Twelve Months to Midnight

In 1943 David Martin hexed a single train in Nazi-Occupied Denmark and fled back over the English Channel in a small speedboat under the cover of night. He always planned to return and lift the curse. But eight months later, heavy winter storms in his native Pembrokeshire washed half a hillside down onto the road on which he was driving. His car was swept into a river where he and his wife drowned. A year later, as allied forces pushed deeper into Europe, it became apparent that the curse had spread further and faster than anyone had anticipated. Counter-curses, which should have spread the same way - from train to track and from track to train - were simply overwritten by the first cursed carriage that rolled by. There’s nothing quite as annoying and persistent as a Dead Wizard’s Curse.  Wild Life Tuesday, March 15th, 9:05 AM With two days to the Parade, it was all-hands-on-deck at the department, which meant I arrived at work at the general time I was supposed to. As I entered th...

A Midnight Door is a tricky piece of magic to pull off. As the name indicates, it’s a spell that can only be cast at midnight. But this does not mean 12am. The only time it can be cast is at Astronomical Midnight: that moment when the sun is furthest below the horizon. For Dublin, that’s usually 20-25 minutes after 12am, or 1am during the summer months. Even after the maths is done and the appropriate charts consulted, a door is needed that has not been opened for some time; the longer the better. There’s a ritual to cast and then the spellcaster needs to knock once, and only once. I’ve seen the ritual cast several times and that’s always the creepiest moment of the whole procedure, because if the spell has been cast correctly someone or something on the other side will knock back. After that, the door can be opened and - until it is closed again - anyone who is willing to take the 1-in-10,000 chance of simply not appearing on the other side can use it; even a troll like me. They can w...