Dave White's Field

Auntie Mary can tell a tale, especially about ghosts, and gripping stories of the war. She seems to know we are hooked on the scariness of her stories, and is able, with a roll of her eyes to heaven and a drop in her voice to a secretive, anxious whisper, to hold us in fascinated horror with tales of Ireland.

the headless horseman

She has only to mention the headless horseman, (Gaelic: dullahan) or the banshee (bean sídhe) literally, woman of the fairy mound, to transport me, in a trice, on the wings of fantasy, desire and fear, back to the bogs in Ireland.