Ghostly goings on at the Waterfront Hall
Extra large audience for medium

By Eddie McIlwaine
[email protected]

09 August 2004
Northern Ireland is swarming with ghosts, if the experience of spirit medium Derek Acorah is anything to go by.

For the one night show this former Liverpool FC soccer player is putting on at the Waterfront next month is going to be totally booked out by people who want to tell him about their experiences with visitors from the other side.

One restless spirit this psychic will be asked to probe is Carrie, the little girl who haunts an old bell tower at the Tullyglass Hotel in Ballymena, where owner Chris McConville is embarking on a £1.7m refurbishment.

"We are gobsmacked at the turnout for Acorah," says Janice Crowe of the backroom staff down on Laganside.

"Tickets have been disappearing at a phenomenal rate, If you have an eerie experience to relate or you just want to be there to hear things that go bump, time is running out to book your spot for the September 22 gig," warns Janice.

"If we had his powers of foresight we would have booked this medium for a week.

"This man is selling out the 2,000-seater auditorium faster than some pop stars."

Psychic Acorah (53), whose Antiques Ghost Show is the highlight of a hit television show has identified the sailor who owned a watch picked up from the wreckage of the Titanic.

"I tapped into strong emotional vibrations locked within it," he claims.

And Derek, who says he has had a link-up with Bill Shankly, his old manager at Anfield who died 22 years ago, insists: "There are ghosts out there - they are the restless spirits who haven't yet entered the light of God's kingdom.

"I don't go to church, but I believe in God and the hereafter. I am the receiver of messages from the spirit world and I pass them on. The dead have only gone on a journey through a doorway."

And at the Tullyglass, Chris McConville adds: "Perhaps this psychic will convince our ghost child that rumours about the hotel being knocked down are nonsense. I believe this is why she became restless."