dullaghan

plural dullaghans

1. alternativeAlternative form of dullahan.

   His head is doubtless, as is usual with dullaghans, under his arm, but where are the heads of the four horses?

   1892, William Gregory Wood-Martin, History of Sligo, County and Town, page 382

   3 more examples

   Ballindollaghan in the parish of Baslick, Roscommon, must be a horrible place to live in, if the dullaghan that gave it the name ever shows himself now to the inhabitants. Every one knows that a ghost without a head is [horrible].

   1870, Patrick Weston Joyce, The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places, page 186

   They heard the sound of hooves – big beasts, galloping fast. As the three highwaymen slowly struggled to sit up, one turned and screamed. Coming towards them out of the night were two huge, fierce, fire-breathing black dullaghans, ...

   2017, Doug Wilson, The Time Road: Part 2: the Changeling Warriors, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN

   The Pooka, who appeared in the shape of a horse, and whom Shakespeare has adapted as “Puck,” was a goblin who combined “horseplay” with viciousness. The dullaghan was a churchyard demon whose head was of a movable kind, ...

   1909, The Irish Fairy Book, Library of Alexandria, →ISBN

plural Dullaghans

1. alternativeAlternative form of dullahan.

   Ballindolaghan, in the parish of Baslick, Roscommon, must be a horrible place to live in, if the Dullaghan that gave it the name ever shows himself now to the inhabitants. Every one knows that a ghost without a head is [horrible].

   1869, The Athenaeum, page 238

   2 more examples

   There is another gruesome spirit, of the hobgoblin species, who is generally seen without his head—in fact, it is doubtful if the Dullaghan has ever been observed with his cranium properly placed on his body, as be generally carries it ...

   1897, Ulster Journal of Archaeology, page 250

   "And, maybe, too, against the Dullaghan." Light broke. This was the local name for the ghost of a suicide who might anticipate the grave's rightful tenant. No Dullaghan was supposed to dare the daylight, but on a stormy winter's afternoon,[…]

   1958, Leonard Alfred George Strong, Light Above the Lake

1. A surname from Irish.