According to long-standing local tradition, Lough Cullen in South Kilkenny is no ordinary lake. On certain nights when the moon is full and the water lies still as glass, the silence is broken by the sound of shouting and the clash of hurleys.

Witnesses say that ghostly hurlers emerge onto the shimmering surface of the lake, playing a fierce and otherworldly match beneath the moonlight. Their voices echo across the water until, without warning, the players are swallowed by the lake, disappearing beneath its dark surface as suddenly as they appeared.

When the last echo fades, a phantom woman — said to be a witch who long ago created the lake itself — rises from the mist and cries out in a haunting voice:

“An luachair, an luachair!”
(“The rushes, the rushes!”)

Local lore suggests that her cry recalls the time when the area was a rush-filled hollow before her curse or enchantment flooded it to form the lake. To this day, some residents claim that the surface of Lough Cullen stirs unnaturally on moonlit nights, as though the hurlers’ game — and the witch’s lament — still repeat in endless echo.