Historical Fiction At a Glance: The Cooneen Ghost & Alias Grace

Recently, I decided to limit the genre of books I review for this blog. Before, I would just read any book that tickled my fancy (I'm a mood reader) from my bookshelf and then, if I felt like it, I'd review it. Now, I will review only books in these categories:

• Historical Fiction
• Mystery
• Fantasy (including YA)

To begin this transition, I read "The Unbidden Visitor," a short story by Dianne Ascroft. It's a historical fiction piece that's based on the tale of the Cooneen/Coonian Ghost in Northern Ireland. 

In 1913, Bridget Murphy and her six children lived in a cottage on a farm in County Fermanagh.  Her husband had died in a freak accident some time before poltergeist activity started up in their house, from knocking and banging to levitating dishes to drawers slamming shut on people's hands. The family had the local priest visit several times to remove the presence and bless the home, but it didn't help. Eventually, the Murphy family sailed to America, but there was hearsay of banging in the Murphy's cabin, leading people to believe that the poltergeist followed the family to America and they had to move several times until the activity stopped. The episode above says the cottage still has a malevolent presence.

Ashcroft's short story adds a human element to it where we see the family and friends interact with each other and learn a little about their personalities. Ashcroft suggests that the ghost was not the only reason the family left. Because of the supernatural phenomena, friends distanced themselves from the family, which meant the daughters had lost their chances of finding local husbands. And without the assistance of friends to help them run the farm, they had no choice, but to move. 

Ashcroft writes that the family spent many years in the cottage and the only reason for the activity presented in the story is the death of the husband, but why would he terrorize his own family so they lose the farm?   

In the Northern Ireland's Greatest Haunts video above, you can see a very thick forest surrounds the cottage. That episode aired in 2010. Ashcroft's short story was published in 2016 and she writes that the surrounding forest was felled the year she was writing the story. Now, the cottage stands alone.

More to Explore

Historical fiction is fun to write because both the writer and reader can spend time in an environment they recognize and enjoy, provided that the writers can write the characters as they were originally (with some changes) and have done their research for historical accuracy.

The novel that introduced me to historical fiction was Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace in high school. It's about a Canadian murder case that took place in 1843. Grace Marks, a 16-year-old, was said to be a co-conspirator in the murder of the man she worked for, Thomas Kinnear, and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery. Of all the books teachers make you read at any level in school, I was thrilled to finally be able to enjoy my reading for class. 

Not only did the subject matter intrigue me, but the details Atwood put in made me love it all the more. Each chapter was named after a quilting pattern and Atwood related each pattern to the theme of the chapter. A story like the Kinnear-Montgomery case was subject to sensationalism in the newspapers at that time and with both Marks and her supposed co-conspirator, James McDermott, giving different accounts of the events, so much of the true history is tainted. This leaves room for Atwood to weave in her own view of the matter, especially since no one knows whether Marks or McDermott was the leading figure in the murders or what the real reasons for the whole thing were. With these big questions left unconfirmed, there are also many puzzling details, such as Kinnear wearing McDermott's shirt and the inability to locate the right Kenneth MacKenzie who acted as Marks' lawyer.

Historical fiction can give people closure and logical explanations to explain events, which is probably why I love the genre. Of course in historical fiction stories, like Alias Grace, we may never know for sure what really happened.

Services

Need an editor, beta reader or book reviewer for your novel or short story? Check out my website to learn more about my services or email me about your project at smurphy.writer1@gmail.com!