Montrealers within the Griffintown neighbourhood have been protecting their eyes open on Saturday for the ghost of a murdered Nineteenth-century intercourse employee who is claimed to retun each seven years.
The legend says that Mary Gallagher’s ghost comes again to search for her severed head on the anniversary of her decapitation on June 27, 1879.
A bunch who gathered in Griffintown early Saturday afternoon didn’t have to attend lengthy earlier than recognizing Gallagher.
A blood-stained actress portraying the murdered girl staggered round, consuming from a bottle as she launched herself as a “woman of the evening,” and informed the group how she’d been brutally murdered by her greatest pal.
Gallagher, the actress defined, had spent a night consuming with a person named Michael Flanagan, in addition to along with her greatest pal, Susan Kennedy. Because the legend goes, Kennedy turned jealous of Gallagher and the male consideration she was receiving. As Flanagan slept, Kennedy attacked Gallagher, first with a bottle after which with an axe, the actress recounted. ”With that axe, have you learnt what she did? She murdered her greatest pal,” the ghost informed the group.
A spokesperson for the tradition centre organizing the occasion says it’s not clear how lots of the particulars of Gallagher’s story are true.
However Claraence Painchaud says the occasion is a chance for Montrealers to be reminded of an city legend and to recollect the historical past of a neighbourhood that has profoundly modified.
“I believe it’s fascinating to maintain city legends alive,” mentioned Painchaud, who wore a headless ghost costume connected to a backpack. “It’s a narrative that’s extremely popular within the ghost lore of Montreal, and I believe individuals have enjoyable with imagining they might (see) a supernatural being.”
Griffintown “was very a lot an Irish immigrant neighbourhood, very working class, quite a lot of poverty within the neighbourhood,” they added. “Much more gritty.”
After the actress’s presentation, the group walked via the streets of Griffintown, the place trendy condos and classy eating places have obscured most traces of the neighbourhood’s previous.
The spot the place Gallagher was reportedly murdered is now occupied primarily by a college, the École de technologie supérieure.
Suzanne Lalande, a Griffintown resident, confirmed as much as attend the occasion wearing interval clothes. Her first identify — much like that of Gallagher’s reported killer — drew a response from the actress enjoying the murdered girl. On the finish, the 2 posed with their arms round one another, and proclaimed that Susan and Mary have been associates once more. ”She’s fantastic, stunning, she didn’t should be killed like that,” Lalande mentioned, with a smile.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed June 27, 2026.
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