In the summer of 1968 , as a holiday job , I worked in Barley Cove Hotel in Cork.
I worked as a waiter in the dining room and lived in a chalet in the grounds.

I had a friend from college (I was just finished first arts in UCC) who lived in the nearby village of Crookhaven , his father was English and his mother from France.
The family were very hospitable to me, a stranger in their area, and they often asked me to dinner on my day off.
Together with his sister and some other friends we started to experiment, after these dinners , with an Ouija board.
This became strangely addictive after a time and became a regular parlour game with us.

Now on a particular Wednesday I was due to have dinner with them when there was a minor crisis in the hotel.
Their regular barman had fallen and broken his arm in an accident.
As I left the premises I was asked would I stand in and work in the bar for the night.
Now (as the telephone service was run from the P.O in Goleen and shut down at 5.30. ) there was no way I could tell my friends so I just accepted that I would give my excuses on my next visit, and set to work in the bar.
I worked for about an hour , plodding about making mistakes , until around 10.00, then suddenly I started to feel quite different.
Suddenly everything became much easier, strangely I seemed to know everyone’s order before they asked it , A lady (a stranger to me) asked for a gin and to my amazement I said ” Would you like that with water maam ?” “Thank you ” she said “How did you know that is how I always like It ”
This feeling of supreme confidence and mild elation was accompanied by a strong palpitation of the heart (I remember going to the barmaid on duty and asking her to feel my heart pounding.)

At eleven everything settled down again and I worked through until midnight.

The following day I rang my friend in Crookhaven to apologise.
Strangely he was able to tell me everything about the night !

” We contacted you on the Ouija board at 10.00 ” he said “and you told us about the bar and what you were doing ” He then added the most amazing fact.
“When you were serving Mrs. X , a neighbour of ours we told you she liked her gin with water ”

At 11.00 , as they told it, they had put the Ouija to bed.

I have no idea whether there was some skilled detective work going on , or if was a case of suggestion to an open innocent mind but that is the story as I remember it.

I have never played with an Ouija Board since.