Coláiste Éamann Rís School, formerly Deerpark CBS, in Turner’s Cross is to feature in an episode of Spooked Ireland with Vogue Williams tonight.
The oldest school on Cork’s southside made headlines in 2017 when they shared footage from their CCTV cameras of an alleged paranormal presence, earning it a reputation as “the world’s most haunted school”.
The school is set to appear on the tenth episode of the first season of Spooked Ireland today at 9pm on REALLY, which sees model, presenter and podcaster Vogue Williams team up with Christopher Fleming, an American medium, paranormal researcher and television personality.
The duo lead a team of paranormal experts investigating suspected paranormal activity at some of Ireland’s most haunted locations, and the history behind them.
The show, which first aired in September of this year, has seen the team travel across Ireland visiting Charleville Castle, King John’s Castle, Aughrim Village, Leap Castle, Wicklow Jail, Ailwee Caves, Ardgillan Castle and Achill Island, and, most recently, Cork’s Blackwater Castle.
In today’s episode in Coláiste Éamann Rís, they speak to the headmaster about the CCTV footage and the impact it has had on the students, and investigate the authenticity of the footage, while Vogue looks further into the history of the school and its location, and Chris attempts to make contact with the poltergeist.
Principal Aaron Wolfe told The Echo: “It’s the season finale so it’s a big one, Vogue Williams and this team of paranormal investigators came and spent the night in the school, and they also visited the Gallows Pub on Barrack St and the Lough Community Centre.
“What sparks the interest is the school and much of the Greenmount area is built on mass graves, where the English used to hang people.”
Mr Wolfe explained they’d be hanged in the area where the Lough Community Centre is, be buried under the school, and people would go into Gallows pub for their last drink.
“Our ghost was caught on camera in 2017, and we put it up with the question ‘prank or poltergeist’ on Youtube and the clip went viral all over the world with about 22 million views.
He explained that it was also featured on The Late Late Show and that there had been various film crews there over the years from Japan, China, The Netherlands and America, with a Japanese film crew once having the presenter leave halfway through filming because he was so afraid and the crew returning home to find that all the audio had been mysteriously wiped from their footage.
“No one has ever come forward to say they did it, and people have tried to debunk it saying it’s a green screen or a string but nobody has ever seen a string”, he explained.
The story has grown legs, with Mr Wolfe saying he has seen someone online claiming that the school had said it was a TY project, which they never did, and even someone saying that the school is now closed down after a fire that killed students.
“It’s funny to read stuff about your own school,” the principal said, adding: “I’ve never witnessed anything or been frightened but some of my staff have seen things and some are scared to go in certain places.”
The students came into the school to watch the show before it aired, and were joined by two paranormal investigators who showed the students their equipment and facilitated a bit of ghost hunting.