I’m sitting backward in my seat on the upper level of a double-decker Dublin tour bus. I awkwardly try to fit our group of 21 people into one picture. I fiddle with the camera zooming the view finder to the widest possible setting. “Ok guys, smmmiiiilllee….” I say, snapping the picture. Still seated backward, I join in the conversation with the girls behind me. After a few moments the girls grow quiet and distracted. Their eyes glance towards the front of the bus. Thinking the tour is about to start I spin around in my seat. Instead of finding our tour guide at the front of the bus making last minute preparations, I find his wide-eyed and haunting gaze inches from my face. I give a shriek of surprise and clumsily throw myself backward into my seat. The rest of the group laughs at my reaction and I join them as our tour guide makes his way back to the front of the bus. Welcome to the Dublin Ghost Tour… While I was the first, and possibly most spastic, member of our group to be scared by our sneaky tour guide, who introduced himself as “James,” I will not be the last. Throughout our two hour and 15 minute tour of the most haunted locations in Dublin city James (whose real name is Paul Keeley) attempts to startle nearly every member of the group. “You had to keep your eyes on him and be aware of where he was at all times because he would sneak up on you,” said Ireland ’06 student Mackensie Lundeen. The ghost tour gives a unique perspective on historical Dublin, mixing myth and legend with fact. The tour explores ghost stories throughout Dublin, not just during the two stops at St. Kevin’s Graveyard and the Haunted Steps. The ghost stories begin as soon as the bus turns around on O’Connell Street. While crossing the River Liffey, Keeley points out the window and begins our education with a story about banshees and a young girl who did not listen to their warning. Moving on, we learn about Trinity College and its relationship with Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and the origins of vampires. Continuing through Dublin we are regaled with tales of fake corpses, haunted mortuaries, accidental burials, and lovers committed to each other in life and death. The tour is more than just spooky information. Keeley and the other tour guides engage and entertain us with performances. “This tour was different than most tours I’ve been on,” said Ireland ’06 student Kristin Dyak. “It was more interactive. I even participated in a grave-robbing demonstration.” “What really impressed me was the performance given by the guide,” said Dylan Love. “He was wildly educated on everything, and he was funny too.” The ghost tour began eight years ago. Keeley has been with it from the beginning. The tour started as a joint project between Dublin Bus’ Chris McCormack and a magician named Dan O’Donoghue. The original tour was directed by Irish actress Jayne Snow. The tour is given nine times a week on two bright purple ghost busses with graveyards and candelabra wielding ghosts painted on the outside. There are two other guides, Brent Hearne and Gary Egan, who give the tour along with Keeley. Keeley, Hearne, and Egan, trained just like any actor or performer, before becoming a ghost tour guide. Giving the tour is like being in a play without the physical distance actors have being up on a stage. Keeley says that in order to give an entertaining tour the guides must rehearse. “It is a rehearsal process like any other,” said Keeley. “Soon, however, the show evolves to suit the strength of the individual guide. It also evolves over the period of doing it [giving tours].” The Dublin Ghost Tour Guides interact with their audiences throughout the performance. Tour guides sneak up on people to surprise them and ask for volunteers for demonstrations. “One of the first times that our tour guide tried any tricks was when he pretended to kidnap me and take me back on the bus after everyone else was let off,” said Ireland ’06 student Jessi Groover. “I wasn’t really prepared for it. I didn’t know what was going on, but I assumed it was just part of the entertainment. It was definitely a shock though!” The ghost tour has been planned to cooperate with the city’s traffic restrictions, historical locations, and sights of haunted historical events. The ghost tour attracts a wide variety of audiences. Keeley said he enjoys the diversity. “We get all ages, races, etc.” said Keeley. “I’d hate it if we occupied a niche market.” “I wanted to go on the tour because everyone else was going,” said Ireland ’06 student Mason Miller. “But I really enjoyed it.” “I wanted to go because the people from last year [Ireland ‘05] said it was fun,” said Ireland ’06 student Rachel Day. Another attraction of the ghost tour is the thought of taking part in some sort of supernatural occurrence. Keeley has never seen any ghosts or phantasmal phenomenon, but says that many tourists claim to have seen spooks. “A lot of people want to see ghosts,” said Keeley. “This desire, I think, often gets so strong that they convince themselves.” Keeley does believe in some of the sightings. “The real sightings are rare,” said Keeley. “I say real, but more accurately the ones I believe. They have a pattern. They are rarely dramatic, and very rarely frightening after the initial shock.” He thinks that some sightings are more probable than others. “The sightings in hospitals by medical professionals of the recently deceased always scare me,” said Keeley. “These have the feeling of truth.” Keeley finds sightings of dead celebrities or historical heroes least believable. “I do not believe that people are visited by Napoleon, Alexander, or Marilyn Monroe,” said Keeley. “And never ever by their dead pets.” Most customers are satisfied with their time on the ghost bus. But, there are some tourists who do not enjoy the experience. “Some people expect a ghost train experience despite all that we say in advance they can be disappointed,” said Keeley. “There will also be a small minority that takes one look at a performer and decides that they do not like him. That’s life.” The ghost tour may not please everyone, but based on our experience I would recommend it. Each member of our group took something away from the tour, and while no one actually saw any spooks or spirits, the entertainment value and the ghost stories were well worth the price of admission.