Earth-Bound
and Other Supernatural Tales
By Dorothy Macardle
“‘Tis these places are haunted,” he said, “by the old Chieftains and Kings.”
Originally published in 1924, the nine tales that comprise Earth-Bound were written by Dorothy Macardle while she was held a political prisoner in Dublin’s Kilmainham Gaol and Mountjoy Prison. The stories incorporate themes that intrigued her throughout her life; themes out of the myths and legends of Ireland; ghostly interventions, dreams and premonitions, clairvoyance, and the Otherworld in parallel with this one. It is so easy to dismiss them, as some have, merely as part of the narrative of “Irish nationalism” of the time, but it is the supernatural elements that make them much more. She would revisit these themes in later works such as her classic haunted house novel The Uninvited (1941). To this new edition of Macardle’s debut collection, reprinted for the first time in ninety years, we have added four more tales of the supernatural.
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Cover art by Brian Gallagher
Introduction by Peter Berresford Ellis
ISBN: 978-1-78380-011-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-78380-738-3 (pbk)
Dorothy Macardle
Dorothy Macardle (1889-1958)—historian, playwright, journalist, and novelist—was born in Dundalk, Co. Louth. She was educated at Alexandra College in Dublin where she later lectured in English literature. She is best remembered for her seminal treatise on Ireland’s struggle for independence, The Irish Republic (1937), but also wrote novels of the uncanny, including Uneasy Freehold/The Uninvited (1941), Fantastic Summer/The Unforeseen (1946), and Dark Enchantment (1953). She died in Drogheda and is buried in St. Fintan’s Cemetery, Sutton.
Read more“Macardle is a fascinating example of the bamboozling complexity of history. So many of her beliefs seem to clash, and it is the sites of these collisions that make her work so rich . . . This latest reissue of her earliest short stories provides a beautifully presented and valuable resource for anyone interested in Irish history, culture or literature.” – Dublin Inquirer
“Beautifully written, with a fine air for the music of language and vivid descriptions of the landscape.” – Black Static
“Earth-Bound and Other Supernatural Tales by Dorothy Macardle is a beautifully produced little hardcover reissue of nine stories originally published in 1924. Four additional stories are included in this new edition. They were written by the author while she was a political prisoner in Dublin.” – Ellen Datlow
“This collection of unique supernatural stories is steeped in the wondrous mysteries of Ireland, set against the backdrop of the struggle for Irish independence and deeply embedded in the tragic circumstances of its author.” – A Ghostly Company
Earth-Bound and Other Supernatural Tales by Dorothy Macardle. Cover art by Brian Gallagher; jacket design by Meggan Kehrli; introduction by Peter Berresford Ellis; edited by Brian J. Showers; copyedited by Jim Rockhill; typeset by Ken Mackenzie; published by Swan River Press.
Hardback: Published on 25 May 2016; limited to 350 copies of which 100 are embossed and hand numbered; xxi + 134 pages; lithographically printed on 80 gsm paper; dust jacketed; illustrated boards; sewn binding; head- and tail-bands; issued with one postcard; ISBN: 978-1-78380-011-7.
Paperback: Published on 1 September 2020; no limitation; print on demand paperback; ISBN: 978-1-78380-738-3.
“A Reflection of Ghosts”
The Life of Dorothy Macardle
Peter Berresford Ellis, © March 2016
Dorothy Macardle, who died nearly sixty years ago, is remembered today by two books. She was the author of one of the greatest ghost mystery stories ever written in the English language—Uneasy Freehold (1941), made into an Oscar nominated film in 1944 as The Uninvited, the title used by subsequent editions of the novel.
The second book was her history The Irish Republic, published by Victor Gollancz in 1937. It is still the standard history of the period 1916-23 in Ireland and secured her reputation as a major historian.
However, Dorothy Macardle was also a playwright; a poet, a short story writer as well as a novelist; an investigative reporter and political correspondent, a film and theatre critic, a regular broadcaster on Irish and British radio; an active Irish republican; a political prisoner; a feminist campaigner and worker for refugee children during World War II.
Dorothy Marguerite Callan Macardle was born in Dundalk, Co. Louth, on 8 March 1889. She was the eldest of five children, three boys and two girls. The family background was one of wealth and privilege. Her father was Thomas Callan Macardle (later Sir Thomas), owner, among many other business enterprises, of the Macardle Moore & Co.—the Dundalk Brewery. He once held a sear on Louth County Council, became Louth’s Deputy Lieutenant and in 1917 was High Sheriff for the county as well as a Justice of the Peace. He was a Catholic and home-ruler.
During a meeting in O’Connell Street, Dublin, in October 1922, being addressed by Maud Gonne, Charlotte Despard and Dorothy, protesting at the arrest of Mary MacSwiney, a member of the Irish Parliament, pro-Treaty forces opened fire, and fourteen people were seriously wounded while hundreds were injured in the subsequent stampede. It was that event that made Dorothy decide to devote full time to the cause and she wrote at the beginning of November to the Board of Governors of her College to announce that she was going to understand “premeditated public political work”. What more public political work she meant on top of what she was already doing is hard to say. The Governors discussed the matter on 15 November and decided to sack her.
A few days later she was arrested by Free State troops. As she wrote, “It was in 1922 that I was suddenly translated from the position of lecturer in Alexandra College to that of a military prisoner in Mountjoy Jail . . . ”
Dorothy shared her cell with the Waterford novelist and historian Rosamund Jacob. She now became part of the small band of famous republican women prisoners and suffragettes. She used her incarceration, first in Mountjoy, then Kilmainham, and finally the North Dublin Union, to start writing short stories—in fact she wrote nine weird tales, ghost stories but each with subtle political messages. These were first published in such magazines as Éire, The Dublin Magazine, Columbia and the Irish World (New York). These stories were collected and published in America as Earth-Bound in 1924. Each story was dedicated to a fellow female prisoner.
The full article appears in issue seven of The Green Book 7.
