Granard
Amazingly, Ireland can generate top 10s of headless ghosts. The late Captain Blundell may be just one among many, but he’s one of the best known.
The history of the British in Ireland is long, complex and seldom pretty. Captain Blundell was doing his colonial duty in the early 18th century.
It seems as if politics may have got into the telling of the legend along the way. Whatever his character, a British officer in Ireland in the 1700s wouldn’t have to try very hard to make enemies and whether Blundell did so by lording it over the locals or romancing a local girl, it seems someone didn’t like him.
When, one morning, Blundell didn’t turn up on parade, his door was kicked in. There was a bloody body, and there behind the door was a head.
Blundell is said to parade around the former barracks at Garnard on a black horse at midnight. The story goes that his ghost may be quietened if the extraordinary suicide verdict on his death is overturned.
