Did a Spirit Knock On Rossbawn’s Walls?

The story is told that an agent was slain
By a tenant called Delaney who on the run did die
In caves upon Sliabh Blooms wild hills
Many many years gone by.
For sustenance he came down the hill
To his house, outside a window he eat till he was full
And should the Yeomanry or Constabulary be seen
To him was thrown a ball of wool.
And after his day by his family it was said
That window would be left be
Whatever was changes, the window remained
As through it the signal was given to flee.
And all was well for many years
And a new woman in the house she came
Was for changing this and altering that
As women leave little the same!!!

PART II

But the word was given, that all can change
As the lady’s heart it did desire
But permission to alter this window was denied
This her husband did deny her.
And his world by her was kept
By a wife skeptical of the superstitions of her man
And bay slowly kept the years
Once more ask to change it she began.
And once more yet again she was denied
And she thought it a great shame
A door to a to the back garden great there would look
The window would be broken out to make the frame
And as women do she persisted
Over the years: not to be denied was she
Until her man having put up the good fight
Gave in and did to alterations agree.

PART III

A few nights later while in the pub
All was quiet outside in the dark
Children asleep upstairs in bed
Not even the family dog did bark.
And watching the telly was the housewife
Waiting for the homecoming of her man
From a night playing cards in the local pub:
When a hammering on the walls began!!!
Great thuds and crashed vibrated the back wall
For five to ten seconds at least
And startled the woman she jumped from her chair
Thinking that broken from a field had a beast.
For the fence to the field was not good
And in it was farily wild cattle
And all beasts see a fence as something to get through
And she assumed one of these made the walls rattle

PART IV

Oh but no, when to the garden she got
She found no cattle there
And she was fleet on foot and quick
When she race outside from her chair.
And puzzled to her house she went again
And of it thought nothing
And went back to watching the TV
And the incident was forgotten
On telling her husband when he got home
Unperturbed, the fields and fence he said he’d check out
He found all was as it should be
As through his yard and garden he went about.
Smiling if half jest to his wife
Leave the window be, he said
Delaney’s not happy I agreed to your change
Its not good to anger the dead.

PART V

And the following night the same thing happened
A series of thumps on the wall
A message from the dead by some it is said
That they to the living do call.
So she said shed leave it a while
A year or so at least
She was not as skeptical of superstitions as before
And the strange knocks on the wall, they ceased.
Today telling the tale she’s embarrassed
The window to a door in time they did change
And their are no reports (or she wont admit!!!)
Of anymore knocks so strange.
Whose to say it was not the spirit of Delaney
Angered at the windows change that was his life line before he did die
When throw through it was a ball of wool
Warning the constabulary was coming for the killing of the agent Ely…

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