This is a very short ghost story, perhaps the shortest ever told. Complete in three sentences it tells a lot but explains little.

“There was a woman in Achill who was expecting visitors one night. It was getting late. And she sat on the chair and she fell asleep. When she got up she saw a funeral outside the window. Then she said “Lord save me” and it disappeared.”

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0087, Page 27. Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

Gentlewoman 09 January 1904