The 2024 MoLI Christmas Ghost Story is a live recording from the launch of MoLI Edition’s new publication, A Visit from the Banshee, edited by Katie Mishler, and produced by the Museum of Literature Ireland in collaboration with the UCD Centre for Cultural Analytics. Across the half-hour recording, you will hear extracts from three stories featured in the book, alongside live music and sound design by Seán Mac Erlaine. 

In Oein DeBhairduin’s story ‘Hungry Grass / Crōlušk sirk', performed by Nuala Hayes, a mother seeks to appease a sinister spirit by offering bread. In Melatu Uche Okorie’s story, “Guardians of the Land”, performed by Demi Isaac Oviawe, a young warrior, faces the ghostly Warriors Past of Ikenga in a trial of endurance. And in ‘Buille Luath an Luain agus Buille Déanach an tSathairn’ – a story collected by Peig Sayers, translated here by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, and performed by Nuala Hayes, a grieving farmer's son encounters a mysterious old woman who performs terrifying nightly rituals.

A visit from the banshee is available from the MoLI shop now. Visit moli.ie/banshee for details.

Producers Prof. Gerardine Meaney, Dr. Katie Mishler, Dr. Jenny Knell and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly

Recording engineer Simon Cullen

Edit and mixing engineer Seán Mac Erlaine 

Series music Benedict Schlepper-Connolly

The MoLI Christmas Ghost Story is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 884951). 

This recording was produced in collaboration with UCD Centre for Cultural Analytics and VICTEUR. VICTEUR: European Migrants in the British Imagination: Victorian and Neo-Victorian Culture uses big data to trace the rich and dynamic cultural impact of migration on the cultural identity of both migrant and host communities in the historical long-term. For more visit CCA dot UCD dot IE / VICTEUR

MoLI’s digital programme is supported by Ebow, the digital agency.