Rathfarnham

KiHakee House,a well eighteenth century farm house in Rathfarnham Co. Dublin, was bought in 1968 by artist Margaret O’Brien and her husband, The house had been derelict Since the 1 940s and the couple intended to turn it into an arts centre, Workmen renovating the building Were troubled by mys terious sightings of a large black cat that could speak, alleged to be the size of a large ferocious dog. Mrs O’Brien dismissed the Stories as ‘nonsense’, but Soon changed her mind when she apparently saw the creature herself, Squat ting on the flagstones of the hallwayjust glaring at her. All the doors of the house had been locked both before and after its sudden appearance and disappear

One of the workmen Tom McAssey was working with two other men when he suddenly felt icy cold and a locked door S wide open. The men panicked and slammed the door shut but it opened again. A hideous black cat with blazing red eyes was seen crouching and growling out side. McAssey said the cat spoke to him, saying ‘Leave this door open.’

Mrs O’Brien had the building exorcised and things quietened down for around a year. But then, in October 1969, a group of actors staying at the arts centre decided to hold a séance for a joke. The séance seems to have ‘opened the door’ to other disturbances, such as the appearance of two ghostly nun-like figures. A local medium suggested that they might be the unhappy spirits of two eighteenth-century women who had assisted or protested against satanic cat-worshipping rit uals held during meetings of the notorious Hellfire Club.

(The Hellfire Club was an exclusive English club that met irregularly from 1746 to around 1763, run by Sir Francis Dashwood.) Today, a cosy restaurant occupies the old house, but reminders still exist of its sinister past. Some visitors to the house have reported feeling uneasy, as if they are being watched by an invisible presence. In particular there is Tom McAssey’s terrifying portrait, The Black Cat of Killakee, which gazes down from one of the walls with its bloodshot eyes and chilling, almost human, features.

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