About 20years ago, long before the Celtic Tiger visited the country, we bought a cottage in Ring, Co Waterford. It was no more than a ruin at the time but it was once a home to John Tobin and his 11 children. Typical of the time it was a cottage on an acre. There was no electricity and the cottage consisted of 3 rooms and a lean to which housed a toilet and sink.
John Tobin had died about 2 years before we bought the cottage from his son.
It was a challenge getting the place together with little money and four young children in tow but we took our time. Nothing came easy, in fact from the start it felt like we were battling against an invisible force. Himself was working on the house and i looked after the children in a mobile home in the garden.
One day while Himself was working inside near the roof a few rocks fell from the wall hitting him on the head and he was very lucky to have escaped a serious injury. Every change he made to the house brought another difficulty and more challenges.
One night while we were sleeping in the mobile home one of my daughters, who was 8 at the time, woke up crying. She told us there was a man standing at the corner of the house looking over at us. We took her outside and showed her the house but she couldn't be consoled. Eventually she slept but from then on she was convinced that he was there, standing at the corner of the house.
Her vision developed from there and soon she was seeing him inside the house. No longer afraid she was able to tell us when and where she could see him.
Himself found a broken pipe in the garden and placed it over the fireplace, she said she saw the man picking up the pipe and looking at it before replacing it above the fireplace. She used to tell me he was watching me washing the dishes at the sink or peeling the potatoes. It freaked me out a bit to be honest, if he was in the kitchen watching me where else was he likely to be!
A cousin of Himself's lived nearby and we told him and his wife Dolores about our child and her visitor. They asked her to describe what she was seeing. She told them it was hard to see his face because it was very dark but his eyes were really bright and he had a cap pulled down over his forehead. I can still see Dolores's face when she heard this description. She was stunned to say the least. You see John Tobin used to sit by his fire with the door of the cottage open. The room was in darkness as he had no electricity. He sat by the open fire smoking his pipe and all you could see when you looked in the door of the house were his 2 bright eyes looking out at you. He also wore a cap.
Sean and Dolores commissioned a local artist Bríd Kenneally to paint a picture of John Tobin on a slate for us. He takes pride of place now in our cottage next to the fireplace he loved.
My daughter laughs now when we remind her 20 years later about her visitor. She's very unsure of what was going on at the time, whether she was playing on the attention or whether she was really seeing him. One thing is certain, as soon as we acknowledged John with the picture things turned around.
One day Himself placed his hand on the bellows that stood by the fire. Up until then it was stiff and seized up. All of a sudden it turned in his hand and from then on things went ok in the house. It was as if John accepted us and knew we loved the place.
Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens 17-55mmF2.8@55mm, 1/100sec, f2.8, ISO 500
Camera Settings - Camera canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@28mm, 1/800sec, f2.8, ISO 100
Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens 17-55mmf2.8@55mm, 1/250sec,f2.8, ISO 100
Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@28mm, 1/160sec, f4, ISO100
Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@40mm, 1/320sec, f2.8, ISO100
John Tobin had died about 2 years before we bought the cottage from his son.
It was a challenge getting the place together with little money and four young children in tow but we took our time. Nothing came easy, in fact from the start it felt like we were battling against an invisible force. Himself was working on the house and i looked after the children in a mobile home in the garden.
One day while Himself was working inside near the roof a few rocks fell from the wall hitting him on the head and he was very lucky to have escaped a serious injury. Every change he made to the house brought another difficulty and more challenges.
One night while we were sleeping in the mobile home one of my daughters, who was 8 at the time, woke up crying. She told us there was a man standing at the corner of the house looking over at us. We took her outside and showed her the house but she couldn't be consoled. Eventually she slept but from then on she was convinced that he was there, standing at the corner of the house.
Her vision developed from there and soon she was seeing him inside the house. No longer afraid she was able to tell us when and where she could see him.
Himself found a broken pipe in the garden and placed it over the fireplace, she said she saw the man picking up the pipe and looking at it before replacing it above the fireplace. She used to tell me he was watching me washing the dishes at the sink or peeling the potatoes. It freaked me out a bit to be honest, if he was in the kitchen watching me where else was he likely to be!
A cousin of Himself's lived nearby and we told him and his wife Dolores about our child and her visitor. They asked her to describe what she was seeing. She told them it was hard to see his face because it was very dark but his eyes were really bright and he had a cap pulled down over his forehead. I can still see Dolores's face when she heard this description. She was stunned to say the least. You see John Tobin used to sit by his fire with the door of the cottage open. The room was in darkness as he had no electricity. He sat by the open fire smoking his pipe and all you could see when you looked in the door of the house were his 2 bright eyes looking out at you. He also wore a cap.
Sean and Dolores commissioned a local artist Bríd Kenneally to paint a picture of John Tobin on a slate for us. He takes pride of place now in our cottage next to the fireplace he loved.
My daughter laughs now when we remind her 20 years later about her visitor. She's very unsure of what was going on at the time, whether she was playing on the attention or whether she was really seeing him. One thing is certain, as soon as we acknowledged John with the picture things turned around.
One day Himself placed his hand on the bellows that stood by the fire. Up until then it was stiff and seized up. All of a sudden it turned in his hand and from then on things went ok in the house. It was as if John accepted us and knew we loved the place.
To this day Himself is finding remnants of John Tobin's life in the garden of our cottage in
Baile na nGall Ring, Co Waterford. The photographs below show some of these items.
The Bellows
Camera Setting - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mm f2.8@18mm, 1/40sec, f2.8, ISO1600
Artist's impression of John Tobin by Bríd Kenneally
John Tobin's house when we bought it in 1995
My daughter Alice and her friend outside the house, check out the ghost in the window. There was nothing on the window apart from the curtain, so this is obviously a twist in the curtain or is it!
John's wash jug, found in the garden.
An old paddy bottle, dug up in the garden.
Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@55mm, 1/500sec, f2.8, ISO100
Bríd Kenneally's painting of John, done on slate.
Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon 17-55mmf2.8@18mm, 1/60sec, f2.8, ISO500
Black and White image of the pipe sitting on the stone wall in the garden
A piece of a leather boot dug up recently in the garden
Black and white image of the Bellows by the fireplace (not original fireplace)
Camera Settings - Camera Canon 70D, Lens Canon17-55mmf2.8@17mm, 1/40sec, f2.8, ISO 1600
The pipe, dug up in the garden
