“Miss Grene, of Grene Park, Co. Tipperary, relates a story which was told her by the late Miss —, sister of a former Dean of Cashel. The latter, an old lady, stated that one time she was staying with a friend in a house in the suburbs of Dublin. In front of the house was the usual grass plot, divided into two by a short gravel path which led down to a gate which opened on to the street.

She and her friend were one day engaged in needlework in one of the front rooms, when they heard the gate opening, and on looking out the window they saw an elderly gentleman of their acquaintance coming up the path.

As he approached the door both exclaimed: “Oh, how good of him to come and see us!” As he was not shown into the sitting-room, one of them rang the bell, and said to the maid when she appeared, “You have not let Mr. So-and-so in; he is at the door for some little time.” The maid went to the hall door, and returned to say that there was no one there. Next day they learnt that he had died just at the hour that they had seen him coming up the path.”

From the involuntary painting series ‘Apparitions At Or After Death’ after and out of the writings of St. John D. Seymour and Harry L. Neligan [1914]

Paul Conneally
Dronfield Woodhouse
UK
September 2022