Gordon Augustus Thompson, known as Galloper Thompson, was a nineteenth-century linen mill owner and traveller who settled at Jennymount, now the Alexandra Park Avenue area of north Belfast. He was a keen horseman and was often seen riding at speed to the Jennymount Mill on North Derby Street.
According to local lore, before he died in 1886 he vowed that if he could not secure a place in heaven he would return to haunt his old home. Not long after, residents began reporting a phantom rider tearing down Jennymount Avenue. Some said he was headless, a detail tied to a story that Thompson was decapitated in a mill accident. Others claimed he rode borrowed horses from nearby stables, which came back exhausted and caked in mud by morning.
The story became a warning to local children to get home before dark. It is now remembered as a piece of Belfast folklore and has been commemorated in street art.
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