There is a tradition concerning the Hartpole family of Shrule Castle in
the Queen’s County (called the castle on the bloody stream, from the
sanguinary deeds of the owner) that every male member of the family is
doomed and fated to utter three screeches terrible to hear when dying.
As to the origin of this doom the story goes that Sir Richard Hartpole
about 300 years ago, in the time of the Elizabethan wars, committed
many savage acts against the Irish, he being an upholder of the English
faction.
One day a priest named O’More, having come to the castle on some
friendly mission, the savage Hartpole ordered his retainers to seize
him and hang him up in the courtyard.
“Good God!” exclaimed the priest. “Give me at least a moment to pray!”
“Go then,” said Hartpole, “you may pray.”
The priest kneeled down apart from the crowd. But Hartpole grew
impatient, and ordered him to rise.
“You have prayed long enough,” he said, “prepare for death.”
And when the priest heard the order for his death, and saw the man
approach to seize him, he swayed from right to left and gave three
fearful screams.
“Why do you screech?” asked the tyrant.
“So shall you scream, and all your descendants in your last agony,”
exclaimed O’More, “as a sign of the doom upon your race. You have
murdered my people, you are now going to take my life; but I lay the
curse of God on you and yours—your property shall pass away; your race
shall perish off the earth; and by the three death screeches all men
shall know that you and your posterity are accursed.”
The words of O’More only made the tyrant more furious, and the priest
was hung at once in the courtyard before the eyes of Hartpole. But the
prophecy of doom was fulfilled—the property perished, the castle became
a ruin. The last Hartpole died miserably of want and hunger, and the
whole race finally has become extinct.