Hauntings

The Cooneen Cottage Poltergeist

Cottage at Cooneen, near Brookeborough

About 1913 to 1915

Cooneen is a rural townland in the Fermanagh hills. Spirited Isle says a widow was living in a small cottage there by 1913 with her son and six daughters, her husband having died of a head injury in 1907. The detail comes from census and registry records, which the page cites.

The account describes a slow escalation. First came knocks on the door, taps on windows and footsteps from an empty upper room. Friends brought in to listen were unsettled too. Then plates were thrown across the kitchen, bedclothes were pulled off sleeping children, a bed was said to lift from the floor, and a drawer slammed on one daughter's fingers. Three priests were asked to investigate. One is quoted as calling the house under diabolical influence. In one incident the bedding was torn from a bed in front of two men who were holding the girls, and the men said they were attacked themselves. The knocking was said to answer questions and to respond to a patriotic song when asked.

Two exorcisms were sanctioned and, by the account, made things worse. Neighbours gossiped about witchcraft, and the family became isolated. In 1915 they sailed from Glasgow for America. Unconfirmed stories say the noises followed them on the ship.

The cottage is now on Forest Service land and is said not to have been lived in again. The same page mentions a medium's visit in 2010 and later claims of battery drain by investigators, which are modern additions. Other retellings differ on whether the disturbances stopped after the departure.

The cottage is reported to stand on Forest Service land and is not marked as a visitor site. Treat it as private and unsafe.
Evidence
Single witness account
Access
No public access
Location
54.324, -7.294 (Parish-level only, treat as an area)

Sources: Spirited Isle, "Cooneen (Coonian) Farmhouse" [other]; Fermanagh Lakelands, "Spooky Stories and Folklore: Unearthing Fermanagh's Haunting Legends" [other]

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