Ghost Hunters International - S02E01 - Wicklow's Gaol - HDTV

Ghost Hunters International - S02E01 - Wicklow's Gaol



Ghost Hunters International returns this week for season 2 with a paranormal investigation of the early 18th century prison Wicklow’s Gaol in Ireland. The team is down to five now, as they said goodbye off-air to investigator Angela Alderman after the first season ended.



Sight Info -



Over the last 10 years, tourists and gaol staff have been baffled by the regular appearance of a young boy in the historic prison’s school room, a lady in her late 20’s dressed completely in black who walks in and out of cell 22 on the first floor and a cold eerie mist that envelops the walkway to the first floor cells.



Buried in a sinister past of desperate prisoners, brutal whippings and violent executions, staff at Wicklow Gaol believe the prison’s former inmates are determined to have their story told.



Gaol Guide Marie Comerford says the huge number of arrests following the 1798 rebellion unleashed unspeakable horrors upon prisoners sentenced to Wicklow Gaol. “The gates to the prison were known as the Gates of Hell. Once you went in, there was very little chance you would ever come back out. The cells were overcrowded and hundreds of prisoners were crammed into a 30 square metre cell, originally designed for just 6 prisoners. The tragedy is that poor people who were arrested for stealing sheep or some potato seed were forced to share the space with psychopaths, violent murderers and rapists. Some of the history is so horrific I can’t share it with visitors.”



Marie believes the Sci Fi channel will confirm that the refurbished prison building is one of the most haunted locations in the world. She says she is relieved that the rest of the world will finally know that the spirits that are now part of her everyday life do exist. “We have been bound to secrecy on the channel’s discoveries until the reveal next Friday, but there is a reason Ghost Hunters International have made an hour long programme on the spirits of Wicklow gaol as opposed to the normal half hour format.”



Marie has worked as a guide at the ancient building for the last eight years. She is no longer surprised when visitors approach her after entering the School Room to say they have seen a little boy standing there. “It is always in the same places. I feel him there most of the time. Not long ago, a young boy from an American family stood behind me to take a photograph, and a red silhouette of the boy appeared in the shot”



Visitors have seen unexplained blood splashings and four years ago, cell number five had to be shut down due to an overwhelming stench of rotting flesh.



Last year, a group of primary school students from Austria were dumbstruck when the hanging mist latched onto their teacher and enveloped her in a huge ball, moving with her.



On another occasion, an elderly woman passed out in cell 12, which tells the story of Wicklow rebel, Billy Byrne and she refused to continue the tour. “She felt a pressure around her neck and couldn’t breathe.... Billy Byrne was hanged”



The eleven staff at the gaol were overcome one evening when the entire floor in front of them began to move. “Everyone saw it”.



Wicklow Gaol was first opened to the public as a tourist attraction in 1998. Strange sightings and paranormal sounds that send shivers down the spine are now part and parcel of many visitors’ experiences.