Inside Northern Ireland's team of paranormal investigators

Shadow Hunters NI conducting a seance
-Credit: (Image: Shadow Hunters NI)


Across Northern Ireland, tales of ghosts, spirits and the supernatural have long been part of local folklore and from ancient castles to haunted houses, the region is rich with tales of the unexplained.

However, one team has turned these age-old stories into serious investigative work. Shadow Hunters NI are a paranormal investigation group dedicated to uncovering the mysteries that linger in the shadows.

Explaining how he embarked on a career in investigating paranormal activity, the group's founder Fra McDonald explained to Belfast Live that his fascination began by watching shows like Most Haunted on TV.

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"For me, my own personal journey began about 15 years ago. I would have watched the likes of Most Haunted with my mother and around this time, Facebook had only started to become a thing. I followed an online paranormal radio show in America and a team here. Randomly one night the radio show presenter messaged me and asked if I would like to go onto the show and talk about the paranormal in Ireland. I had no experience at that time and said that rather than me going on, I would see if that team would want to go on and do an interview. They did and to say thanks they asked if I would like to go out with them on an investigation," he explained.

"Once that investigation was done, it led to another one and eventually they asked me to join their team. After a few years, things weren't going the way they should have been within the paranormal and I decided to found Shadow Hunters which has been going for ten years now."

Fra said that to be a paranormal investigator you need to have an open mind but also some amount of scepticism.

"There is a massive difference between a ghost hunter and a paranormal investigator. A paranormal investigator will go out and try and give a rational explanation for what is going on whereas a ghost hunter will think everything is a ghost.

"To become a paranormal investigator you need to have an open mind but some amount of scepticism. You need to be willing to go into places not many people would go into. As you can imagine, you are not walking into the Ritz hotel when you are walking into a haunted location. That being said, we have been called in to investigate in businesses and homes.

"There are a lot of paranormal teams out there who see it as a hobby, but for us it is a lifestyle. We eat, breathe and sleep it."

Shadow Hunters NI were the paranormal team at Crumlin Road Gaol for a number of years and are now the resident investigators at the Belfast Barge and Downpatrick Railway Museum, where Fra said that amount of paranormal activity is "unbelievable."

"I recall once during a public event, we had to stop the event and cleanse the area as multiple people saw a figure on all fours crawling past the only exit on a location. We have seen shadows, full body apparitions and I had seen someone being pinned to a bar one night in an abandoned pub.

"The cleansing of the area involves different things and people cleanse in different ways. Some people would burn white sage smudge sticks and maybe walk about but for us, we essentially do an exorcism of the location.

"We would use white sage but we would also use holy water, holy oil, the presence of the crucifix and certain types of prayers."

Shadow Hunters NI are inviting the public to join them at a number of events leading up to Halloween with more details available on their website.

Finishing by addressing those who are sceptical of their work, Fra said: "A certain level of scepticism is important for paranormal investigations but I would say, don't dismiss it until you have experienced it.

"Once you experience it and realise it is real, your mindset will change. We have had many people come to our public events throughout the years who said that they were dragged along by their boyfriends or girlfriends but by the end of the evening, they are coming over and saying that what they experienced changed their perspective."'

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