If on Halloween you come across a looped branch of briar-thorn sticking up from the ground, you might decide to creep through it three times in the devil’s name. Then afterwards cut a piece of it so that you might take it home and place it under your pillow. In so doing, it is said, that you will dream of the one you will marry.
Perhaps it was just such a game that a young girl by the name of Bridget Boland played one Halloween afternoon down in Ireland’s County Tipperary. And perhaps that night, as she lay her head to rest, a man did come to her in a dream; his handsome face, his dark hair and his striking blue eyes, appearing to her from out of the flames of a fire, and his name, Michael Cleary whispered like a warning, but long forgotten by the first light of day…
Warning: Contains some graphic imagery that some may find upsetting
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Wedding photo of Bridget and Michael Cleary