Co Antrim friary spirits followed me to London, says paranormal investigator

The spooky claim came after Stephen McKinley heard Franciscan brothers chanting in Latin on a recording he made of a thunderstorm.

Paranormal investigator Stephen had videoed the storm outside his fourth floor window when he realised the spirits of the centuries-old friars had come with him from Bonamargy Friary.

The 49-year-old distribution manager, who also works as an angelic Reiki master and spirit medium, had visited the 15th century friary near his home town earlier this year.

Stephen said he is able to “hear and see spirits and communicate with them”.

He visited the friary in February and brought paranormal investigation equipment with him, including a SB7 Spirit Box and an EMF meter, a piece of equipment most commonly used by electricians to check for electrical wires.

“Where the friary is, in the middle of a golf course, there’s no electricity or power points, it’s an old ruins, so the EMF should not work. But it does work, because the spirits used the light to communicate.”

Stephen said: “I asked the spirit ‘are you a man?’, it didn’t light up. Then I asked ‘are you a woman?’ and it lit up.

“It wasn’t the only spirit; there were another two gentlemen there. But there was nothing to fear, there was no threatening energy there. I think they were quite happy to communicate and watch what I was doing.”

Legend has it that a recluse, Julia McQuillen, known as the ‘Black Nun,’ is buried at the site, but Stephen said he doesn’t know if it was her who was communicating with him.

When he returned to London two days later there was a big storm.

He said: “I recorded it on my phone and when I played it back I heard voices ... I can hear this woman saying ‘what’s he aiming at?’... and then another voice came through and said ‘hello’, a woman’s voice. At the very end two or three monks are singing in Latin.”

Last week, back in Co Antrim, he revisited the friary with his paranormal investigation equipment.

“I asked the female spirit ‘can you confirm to me if the monks are still here?’ The light didn’t flash. But when I played it back, you can hear her whisper ‘No’.’’ He said this confirms that the monks had attached themselves to him, went all the way to London and “then I released them”.

Stephen, who admitted his work sometimes gives him “the creeps”, said he knows many might not take his claims seriously, but added: “I get messages from the other side ... you just have to listen to the recordings.”

• Listen to the recordings of the monks chanting at www.newsletter.co.uk