroom walls. Religious pictures slid from their hooks. The stairs creaked with the sound of footsteps when nobody was on them. But these things escalated, and what had seemed like minor disturbances began to feel like something working its way up to a more direct confrontation.

The first time the presence made itself felt was in the kitchen. Jackie was making tea when the temperature dropped sharply around her and the certain, unmistakable sensation came over her that someone was standing directly behind her. She turned. The room was empty.

The family called in a local curate, Fr. Holmes, who came to the house and blessed it. It made no difference. If anything, the activity intensified after his visit.

On the last night the Flynns spent in the house, Jimmy’s brother and a cousin had come to stay. The family huddled together in the bedroom. When Jimmy’s brother moved toward the door to leave, a tremendous noise erupted from overhead – something vast and heavy, pounding up and down on the ceiling above them. Jimmy threw holy water in the direction of the noise and felt something ice-cold rush past him. Jackie watched a shadow appear on the wall and grow.

They left the next morning and did not go back.

No explanation for the activity was ever established, and the identity of whatever inhabited that house on Trumra Road remains unknown.