The World Ghost Convention, celebrating its 10th birthday, attracts both sceptics and true believers, writes BRIAN O'CONNELL
THERE AREN’T too many conferences where a shaman, a white witch and a medium get to share a stage in a haunted 19th century gaol. Yet, the World Ghost Convention, which this year celebrates its 10th birthday, is no ordinary get-together.
The convention was established to allow members of the public to share their supernatural experiences in an understanding setting. What is fascinating about it though, besides the line-up, is the way in which it has been accepted by the mainstream in Cork since its inception. Every year for instance, the Lord Mayor launches the convention (last year, Lord Mayor Dara Murphy brought his family along), and the attendees are drawn from a wide cross-section of society – from clergy to trainee doctors.
Numbers are limited to 150 because of insurance issues, yet the organisers claim they could accommodate a multiple of this every year. In Cork then, for one night only, the paranormal becomes very normal.
Since founding the convention, organiser Richard T Cooke has kept a log of the times members of the public have contacted him with supernatural queries. So far, well over 1,000 people have been in touch (87 this year alone in advance of the conference.)
The night begins with tea and cakes, after which various speakers take to the stage, including UCC folklorist Dr Margaret Humphreys, who will lead a discussion entitled “Twilight World Beyond the Grave”, as well as contributions from Helen Barrett, the so-called “white witch of the Isles”.
“After it ends we have a question and answers session whereby the audience can talk to the panel,” says Cooke. “You’d be amazed what questions are sent forth. It finishes around midnight, and it is a long night of sharing, listening and experiencing.”
Richard says he has seen several ghostly figures during his life, yet none of them were in any way threatening. His experiences began at a young age, when he would help his mother to wash deceased people in his locality.
“My mother was a nurse and she used to wash the person. I noticed they were always talking to the deceased person as if they were alive. That’s the way I was brought up. At that time a lot of people used to see nuns and priests and ghosts like that walking around.”
Members of the public attend the convention for different reasons, he says. Some are hugely sceptical and want to query the subject, while others are keen to relay their own experiences and not be met with derision.
Richard’s first piece of advice to anyone who contacts him with a query is to seek professional advice and relay the experience to a priest or counsellor. He believes it’s not his role to test the veracity of what people tell him. He is simply a non-judgmental listener.
“One young girl working as a shop assistant contacted me recently. She is working on North Main Street and the lights in the shop went off because of lightning. She said to me: ‘I saw a man opposite me in a bowler hat and apron.’ She said later that she had known when she worked there he was walking around. It’s not that unusual. There are people living with spirits of their loved ones today and they see them, even pets.”
Richard believes that ghosts have got a bad rap in recent years, not least because of negative Hollywood portrayals. Aside from The Sixth Sense(which he says was "brilliant") the way Hollywood deals with the supernatural can be very one-dimensional.
“Ghosts are our friends and are there for specific reasons. Hollywood has painted ghosts as demons. I have experience with ghosts going back 50 years. I was in places that people said even God wouldn’t go. My own belief is that ghosts are there to help us. The one thing I have learned too is that we go into their realm, not that they come into ours.”
Speaking of God, Richard is a firm Catholic. Isn’t that incompatible with a belief in the paranormal? “If you experience something and you see it in front of your eyes, it doesn’t matter if you are an atheist or a Christian. If you see something, you see something. As I always say, best to keep an open mind.”
The 10th annual World Ghost Convention takes place on Friday night in Cork City Gaol. Tickets €25. See irishghostfestival@yahoo.com or call 086-394 6382
