Summerhill altar stone's spooky legacy lives on

An altar stone found in a secret room in a house in Summerhill in the 1950s recently featured in Fintan O'Toole's 'A History of Ireland in 100 objects' column in the Irish Times. The altar stone was donated to the museum by Tom and Delia Fields, who discovered the decorative stone on a ledge in the secret room while renovating their new home in Summerhill in the early 1950s. The stone is now on display as part of the Curator's Choice exhibition in the Collins Barracks Museum, Dublin. Both Tom and Delia Fields are since deceased but the family has always had a great interest in history of the stone. Their son, Michael, who lives in the UK, said the room had been walled up for a long number of years. His father built in a door to the room and it was used for storage and access to the loft. "I can clearly remember the stone at the side of the fireplace in the sitting room for many years and only on occasion would anyone take any notice of it. A young man called Patrick McKenna, who was in college in Dublin, spotted it in the room one day in the early 1960s. I was about 12 years-old. "He suggested to my father that the museum would be interested in it. My father gave it to him and it was given over to the main museum in Kildare Street. That was the last my father heard of it for a number of years. He would make the odd enquiry to find out its history but nothing had been done and the stone was placed in the cellar of the museum and forgotten about for many years during the late '60s and '70s," recalled Mr Fields. He explained that when Collins Barracks was mooted as a new museum in the 1980s, the curator appointed apparently was looking around the main museum to pick out items for display in the new museum and spotted the stone. To legalise things and make it official, Tom Fields was approached in or around 1984 with the result that he officially handed over the stone. He was also presented with a replica stone at the time, which is still in the family. The description plate in Collins Barracks states: 'Found in a house in Summerhill' and Michael Fields has been in contact with the museum to see if an additional inscription acknowledging that the stone was donated by his parents could be included. However, the museum has replied to say that it is not their policy to acknowledge donors. Mr Fields said that some family members were keen to have the altar stone displayed in Meath in the Trim Heritage Centre and when he put this possibility to the museum, it said that while it would have no difficulty displaying the stone locally, the location would have to satisfy loan conditions, including environmental and security arrangements. The reply also said that if a suitable county museum was established in Meath in the future, the museum could see no difficulty in the stone going on display there. There is a limited history of the stone on the Museum's website and Michael Fields has passed on any information in the family to the National Museum of Ireland and has asked them to update the details on its website, fearing the history will be lost. He said he would also love to find out more history about the house and stone. Michael Fields recalls that his mother slept in the room next to the secret room and there was no entry to the room from that bedroom. His mother told him on several occasions that she saw three monks in habits floating across the room and disappearing into the wall behind, which was the secret room. When Mr Fields took his family home for his mother's funeral in 1999, his son, Daryl, who was 13 at the time, slept in the room and also saw three monks float across the room and disappear through the wall. Mr Fields had never mentioned what his mother had seen to his son and it was several weeks before his son told him what happened. The family has been on visits to Summerhill several times since then, but Mr Fields said his son has refused to enter the house. The house is still in the Fields family, and the garage business next door, which was started by Tom Fields, is now run by his son, Thomas.