Luke White was born poor, ran a bookstall at Smithfield Market in Belfast, and by twenty-five had made it a success. He decided to move to Dublin, became a prosperous bookseller and publisher and property investor, bought Luttrellstown Castle, married twice and sat in politics. The tale says he had been seeing a girl named Biddy Farrelly in Belfast, and that he left her behind.
In the ghost story she was left a considerable sum in his will. One version says she died of a broken heart. Another says she spent the money on drink and died a year later. Her spirit is said to walk Gresham Street in the days of the August fair that used to be held there, a happy figure who smiles and carries a bundle of ballads under her arm, as she would have done when going to meet her lover. A Biddy cafe once stood at 39 Gresham Street.
Icy Sedgwick tells the same story, and Haunted Rooms gives a version in which she searches the market for him. No contemporary record of Biddy has been found in the sources consulted.
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