Woman Living In Ireland’s Most Haunted House Won’t Be Intimidated By A Sinister ‘Presence’

Set in the countryside outside Manorcunningham, a tiny village in the Irish county of Donegal, Sharon Rectory doesn’t appear particularly terrifying at first glance. But the events that have taken place there are enough to send a chill down anyone’s spine. And that even goes for those who say they don’t believe in ghosts.

At just six years old, Tully moved into the then-dilapidated former rectory with her family, who began extensive renovations. Before long, though, the Tullys realized that this was no ordinary home. From blue-shrouded figures to ghostly visitations, the property was seemingly bursting with things that go bump in the night.

Despite such horrors, though, Tully stayed put – even as events took a far darker turn. And now, she’s raising her own children inside the spooky setting of Sharon Rectory. But is the old building really chock-full of ghosts? And what of the sinister forces that are said to stalk its halls?

According to reports, the property was constructed over a 15-year period during the latter half of the 18th century. As a Church of Ireland rectory, it once housed members of the clergy within the small, rural community of Manorcunningham. Eventually, though, the house went on to become a dark and foreboding place.

Not long after Sharon Rectory was finished, it became the home of the respectable academic Dr. John Waller and his wife Sarah. According to Tully’s own research, as quoted on her website, the pair were well-liked in the area. Apparently, they made an effort to treat the local residents with kindness.

At the time, though, not all academics were quite so popular. Across Ireland, anti-British sentiment was growing and speaking out against republicanism was an act often punished with extreme violence. Against this backdrop, a man named William Hamilton, who had once studied alongside Waller, was developing a controversial reputation.

Despite his position of rector in Fanad, some 30 miles north of Manorcunningham, Hamilton often caused upset in the local community with his political support of the British. And in 1772, after signing off on a particularly scathing attack, he found himself with a target on his back. Five years later, he was the focus of a botched assassination attempt.

By that point, Hamilton was quite rightly concerned that his life was on the line. So, he took to employing armed guards to protect him. Apparently, these soldiers were with him when he attempted to cross Lough Swilly by boat on March 2, 1797 – although they did little to prevent what was to come.

According to reports, bad weather forced Hamilton and his entourage to change their plans, mooring up just a few miles from Sharon Rectory. Realizing that they’d need somewhere to spend the night, the fearful man decided to take shelter in Waller’s home. After all, the two hadn’t just been colleagues at Trinity College: they’d been friends.

Unfortunately, word soon spread that Hamilton was staying at Sharon Rectory, a property far less protected than his own home. Soon, a plan for an ambush was hatched. And as the Wallers entertained their unexpected guest, they had no idea that a violent mob was making its way towards their home.

According to Tully, a large group of Irish rebels known as the United Irishmen gathered outside Sharon Rectory, baying for Hamilton’s blood. Worked into a frenzy, they began to fire random gunshots at the property. As a result, a stray bullet struck and killed Sarah Waller, causing terrible grief among the terrified servants in the home.

In mourning for their mistress, the story goes, the servants turned on Hamilton and threw him out of the house – where he was immediately slaughtered by the vicious crowd. Sharon Rectory, then, has certainly experienced its share of trauma and tragedy. But are there echoes of this bloody past still seen and heard today?

Unfortunately, we don’t know a huge amount about Sharon Rectory between the time of Waller and Hamilton’s deaths and the 1990s. That, of course, was when the Tullys moved in. But given its somewhat macabre history, it’s not difficult to imagine that rumors of hauntings and ghosts emerged long before its current owners took over.

By the time that the Tully family arrived, Sharon Rectory was in a state of disrepair. But that didn’t stop Tully’s parents Vincent and Lisa from falling in love with the place. Enamored, they purchased the dilapidated building and set about making it into a family home. Before long, though, they began to suspect that they’d bitten off more than they could chew.

According to The Irish Sun, the problems began soon after the Tully family moved into their new home. In a 2020 interview with the paper, Emma Tully said, “We started to experience unexplainable things… Whenever I was in my bedroom, I would have seen this blue mist, this blue figure appear.”

Tully went on, “And soon after it was a lady that was coming to me at night. It was also coming to my parents nightly, too.” So who or what was this mysterious figure? Could it, perhaps, be the ghost of Sarah Waller, returned to seek vengeance for her brutal death from beyond the grave?

Apparently, the apparition dubbed the Blue Lady isn’t the only spirit that’s been spotted within the walls of Sharon Rectory. According to Tully, the historic property is also haunted by the ghost of an old caretaker named Barney. And she even claims to have captured Barney’s eerie likeness on film.

On another occasion, Tully states, she woke up to see the figure of an elderly, bearded man standing at the foot of her bed. In a post on the Sharon Rectory Facebook page, she explained that the apparition didn’t give off a “bad feeling.” In fact, she vowed to help the spirit find peace.

But, if Tully is to be believed, not all of the supernatural forces at Sharon Rectory are quite so benign. Speaking to The Irish Sun, she claimed that there’s a certain dark energy connected with the land on which the property is built. And while Barney and the Blue Lady might be somewhat unsettling, another presence seems enough to inspire genuine terror.

Tully claimed, “We recently found there is a demonic presence in the house, dating long before the house was built. It is attached to the land. We have many experts that have confirmed it for us. There is something a little darker. It’s just not friendly.” So, how has this malevolent entity been making itself known?

Well, while Sharon Rectory’s other spooks appear to be responsible for little more than a few sleepless nights, this dark spirit has allegedly caused actual, physical harm. According to Tully, the entity has launched savage attacks on both herself and other members of her family. And they’ve apparently been left with inexplicable marks as a result.

Tully explained, “It has happened to me, and my sister. We have been scratched, and we have been bitten. It’s not only physical attacks; it attacks your mental health, too. You feel like you doubt yourself. Are you actually experiencing this? Are you seeing this for real? ‘What’s going on with me?’”

On one occasion, according to a post on the Sharon Rectory Instagram feed, Tully’s sister Victoria experienced what the family have called a “spiritual attack.” Apparently, she’d been inside one of the property’s bedrooms when she felt an inexplicable pain on her wrist. And when she looked closer, she spotted a strange red mark.

Around the same time, Tully claims, motion detector cameras picked up an unidentified light moving from the direction of the same bedroom. On Instagram, she wrote, “It’s almost like [Victoria] was branded by the negative energy that lurks in Sharon.” Thankfully, the mark began to fade after a few hours, although a feeling of fear and apprehension lingered in the house.

Over the years, the Tullys have tried to keep track of all the different spirits that appear to reside in Sharon Rectory. Among them, they believe, are a young boy and girl, as well as a number of mysterious dark figures. However, they admit that it’s difficult to get a handle on exactly how many there are, as the “demonic” energy can apparently imitate other apparitions.

According to The Irish Sun, the Tullys have also been visited in their sleep by an unknown presence that weighs upon their chests. At other times, they’ve allegedly witnessed objects moving of their own accord and heard footsteps when nobody was around. Even electrical currents, it seems, don’t operate as normal within these haunted walls.

Despite the frequency of these occurrences, though, there were many who doubted the Tullys’ stories about their spooky home. Emma Tully said, “When my mum and dad first started talking about their experiences openly, people laughed, and said they were on drugs or imagining things and making it up for a story to put out there.”

Certainly, it’s easy to see why some people might reach this conclusion. After all, when Vincent and Lisa put Sharon Rectory on the market back in 2006, the property’s ghostly history helped it to make the national press. And at the time, the Tullys’ estate agent admitted that he’d exploited the stories to generate coverage prior to the sale.

This admission alone, though, isn’t enough to dismiss the haunting of Sharon Rectory as a whole. According to Tully, there have been a number of witnesses outside the family who can also testify to the strange goings-on. She said, “We have the most skeptical people come and something happens and it leaves them questioning.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Tullys didn’t manage to sell Sharon Rectory back in 2006. And today, Tully lives in the spooky property with her own partner and their two children. According to The Irish Sun, they’ve made a number of attempts to exorcise the property over the years – but the spirits remain.

On other occasions, the Tullys have opened up Sharon Rectory to paranormal investigators, keen to learn more about the apparitions that share their home. In April 2019, for example, a team made up of professional ghost hunters and members of the public spent an evening at the property. And, according to those present, all manner of bizarre hijinks ensued.

The Paranormal Investigators Ireland group wrote on their Facebook page, “[The] staircase seemed to be the epicenter of activity on the night... We had a member of the public collapse and a team member feel as if she was pushed.” At one point, a video camera also captured a ball rolling down the stairs, allegedly pushed by some unseen force.

Interestingly, the team also claim to have made contact with a dark presence known as John during a seance held inside the house. The post read, “As he came through, the team felt extremely uncomfortable and some members of the public had to leave the room. We believe [he] is a demonic entity and has been oppressing this family for years.”

The post continued, “He repeated that this was his house and that the family was living in his house... We believe this entity attacked members of the team. One team member was left with a black eye and the other with a severely bloodshot eye.” Apparently, investigators even managed to capture a snap of what they claim is a ghostly child – although the image is blurry and vague.

Unfortunately for the Tullys, events such as this one seem to have riled the ghosts of Sharon Rectory. Speaking to The Irish Sun, Emma said, “With us bringing investigators in, it antagonized it a little bit, too. It’s made things worse. We are living in the aftermath of these investigations. It’s not nice to live with. We are having a little bit of bother living with it.”

To most people, “a little bit of bother” might not accurately describe the horrors of living in a haunted home. But the Tully family seem, for the most part, to be relatively unfazed by their experiences. At one point, Tully admitted that she did feel depressed by the situation – but now she sees “a light at the end of the tunnel.”

According to The Irish Sun, Tully hopes to bring in some people to help banish the bad spirits from her family home. However, she’s aware that this approach isn’t exactly a quick fix. She said, “It can take months or years to clear from a house because it is such a big energy.”

Meanwhile, the Tullys have made their peace with the spirits that they believe stalk Sharon Rectory. Speaking to the news website IrishCentral, Victoria Tully said, “Up until a couple of years ago, I was really scared in the house and refused to walk around by myself, but this is my home and it’s supposed to be my safe place, so I learned to accept it.”

In February 2020 Emma Tully released a book, The Haunting of Sharon Rectory, detailing her experiences growing up in the spooky property. And if her social media is anything to go by, the strange occurrences have shown no sign of abating since. But are they really caused by visiting ghosts? Or is there a more rational explanation?