 |
| Entrance to CorbettCourt Mall |
Before we met our tour guide and went on the "Haunted and Historic Tour" of Galway, we had dinner at a pub and walked through the downtown area, including through an actual shopping mall (that turned out to be on ground level and a basement level, filled with about 40 stores).
SENSING SEVERAL GHOSTS - We both have the ability to sense ghosts or spirits and never, ever expected to run into anything in a modern shopping mall. However, Galway, like the rest of Ireland is ancient, and things linger. As we walked in the front entrance of the mall on Williamsgate Street, we felt like we ran into a wall. For people who don't feel these things, it's like walking through a swimming pool. Anyway we both realized that there were a couple of ghosts there. We also got the sense that these were traumatic deaths that occurred close to the entrance of the mall or door that led to the main street. They were lingering around an escalator close to the entrance, near the ""Shake" and "Vodafone" stores currently sit. Whomever died there, died trying to get out of the building. We'd later learn who and why.  |
| Escalator where we sensed several ghosts |
SO, WHAT IS THE CORBETT COURT SHOPPING MALL? - It opened its doors in 1987 and was the first Shopping Mall in Galway City Centre. According to the website for the mall, it was built on an historic site which once housed an Army Barracks for her Majesty the Queen of England. However, there was something else there.
 |
| Ground floor near Escalator |
ANSWERS: THE IDENTITIES AND EVENT - We told our tour guide about our feelings that night as we walked through downtown Galway. We knew he wouldn't think us crazy, because he was forewarned we were both on a ghost investigation group and have abilities... (so it made his ghost tour more entertaining for him).
He said that our feelings made "Perfect sense" to him. Because before the mall, another building stood there, and it was the site of a big fire in downtown, that killed a number of people trying to escape (by trying to run out onto Williamsgate Street), and likely died just inside the building, and exactly where we sensed them as we walked into the mall!
I did find this historic article about the massive fire from August 1971: http://places.galwaylibrary.ie/history/chapter90.html.
Wikipedia mentions: In 1972, part of the city center was destroyed by fire. The area involved the southern-west corner of Eyre Square, where the Bank of Ireland used to be situated.
NEXT: THE SPANISH ARCH AND CASTLE IN DOWNTOWN GALWAY
