By Kristi O’Toole

Though a sign hangs warning folks that Castle Oliver in Limerick is full of spirits, too many often mistake it to mean the liquid kind. However, they are quickly corrected by the resident specters.

When Charles Silver Oliver became an absentee landlord around 1812, Galloway became Steward of the estate. Following Charles’s death a few years later, Galloway assumed total control, to the despair of the tenants. His word was law and by all accounts he was a bully. His hobby was wrestling, and he must have been good at it, because he had a fearsome reputation. But at the harvest festival one year, in front of all the estate workers, local farmers and their families, Galloway was beaten by a forester named O’Brian. Although he lived for many more years, he never got over his humiliation, and took his anger out on all those around him. He allowed the castle to fall into such a state of disrepair that it became fit only for demolition. (This much of the story tallies closely to known history).