Corney The Ghost

Horror Stories - Corney The Ghost

Most ghosts have great difficulty communicating with the living. In the rare instances where they can do so, they are usually confined to poltergeist activity and speaking through mediums and Ouija boards. Corney, a poltergeist that haunted a household in Dublin in the early 20th century, had no such problems. He manifested himself by imitating the thumps caused by a crutch that the family's head was using at the time.

After he had announced his presence in this way, he spoke to the family and servants in a booming voice that sounded like it came from inside a barrel. "Corney" was the family's nickname for him-the ghost accepted it, but pointed out that it was not his true name. Corney soon proved to be a complete nuisance. He continually played practical jokes on the servants, who were deathly afraid of him.

Thinking that he was confined to the coal cellar of the kitchen, they requested new quarters in the highest floor of the house. The second they moved there and were about to go to sleep, the doors were slammed open and they were taunted by Corney, who gleefully informed them he was not confined in any part of the house and could go as he pleased. These tricks would go on and on, and eventually signs of Corney's true nature started to emerge.

He stated that he had been a bad man that had died a bad death and could not tell where he was, metaphysically speaking, because God would get angry. He was unable to speak when priests visited the house and sometimes had mysterious ghostly visitors who left soot marks behind them. Despite all these hints toward his hellish nature, Corney was eventually accepted as a part of the household, although only temporarily-his cruel pranks and slightly malicious nature were eventually too much for the family and they started to consider moving.

At first, Corney sabotaged their attempts to sell the house by speaking to potential purchasers and driving them away, but the lady of the house-the only person Corney seemed to genuinely respect-convinced him to let them move away. Within half an hour, the house was sold to a wealthy widow and the family was finally free to find a ghost-free home.The story doesn't tell what happened to the widow, but presumably she wasn't a big fan of Corney-the house was soon listed as "vacant" again.