The Hellfireclub (Part 2).

The Hellfire Club. Part Two.

There are numerous stories that concern the Hellfire Club and its members:

Simon Luttrell was created Baron Irnham (of Ireland) in 1768 and Earl of Carhampton in 1785. He was a member of the Hellfire Club in Dublin. After the usual fashion of satirizing any unpopular character, the first Lord Irnham was introduced in a satirical ballad, in which the Devil is represented as summoning before him those who had the strongest claim to succeed him as King of Hell.  Having summoned amongst others Lord Lyttleton, the ballad concludes

                                                                                     

But as he spoke there issued from the crowd

Irnham the base, the cruel, and the proud

And eagerly he cried, "I boast superior claim

To Hell's dark throne,  Irnham is my name."

 

He was connected to various scandals one of which concerned a woman who may have been Dublin’s first recognised serial killer, her name was:

Darkey Kelly.

Burned as a 'witch' 250 years ago, however, was really a serial killer?

Darkey Kelly, whose real name was Dorcas Kelly ran a brothel in Copper Alley, off Fishamble Street she claimed to have become pregnant with the child of the city sheriff Simon Luttrell (Lord Carhampton), and she demanded he support her financially. Folklore suggests that he responded to her demands by accusing her of witchcraft and of sacrificing her baby in a satanic ritual, the baby’s body was never found. She was found guilty and sentenced to death. She was partially hanged and then burned at the stake in a public execution on Baggot Street in Dublin. The date was 7^th January 1761.

However, it has now been suggested that the real reason for her execution was murder. She was actually accused of the murder of John Dowling, a shoemaker and those investigating the murder were to find the bodies of five other men hidden in the brothel. Reports of rioting in Copper Alley by prostitutes was recorded after her execution. It was because of these murders that some suggest that she may even be Dublin’s first female serial killer?

It has been said that in 18^th century Ireland women were second class citizens and this was reflected in the form of execution. Men found guilty of murder were simply hanged whereas women were first throttled then cut down and burnt alive.

In the 1780s Simon Luttrell’s son Henry, who also had the title Lord Carhampton also hit the news. He was accused of raping a young teenage girl in a brothel (like father, like son). The girl was supplied to him by the brothel keeper Maria Lewellyn. By a strange twist of fate, Lewellyn was the sister of Darkey Kelly. Henry Luttrell had the young girl and her parents falsely imprisoned. The girl’s mother died in prison. Luttrell’s charges against the girl and her family were later dismissed in court.

Another aristocratic member of the Hellfire Club was:

Lord Santry.

The Lord Santry Trial’ details the events that took place in 18th century Dublin at the Hell Fire Club. The club had acquired the name, ‘The Devil’s Kitchen’, and its members were called ‘bucks’. They were often the bored sons of the aristocracy who engaged in drunken sexual orgies. One of the leading lights of the Hell Fire Club was Lord Santry, a 29-year-old infamous aristocrat. He caused an outrage when he stabbed a servant, Laughlin Murphy, to death with his sword. 

Following the incident, Santry simply tossed the landlord of the tavern - where the incident occurred - a coin and implied that the whole thing was better hushed up. However, that didn’t happen. Santry was tried for the death of Murphy and found guilty by his peers, causing a major scandal in those times.  Santry never went to the scaffold; he was awarded a full pardon thanks to The Duke of Devonshire, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who had been largely responsible for petitioning King George II on Santry’s behalf.

If Santry had gone to meet his death, it would have been a beheading. Instead he lived to carry on his rakish life. He was attainted, which meant he had to forgo his estate, but that was returned to him after the pardon in 1740. A year after his pardon, Santry travelled to see George II in person and thanked him face to face. On Lord Santry’s death his title became extinct.

 

The Black Cat of Killakee.

 

Another story concerns a priest who stumbled across the club’s activities late one night. The members of the club spotted him and held him captive. What he was doing there I’ve no idea maybe he was just having a look to see what was going on. Anyway it is said that he discovered that the centre of attention was a huge black cat. He broke free from his captors, grabbed the cat and said a very quick exorcism.  This is said to have torn the cat apart and from within it a demon shot out went straight through the roof and the whole assembly ran for cover.               

In the early 1960s, workmen renovating a derelict 18th-century farmhouse near the notorious Hellfire Club in Rathfarnham witnessed strange phenomena culminating in the appearance of a gigantic black cat. Artist Tom McAssey, who was helping to convert the house into an arts centre, said the temperature in the old ballroom plummeted suddenly and a locked door swung open, revealing a hideous black cat with blazing red eyes. Afterwards the house was exorcised and no sightings were reported for several years. Then in 1969, a group of actors staying at the centre held a mock séance and apparently invoked the spirits of two women who had assisted at the Hellfire Club’s satanic rituals, during which black cats were worshipped and often sacrificed. The arts centre was replaced with Killakee House, in which a portrait of the hellish cat painted by Tom McAssey glowered down upon brave diners.

 

Another story tells of a young farmer, who curious to see what took place at the club visited it one dark night. Unfortunately for him he was caught by the members and dragged inside the building and forced to watch the night’s activities.  It was said he was found the following morning wandering the area unable to speak.  He was to remain deaf and dumb for the rest of his days and some say he couldn’t even remember his name.

 

The area around the Hellfire Club is thought by some to be one of the most haunted places in Ireland, both the Hellfire Club and  nearby Killakee  House are said to be haunted by the ghost of a young male dwarf who was brutally murdered in the Eighteenth century during a ritual at the club. There was a suggestion that he was sacrificed to satan. In 1971 the body of a dwarf was found buried under the kitchen of Killakee House, it was reported that he was found buried with a statue of the devil.

One of the most famous stories told concerns a stranger who called at the club on a stormy night. He was invited in and seeing a poker game in play he asked if he could join in. All was going well until one of the card players dropped a card onto the floor, bending down to pick it up he saw that the stranger had a cloven hoof instead of a foot and confronted the strange visitor.  Letting out a shout he was said to have disappeared through the ceiling in a ball of flame.  There is a very similar story told concerning a card game played at Loftus Hall in County Wexford but it’s not really surprising as the Killakee estate was owned by the Loftus family at one point and they kept a hunting lodge there known as Dolly Mount.