Then & Now: Urban myth from Limerick city’s past - Tom Aherne
RECENTLY I came across the story of a young medical student who died tragically during the first half of the 19th century and whose ghost is said to haunt the Arthur's Quay and Patrick Street district of Limerick city centre.
The story goes that the student had his palm read by a gypsy fortune teller and had then mocked her and refused to pay. The old woman predicted he would die a violent death on a certain night in January while on his way to keep an appointment with his girlfriend who lived at George’s Street.
The student scoffed at the gypsy’s prophecy and to show how little it worried him, he bet his pals that not only would he visit his girlfriend, but he would also bring her back with him and let them meet her.
On the fateful night, the student’s mother pleaded with him not to go to George’s Street, saying she had dreamt that she had seen him and his girlfriend engulfed by fire and people all around them shouting and screaming.
He just laughed and having finished his studies he set out to walk to Georges Street. The date was January 3, 1837 and the time was 7pm. Three quarters of an hour later he sat in his girlfriend's house chatting about the happenings of the day. At the mention of the fortune telling episode, the girlfriend turned pale and said that she had had a similar dream.
She was superstitious and asked her boyfriend to return home earlier than usual. She decided to accompany him part of the way along George's Street and the time was now 10pm.
Then it happened. There was a tremendous explosion of gunpowder in Richardson's gun shop at No 1 George's Street. The student was killed instantly by a falling beam and his girlfriend was hurled to her death against a wall.
Buildings collapsed into heaps of rubble and dust, and windows were blown out completely in Patrick Street, George's Street, Denmark Street, Arthur's Quay and Honan's Quay. Broken glass littered the streets over a wide area.
Nine other people were hurled into eternity that night, five men and four women. The damage to property ran into thousands of pounds and many people were left homeless.
A man who had a remarkable escape was William Ryan, whose brother Edmond, afterwards became Mayor of Limerick. William, who lived next door to the gunpowder shop, was blown out onto the street by the force of the explosion and awoke to find himself lying on a blazing mattress.
He escaped without a scratch, though his room had been blown to bits. The rest of the Ryan family had incredible escapes, with the mother and her eight year old son found many hours later buried under debris in their basement. They had been saved from death by two doors which had collapsed over them and shielded them from falling masonry. An aunt was dug out unconscious from under a heap of rubble on the street. Their servant was blown through a hole in the wall into a nearby house.
After the explosion, it was necessary to disconnect the gas supply and the darkness greatly hampered rescue efforts. By 11.30pm, however, seven bodies had been recovered from the wreckage. Just how the disaster occurred nobody could say.
The man who was working in the gunpowder room at the time was killed. Three of the four people in the shop were killed instantly. The one who escaped was a young apprentice gunsmith who was blown through the roof and was later found unconscious on the roadway some distance away.
Some days later he told of having seen an old gypsy in George's Street shortly before the explosion, a fact borne out by one of the Ryan family who had given her a few coppers. After the explosion she was never seen again in the district.
Some believed that the Ryan’s remarkable escape from death was due to the old gypsy woman and a reward for their kindness to her.
The medical student’s mother said an evil spell had been cast by the gypsy fortune teller. Then years later, on the anniversary of the explosion, a doctor on a sick call to the district was surprised that night to see a young man coming towards him enveloped in a brilliant light. He was smiling and seemed to be gliding along. When the doctor came near him, the young man stopped in his tracks and disappeared in a blinding flash. Several times in the years that followed, it is said, the ghost of the young medical student was seen in George's Street. Ghosts stories heard around our firesides have disappeared like most things from our past.
The poor mouth
The Poor Mouth is an expression most readers will be familiar with and they will know people who fit into this grouping.
This is a type of person (rather than a class of people) who always wants things done for them by others but who won't put their hand into their own pocke - even to help out a friend in need.
They are always on the lookout for the handout, and going on as if they are owed a living without making any effort to improve themselves. It is all about themselves and their entitlements.
There is a lot of it around with newspapers and media outlets reporting court cases about people seeking compensation.
From slipping on wet floors, uneven footpaths, staging road collisions etc, it clogs up the system and prolongs waiting time for genuine cases and increases insurance premiums. It is good when a judge dismisses the case because they read the situation that such claimants have some responsibility for avoiding injury.
In the present litigation-saturated culture this pleases as it cuts down on the poor mouth and sue mentality that eats out of all our pockets.
There are some people who have the poor mouth who are actually well-heeled, but are never content, always wanting more and for whom enough is never enough.
Many even take advantage of the food parcels and soup kitchens that operate in certain areas to help those who have found themselves on hard times
They are always on the lookout for what is on offer and how they can claim it.
Poor form indeed, and a drain on humanity and on those who genuinely need a helping hand.