How haunted is Cork?
As trick-or-treaters don their ghoulish get-ups this evening, a team of Cork ghost hunters will be on the prowl for the real thing.
Since 2013, the Cork Supernatural Society (CSS) have been investigating paranormal activity on Leeside and beyond.
Tonight, as the rest of Cork enjoys its Halloween celebrations including the Dragon of Shandon parade at 7pm, members of the CSS team will brave the spooky halls of Coláiste Éamann Rís, formerly Deerpark CBS.
The school on Cork’s southside made headlines in 2017 after a video appearing to show paranormal activity within the building was circulated.
“To be honest, I’m pretty certain that video was just a Halloween stunt,” CSS member Matthew told the Cork Independent.
“But I do know people have reported similar events to that happening over the years there and I believe they made the video based on it all,” he added.
The team takes a scientific approach to each investigation they carry out, using a range of visual and audio recording equipment along with other environmental recording equipment such as weather monitors, EMF meters, thermal imaging cameras, spirit boxes and more.
With Cork being such a large and historic county, the CSS team are kept busy all year long with a seemingly endless list of sites and paranormal reports to investigate.
Matthew said: “The most active area we have come across in Cork would be Sunday's Well area of the city which is home to the Cork City Gaol, the former Good Shepheard's convent, and Our Lady's Asylum – all buildings which have proved to be very active for us over the years.”
2024 has already been a busy year for the team having visited Budapest to investigate a former Soviet Union hospital, as well as visiting Dublin's infamous Hellfire Club. Closer to home, they investigated Cork City Hall this year, as well as Cobh's Convent of Mercy which Matthew said has been one of the most active Cork sites in recent years.
“I think one of the main misconceptions people think of when they hear of a paranormal research group is that we will be like what is seen on TV shows like ‘Most Haunted’, when in fact we actually go out to disprove any paranormal claims which we do in, I would say, 90% of the cases,” explained Matthew.
Each investigation carried out by CSS, many of which are done by request, is free of charge and can take up to a month to complete due to painstaking analysis of footage and audio.
Back in 2020, after what seemed like an uneventful nighttime investigation at Timoleague Abbey in West Cork, the team discovered what they feel is the most convincing piece of evidence they’ve ever captured – the full figure of an unknown man.
“It was only the following day when I went back through the pictures I had taken that we noticed the figure of what appears to be a man standing a few feet away from us,” said Matthew.
“That photo was taken as we were leaving the infirmary, all five of the team entered the section where this figure is pictured and not one of us saw any other person.
“The abbey is also lit up at night and we all had strong torches. We had audio recorders, cameras, and motion sensors around other parts of the abbey including all the entrance points, and not one of these picked up any other human entering the abbey at any point.”
Another of their most convincing pieces of evidence was captured during an investigation of the Poor Relation bar in Cork city following a request by the bar’s manager.
“He asked us to investigate his office as strange activity had been going on there for a while,” said Matthew.
He continued: “On the investigation, we were in the office asking questions, one of which was, ‘How many of you are there in the building?’. On the audio we immediately get a clear response of a male saying ‘Just me’. This is what is known as an EVP and is basically a voice captured on the audio which no one heard at the time.”
Having spent the past 11 years investigating paranormal activity in Cork, Matthew, who started out as a “big sceptic”, said he can no longer look at anyone and tell them that there is no such thing as ghosts.