It is said that there is a cross in the window of Iveagh House in Dublin, the former home of the powerful Guinness family. Legend has it that this is a haunting that occurred after a maid was refused last rites in the house.
Along St. Stephen's Green in Dublin, the city's garden square and public park, Iveagh House at 80-81, on this bustling street sits a gleaming Georgian mansion that hides centuries of secrets behind its refined white façade. It is said that there is also a spooky mystery that can be seen through the windows every Holy Thursday.
Built in 1736, it was once two separate houses before Benjamin Guinness, grandson of the celebrated Arthur Guinness, combined them into one grand mansion in 1862. Today, the mansion serves as the headquarters of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.
The legend of a dying Catholic maid
The legend tells of a juvenile maid who once worked for the Guinness family. When she fell ill, she lay dying in her room upstairs, asking a priest to give her last rites because she was a devout Catholic.
The household, all devout Protestants, refused her this last request. Desperate and feverish, the girl clung to her rosary beads, but legend has it that they were torn from her hands and thrown out of the window into the garden below. Her screams stopped and by morning she was gone.
Cross on Maundy Thursday
Not long after her death, the house began to attract city attention. From then on, every Holy Thursday, a lackluster but observable cross appeared on one of the windows in the girl's room. Crowds are said to have gathered in the street below to witness it, murmuring prayers and tracing the sign with trembling fingers. It is said that no matter how many times the window was cleaned or replaced, the cross reappeared, glowing faintly against the featherlight.
There are also those who claim that it is the ghost of Dermot O'Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, who was hanged nearby on June 20, 1584.
To this day, staff at Iveagh House sometimes speak of a tranquil unease that appears in the upper rooms, as if someone was still there with an uneasy faith. The cross may have become a legend, but the maid's sadness seems etched into the atmosphere of the aged Guinness mansion.
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Iveagh's House: The Dying Servant and the Cross in the Window
It is said that there is a cross in the window of Iveagh House in Dublin, the former home of the powerful Guinness family. Legend has it that this is a haunting that occurred after a maid was refused last rites in the house.
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