The Search for Bridey Murphy (26 page)
Read The Search for Bridey Murphy Online
Authors: Morey Bernstein
What else?
I liked… “Sean”… “Sean.”
What was it?
“Sean.” ’Twas a song about a young boy.
“Sean?”
“Sean.”
Uh-huh. Give me one more favorite song.
… Urn…
One more favorite song.
… Ohhh… tch… uh… uh… eh… “The Minstrels’ March.”
“The Minstrels’ March?”
Yes. I… There’s no words, but I just liked the march.
Uh-huh. How about your favorite poem? What was your favorite poem?
… Uhh… tch… my favorite poem… I don’t recall my favorite poem. I just liked it…. I liked to read.
You liked to read?
Yes, I did.
What was your favorite book?
Oh… mmm… I liked the s—
What was your favorite book?
[Rather shyly.] You’ll laugh. I liked the weird stories, and I liked the stories of things beyond, and I liked the dreamy stories about Cuchulain my mother used to read.
Uh-huh. Do you remember any author, anybody who wrote… any of those books? The name of any man who wrote any of those books?
I remember… man named… I read about a man… Keats. I read things by a man named Keats.
What did he write? What kind of stuff?
He… he was a Britisher. [Defiantly.] But I read it!… hmm… He wrote fine things. He wrote some poetry too.
Did you ever… Can you remember any one book? Give us the name of any one book you read and the name of the man who wrote it…. Any book, any book at all.
Umm… Remember the name of the book…. Can you… You could see who. You go to the lender, and he’ll tell you who wrote it.
The Green Bay
.
[In other words, she was telling me the name of the book. But as to the author—well, I would have to go to the “lender” (apparently something equivalent to our libraries), and the “lender” would tell me who wrote it.]
The Green Bay?
The Green Bay
.
All right. That’s good. That’s good. Now… now, did you ever hear of Blarney Castle?
I heard of
blarney
.
What about blarney? Tell me about blarney?
Oh… blarney, that’s… There’s a place where you go, and you know, you put your feet above your head, and you… It’s a myth. Brian says that Father John would tell you the truth about
that
, too! You have to… Believe you put your lips to it, and then you get the tongue… the gift of the tongue.
I see. Now, when you were in Cork, when you were in Cork, did you know about blarney then?
Oh, just… My mother would say, “You’re full of the blarney.”
But you’d never been to Blarney. You’d never been to the stone you were talking about?
I don’t recall.
Now, you told us before when you were in Cork. You told us
before when you were in Cork that you made wishes, that you made wishes on a little cup.
Um-hmm.
Called something like a “brate.”
That’s a brate.
How do you spell it? Did you ever see it spelled?
Oh dear… I saw the cup.
You never saw the word spelled?
Uh… You… you wish on it. I… I don’t know how to spell all the words, you know.
All right. That’s all right. But it was a little cup, and it sounds like “brate”?
Sounds like a “brate.”
All right…
And you wish on it, and your wishes all materialize….
All right.
Um-hmm.
Now, where did you go to dance? Where did you go to dance?
Mrs…. Strayne’s. Had a hall.
Well, what instruments, what instruments were used?
There was a… lyre, and there was a… the pipes. Now I told you about the pipes, but don’t ask me how to spell ’em!
[This sudden declaration was expressed with such emphasis that the witnesses—at the hypnotic session—could not help breaking into laughter.]
[Laughing.] All right. All right. Now, what was your favorite dance?
Oh, I… I just liked to dance. I liked some jigs… different jigs I liked.
What jigs?
Umm… There was the Sorcerer’s Jig…. That was a fast one.
What kind of jig?
Sorcerer’s Jig.
All right. The Sorcerer’s Jig. All right.
And the… There was the… Oh! My foot. My foot! [Gasp.]
[Even though the tape recorder plays back these words very clearly, I missed this first reference to her foot. The microphones, you see, were placed very close to her mouth and ordinarily, therefore, did an excellent job of picking up all of Bridey’s utterances. On the other hand, when I leaned away from my subject in order to look at my notes—which I had begun to prepare since the second session
—I sometimes missed a few words here and there; in this case I did not hear the remark about her foot.]
What was the name of the place where you went to dance? The name of that… Did you say it was a hall?
Mrs. Strayne’s hall. She was…
Was that the same place you told us about before? Where you went to school?
She had a hall. [Testily.] I didn’t go to school in the hall!
All right. All right, now, now get the… Think about the time that Father John married you. Think about the time that Father John married you.
He didn’t marry me. He didn’t ever get married.
[Once again these words must be heard in order that the feeling be conveyed. Bridey seems very sad here, almost in tears.]
I’m talking about the time that Father John performed the marriage ceremony for you and Brian.
Oh… uh… Yes, he did.
All right. Now I want you to think, and think out loud if you want to. Try to… try to remember what year that was. See if you can… see if you can think out loud and find out what year that was,
… Uh… uh… hmph…. You see, I was… I was… uh… I was sixteen in 18 and 14. It was… 18… and…18. 18 and 18.
How old were you? And we can figure it out for you. How old were you when you got married?
Well, I was twenty when I got married. [Indignantly.] I figured it out
myself
.
Oh, then it was 18—Oh yes. I see. I see. All right. All right now… Now, let’s talk again about that lifetime in Cork. Now, when you traveled from Cork to Belfast… when you traveled from Cork to Belfast, how did you travel from Cork to Belfast?
I traveled in the livery.
All right. Now I want you to name… I want you to name some of the towns, some of the places you went through from Cork to Belfast….
From Cork—to go to Belfast… Hmmm… hm…
Go ahead and think out loud. Think out loud and tell us what you’re thinking. What places between Cork and Belfast?
[Here is another example of a question’s reminding Bridey of some associated episode. There was a pause while she
seemed to be contemplating something; and then she finally spoke—to explain that she had been thinking of something other than my question.]
… Forgive me. I wasn’t thinking about that.
What were you thinking about?
I was thinking that my father was so unhappy. You know, we took the horse, ’n’ he was a very worried man. And he felt he’d lost so much. … I was going so far away. He went… he went to the bed over it.
Is that right?
Oh, he was so upset. And I—I was unhappy to go then.
And what… And you took the horse and you left?
[When I interrupted Bridey here, all the witnesses in the room would have liked to pull me away. In short, they would have preferred to hear more of the personal “life and times of Bridey Murphy.”But our real job was to dig for the solid, evidential checking points, and I could not see how her father’s sentiment could help us in this direction. So I steered her back to the original question.]
Um-hmm.
Oh.
Um-hmm. He was… oh… he was unhappy with me, and [rueful little laugh]… I…
All right. Now think about that trip, think about that trip with the horse and the carriage. Tell me about some of the places you went through. Tell me about some of the places… the names of some of the places. You told us before….
Well….
You told us before, for instance, Carlingford.
Well, yes, I’ve… You want to know the names of the places?
Yes, the names of the places, tell me.
That’s the name of the lough, you know, and the… the lough was there first, and then there was the… place. It was… Let’s see.
Yes. What else?
And we went through… mm… mm… Munster. We went through a little… place. We stopped for potato cakes…. Oh… potato cakes.
What’s the name of the place?
… ’Twas… umm… Starts with a D. I could see a D and an
o
… and a…
b
… D-o-b… and a
y
.
All right.
Do-by.
All right. Now I want you to think about this for a moment.
[Whisper.] Doby.
I want you to think about this. You told us before there was a place by the name of Baylings Crossing.
Ah, it’s just a
spot
, you know. [Little chuckle.] Well, where was it? Was it close to Belfast, or was it close to Cork?
It was closer to Belfast.
Closer to Belfast. All right, now what about Mourne? You told us about Mourne. Where was Mourne, closer to…
Mourne is near Carlingford.
Mourne is near Carlingford?
Yes. Mourne… near…
All right. Now can you see yourself in your mind, can you see yourself in your mind doing the Sorcerer’s Jig? Can you remember yourself doing the Sorcerer’s Jig? Can you see yourself?
Oh, I’d do it with Brian….
Uh-huh. Can you do the Sorcerer’s Jig by yourself without a partner?
[Little snort of laughter.] I don’t believe so.
All right….
You have to do… You go round in a circle, you know, and hold hands.
Uh-huh. All right. Now relax, relax. You’re going to feel fine after you awaken. You’re going to feel fine after you awaken. You’re going to feel even better than you do now. This is going to be very, very pleasant. Now, did you play a musical instrument yourself? Did you play a musical instrument?
Hmph… hmph….
[Once again it seemed as though she were thinking of some scene to which the question had deflected her memory. The indignant, staccato-like “Hmph,” which she repeated, indicated that, instead of directly replying to the question, she was reflecting on some other incident.]
Did you ever play the lyre?
Oh, I don’t… I played
at
it. You don’t want to say I
played
it.
Uh-huh…
My…
Can you remember any tunes that you played on the lyre when you were “playing at it”?
… Hm… Played just beginner’s pieces. I wasn’t enough….
Do you remember any of the pieces you tried to play?
I played… ah, I played… “Fairies’ Dance”.… I played “The Morning Jig”.… I played….
You played “The Morning Jig”?
[Jauntily.] Mm-hmm! Played “The Morning Jig.”
All right, now one thing about your father… one thing about your father. What did you say your father’s name was?
… My father?
Yes.
… Was Duncan.
Are you sure that Duncan, Duncan Murphy… Are you sure that Duncan Murphy was a barrister?
[This query was injected for a number of reasons. In the first place, even though it is quite possible that the daughter of a barrister might have married the son of another barrister—this may even have had something to do with their meeting in the first place—still I wondered whether they were all really barristers. Or could it have been that Bridey, because she married a barrister’s son, was upgrading her social status a bit when she told us that her own father, too, was a barrister?
Furthermore, she had told us that she lived in the Meadows, which she said was a district outside of town. I wondered, then, whether a barrister would have lived in the country.]
That’s what he told my mother and me.
You think he was a barrister?
Yes.
Did he do any other kind of work?
He did some… cropping.
Some what?
[Impatiently,] Cropping.
What’s that?
[Quite annoyed.] Cropping! It’s to
grow
things.
Oh, I see. I see. All right. All right.
[With some distress.] My foot.
What did you say?
My
foot
.
What about your foot?
… Hmm… it’s…
[This time I clearly heard the complaint about her foot;
and as I could not perceive what the trouble was, I decided to awaken her. Witnesses at the session, and many who have listened to the recording, have pointed out that the complaint regarding her foot, in both instances, developed shortly after the references to her dancing the jig.]
All right. I want you to rest and relax. I want you to rest and relax. I want you to rest and relax. I want you to rest and relax. You’re coming back to the present time and place. You’re going to forget about that lifetime in Ireland. And now you’re going to think about your lifetime in the United States. Now? I’m going to count to five. I’m going to count to five. And at the count of five, you’ll awaken and you’ll feel fine. You’ll be Ruth Simmons, and you’ll feel even better than you do now. You’ll feel just fine in every respect. And your foot will feel fine, your feet will feel fine, your legs will feel fine, your body will feel fine. Your head will be clear…. Your head will be clear. Your nose will be clear…. All will be clear. And in the future… in the future you will be free from allergies. After you awaken tonight, you will be free from allergies. You will no longer be bothered by allergies.
[Still in the Bridey voice.] I don’t have allergies. I have a chill.
All right, now you won’t have a chill. After you awaken, you’ll feel fine. You won’t be bothered in any respect.
