Spectres Across the Atlantic, c.1820-1940: Communicating with the Dead Over Space and Time

Abstract

In Irish tradition it was believed that both the living and the dead might in certain circumstances appear at a distance from their bodies. This article considers occasions where such supernatural visitations happened close to the moment of the death. Deathbed apparitions or ‘crisis apparitions’ were reported widely in Europe and America, but have not been much explored by historians. In crisis apparition stories, the dying or just-dead person visited a neighbour, friend or close relative and a key feature was that the percipient would declare what they had seen, even before confirmation had arrived of the death. Accounts dating from between about the 1820s and 1940s provide the basis for an exploration of the crisis apparition both as reported in Ireland and among Irish people abroad. That many crisis apparitions communicated across the Atlantic reflects the anxieties of ‘exiles’ and their friends and families about death far from home, and this article also considers their role in bridging gaps in conventional communications. Accounts of supernatural leave-taking also travelled across time, offering insights about how storytelling assisted the processing of grief and the handing down of the dead over generations that are relevant to other contexts far beyond Ireland’s shores.