Halloween, Ireland - the Ghostwatch began on 30 October 1998 the day before Halloween. The watch had been planned as a one-week investigation in Ireland, over the Halloween period, into the mysterious events in a former mill in the linen conservation area in Belfast. Visitors were invited to watch the livecam on Halloween and later in rooms in the linen mill (now a print workshop) in Ireland and report any unusual sightings. We are still ghostwatching because of the amount of interest from visitors over that Halloween period and the sheer volume of observations. Many thousands of visitors have contacted us with reports that nothing unusual occurred but a significant number have sent us accounts of truly inexplicable events: describing a woman who is certainly not an employee today in the building in Ireland; commenting on patterns on a wall or a floor or noticing objects move in the warehouse. Some visitors, at Halloween and other times, have reported seeing a mysterious man in the storeroom.

It would be easy to discount these reports as the overactive imagination of people in Ireland at Halloween who want to believe in ghosts, but too many visitors have been in touch and related similar accounts, not just at Halloween, though Halloween is a very special time in Ireland.

For the staff in the print works, the reports are not surprising as many have been aware of Helena for several years. Since the ghostwatch began, Helena seems to have become more daring and even more active. Recent encounters have so disturbed staff that no one will stay alone in the building day or night and everyone is reluctant to work late, especially at Halloween! Halloween is the eve of all hallows, the Christian version of a Celtic celebration in Ireland of the turn of the year, Halloween

There are frequent reports of staff finding that objects including books, files and notes have been moved. Staff lock away files at night but sometimes when they come in the next morning, the files are missing and turn up elsewhere days later, not just at Halloween.

> > > What the workers have seen and heard at Halloween in Ireland