Howard Street once linked St Columb's Wells and the Long Tower in Derry. The Derry Journal, summarising Peter McCartney's Parade of Phantoms, says there stood at the very top a livery stable where lived and worked a blacksmith known as a gambler and drinker. Neighbours tired of his hell-raising asked a priest to talk to him. The smith mocked the cleric, saying he would challenge even the devil to a game of cards rather than stop.
One stormy night the blacksmith opened his door to a tall, lean man in a long black cloak, standing stony still. His gaunt face was deathly pale and a faint, eerie glow came from his deep sunken eyes. They played cards. The smith lost, and realised he had been playing the devil, who told him he would take only his immortal soul. The stable and forge were burned down, and reputedly nothing has been built on the site since.
It is a common type of tale across Britain and Ireland, in which a boast leads to a game with the devil, and it carries a moral about drink and gambling.
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