Ghostly goings on at the Everyman Theatre

SOME ghostly goings on have been reported at Cork's Everyman Theatre.

A recent report by a patron of a ghostly apparition has resurrected stories from others about strange sightings in the historic theatre which dates back to 1897.

The man at the centre of the most recent encounter in the Everyman told the Evening Echo of the odd experience just after the interval while watching the final performance of Dancing At Lughnasa.

“I was looking at the stage and just felt something touching my knee,” he explained. “I looked to my right and a woman was standing there. She didn’t say anything, just indicated that she wanted to go past me. I turned round and said it to my girlfriend, who looked and said there was no one there. And when I turned back, there wasn’t.

“She looked to be in her 40s and was dressed like someone from a period drama. It was too dark to make out hair colour or clear features, just that it was a woman.”

He said he is not remotely superstitious and has never had a ghostly encounter before, and hadn’t had anything to drink on the night. He found the episode so odd he rang the box office a few days later and told the Everyman’s Mona Walshe his story.

She shared it on Facebook and soon others were chiming in with similar tales about the theatre, which first opened in 1897/98.

One former worker said: “There were days when I opened the door to go backstage and for the life of me I could not go in!”

Backstage technician Seán Spillane said: “When I’m locking up at night, after painting stages, I have the sense that there is something behind me, although I’ve never seen anything. Of course when an old building goes to sleep there are creaks but there is definitely something there.”

He said many of the theatre staff have their own stories: “One man, a sound engineer, was the last person in the theatre one night and tells the story of a man brushing past him in a cloak and top hat.”

Last week’s theatregoer said: “There was no sense of badness or evil or anything.” 

Mr Spillane agreed and added: “We had ghost hunters in a couple of years ago who put equipment all over the place in the building. The feedback they got is that the entity that is here is good, it is a theatrical entity who looks after the building.”