THE Ards peninsula plays a central role in the debut novel of established writer and Ulster-Scots enthusiast, Diane Hoy.
Greyabbey, Newtownards and Cloughey are key locations in Diane’s ghost story, The Spirits of Place, published by Newtownards based Colour Point Books.
She explained: “I wanted to write a paranormal novel set in our Ulster-Scots heartlands, where I could highlight the beauty of Strangford Lough and the Mourne Mountains whilst featuring the historical connections of places within the novel.”
As a former librarian and later a development officer for the Ulster Scots Heritage Council, local history is a passion of the Belfast based writer.
“I had to learn an awful lot of Ulster Scot’s history and obviously you start with the founding fathers, Hamilton and Montgomery, who were all based round the Ards peninsula area with their settlement of 1606,” Diane said.
The Ards peninsula provides the roots of The Spirits of Place, said Diane, while the Kingdom of Mourne is where the haunting takes place.
The novel follows what happens when five people converge on Laverock, a 19th century renovated Gate Lodge in the fishing village of Annalong.
Recent parapsychological events have unsettled the family living within its walls, rousing old spirits, reviving family secrets, and agitating fragile worlds.
As events become more demonic in nature, a Deliverance Ministry is set in motion, an event that Diane was able to describe knowledgeably thanks to some unusual research she carried out several years ago.
Diane was aware that exorcisms are carried out in the Roman Catholic church and wanted to find out if there were similar practices in the Presbyterian church.
She arranged a meeting with two Presbyterian Ministers based at the Union Theological College in Belfast at which they discussed what happens at ‘deliverance ministries’.
“I expected them to tell me to catch myself on, that Presbyterians don’t do that sort of thing, so I was absolutely gobsmacked. They don’t call it an exorcism, they call it more of a house clearance,” she said.
The ministers spoke to her about what happens at these ceremonies and suggested some books to read which informed how Diane has written about the deliverance ministry in her novel.
“It’s a very uncomfortable position to be in, to deliver a house from some portal that has been opened within it and dark forces that have come into the house,” explained Diane.
She adds that the minister cleanses the house through prayer and does not directly communicate with the spirit or ask for its name as this is considered to be dangerous.
The Spirits of Place takes Diane’s work in a very different direction, her previous publications being a children’s book featuring stories from Strangford Lough and a book of Ulster-Scots recipes.
‘The Spirits of Place’ can be purchased online and in store from Newtownards-based colourpoint.books.com/product/the-spirits-of-place/
