A Ghost Ship at Boland's Rock

Ship Wrecks

When the slobs were being dried at Island Avanna, the Company that was drying it bought a ship named the ‘Sand Lark’. It was haunted and one of the men in it saw a ghost on deck and he never saw or spoke again. The captain hung himself in his own cabin. One night it was anchored near the Slob and the workmen were sleeping in it. When they woke in the morning they found themselves stuck in the rocks near ‘Boland’s rocks’. They were rescued by a man named McMahon from an island near by. It is said that its owner never held it and it is also said that a priest drowned himself out of it.

Michael Slattery

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0607, Page 400C

Notes:

  1. Brian J. Goggins of Irish Waterways History says: ‘there was a sailing barge called the Sandlark based in Garrykennedy; it travelled to.Limerick and could have sailed on the estuary too. I don’t know when it was built; its remains were still around on Lough Derg until recent years.’
2. There is mention of the death of a priest in the story too. I found that a Friar, Andrew McDermott, Guardian of Carrick-on-Suir Friary, had been on a visit to Ennis Friary on 28 August  1884. Fr. White of Ennis and Fr McDermott took a trip to Drumquin to view the land reclamation works there. A bogey or wagon hit Fr. McDermott and he died within a short time. He was later buried in the aisle of Ennis Friary. A plaque bearing his name can be seen in Ennis Friary. The inquest gives interesting details of the work methods used in the Slob and it also names four of the workmen. It may have nothing to do with Michael’s story but who can say.
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0607, Page 400C
Michael Slattery
Schools Collection
Fr McDermott plaque at Ennis Friary
Eric Shaw

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