It is said a cross shows up in the window of the Iveagh House in Dublin, the former home of the powerful Guinness family. Legend has it’s a haunting that happened after a maid was denied her last rites in the house.
Along St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, a garden square and public park in the city, Iveagh House at 80-81 in that bustling street, is a gleaming Georgian mansion that holds centuries of secrets behind its refined white façade. There is also a ghostly mystery said to occur there, seen through the windows every Holy Thursday.
Read More: Check out all ghost stories from Ireland
Built in 1736, it was once two separate houses before Benjamin Guinness, grandson of the famed Arthur Guinness, merged them into one grand residence in 1862. Today, the stately home serves as the headquarters of Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs.
The Legend of the Dying Catholic Maid
The legend tells of a young servant girl who once worked for the Guinness family. When illness struck her, she lay dying in her room upstairs, pleading for a priest to administer her last rites as she was a devout catholic.
The household, devout Protestants themselves, refused her this last request. Desperate and feverish, the girl clung to her rosary beads, but the story says they were torn from her hands and thrown from the window into the garden below. Her cries faded, and by morning she was gone.
The Cross on Holy Thursday
Not long after her death, the house began to draw attention from the city. On every Holy Thursday from then, a faint yet unmistakable cross appeared on one of the panes of glass in the girl’s room. Crowds were said to have gathered in the street below to witness it, murmuring prayers and tracing the sign with trembling fingers. No matter how many times the window was cleaned or replaced, the cross was said to reappear, glowing faintly against the light.
There are also those claiming it is the spirit of Dermot O’Hurley, the Archbishop of Cashel, who was hanged nearby on the 20th of June, 1584.
To this day, staff working late in Iveagh House sometimes speak of a quiet unease that settles in the upper rooms, as though someone still lingers there in restless faith. The cross may have faded into legend, but the sorrow of the servant girl seems etched into the air of the old Guinness mansion.
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