(Image supplied by Ghost Wanted)
If you google the words “Ghost Wanted” your first results will point you in the direction of an old Merrie Melodies cartoon from 1940, or a recent supernatural thriller novel, but that is set to change as Ringsend resident Jasper Kearns is bringing his new paranormal-themed TV concept to your screens this year.
NewsFour sat down with Jasper for a chat over coffee to find out about the show and get the skinny on some tales of the paranormal.
We started off talking about the show, and the first site they are investigating, Leap Castle in County Offaly. Leap Castle is acknowledged in folk legend and among ghost hunters as one of the most haunted places in the Republic.
Even with a totally sceptical mindset, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more likely candidate, just on paper. Over the last number of centuries, the castle has been the site of a startling number of grisly murders, the most famous of which reads like a plot synopsis from an episode of Game of Thrones.
A bitter family feud concerning clan succession resulted in the murder of a priest by his younger brother in the middle of serving mass. It certainly sounds like the recipe for a haunting.
Jasper explained that Friday the 13th of February was the day they elected to investigate. His team includes a parapsychologist, Keith Freeland, and Keith’s wife Angie, who is a medium.
“Other members of the team are Anna Cannon, Edele Browne, Paul Maloney and Philip Canning”
Was the investigation a success, we asked? “Well, we had a few sceptics with us, and they’re not sceptics anymore, I’ll put it that way.”
Jasper’s interest in the paranormal began following a bizarre experience in a flat he was living in in London in the mid-80s. The upstairs part of the flat had an atmosphere that everyone noted as unsettling.
The day Jasper and his family were set to leave, he went upstairs to retrieve suitcases and was confronted by an uncanny sense of immediate presence, as though someone were standing directly in front of him that he otherwise could not see.
His story matches any number of such experiences. The person can directly sense a presence but their senses give them no indication, a sense of contradiction known as ‘cognitive dissonance’.
Jasper explains that he never forgot the feeling or the sense of confusion and fear that came with it, though he remained calm for the sake of his partner at the time and their young son. “I felt it was important not to show fear at the time. I don’t quite know why but that was how I handled it.”
Jasper went on to explain that for him, this ghost-hunting TV concept started with the title. “I had the idea about four or five years ago and it’s just been rattling around inside my head since then. The title was the thing for me. I assumed that would have been taken before by a similar show. Ghost Wanted sounds obvious, but it was free. I wouldn’t have done it if it had been taken. The name is important.”
See the Ghost Wanted page on Facebook for more details and transmission dates.
By Rúairí Conneely
