Fictitious life of world-famous psychic born in Balrath Wood

A Killallon author who penned controversial biography about a world famous psychic medium from Balrath Wood says it is "time to set to record straight" about the "forgotten daughter of Ireland."

Eileen Jeanette Lyttle (Garrett) was born in a cottage near Balrath Woods in 1892 as Emily Jane Savage. She was a renowned psychic and trance medium in London from the mid-1920s, having first trained at the British College of Psychic Science.

From 1930, she gained international notoriety from what became known as the R101 airship séance following her trance communication with the discarnate spirit of the captain of the British R101 airship which had crashed near Paris two days previously.

Garrett published her first autobiography in 1939 and moved to New York in 1940 where she opened her publishing company. From 1951 she founded the Parapsychology Foundation and died in September 1970 in France at 78 years old.

However, not all the facts of Garrett’s official life story add up as Julie Coyle discovered through researching her new book, ‘The Early Life of Irish Psychic and Trance Medium Eileen J Garrett: Fact or Fabrication?'

Garrett wrote that she grew up with her aunt and uncle following the tragic suicidal deaths of her Catholic Spanish father Anthony Vancho and her Irish Protestant mother Anne Brownell from Stackallen which left her orphaned at two weeks old.

From there she wrote of moving to London and marrying young to a Clive Barry where her three infant sons died before she gave birth to her daughter, Eileen Lyttle, in 1916. She also spoke of marrying three times during which she was divorced twice and widowed once. In Julie Coyle’s search for the truth, she discovered that Anthony Vancho and Clive Barry were fictitious invented characters and the shocking fact that Garrett never gave birth to three infant boys who then died, or that she had never been married.

Sadly, Coyle’s also discovered that Garrett’s death in France in 1970 was caused by an overdose of sleeping pills.

"Her stories were fabricated to avoid anybody knowing about her family background, her poorer upbringing in Ireland and the illegitimate birth of her daughter," said Julie.

"I believe Eileen would want to set the record straight now," she added.

In her research, Dublin born Julie who lives near Clonmellon, discovered that the famous psychic medium's father was not Spanish but a Kentstown man called James Savage.

"He was working as a gamekeeper for Lord Athlumney," explains the author. "They came from different social backgrounds but were very connected and loyal to one another," she added.

"I found a gravestone in St Mary's Church in Kentstown with a beautiful epitaph from the first Lord Athlumney to Eileen Garret's grandparents, Robert and Ann Savage.

"Her father and uncle were very select members of the committee of St Mary's Church."

The Killallon woman states in her book that Garrett's mother died aged 37 after falling into water and drowning as a result of suffering an epileptic fit somewhere near their cottage at Balrath Wood. However, Eileen gave a different account of her mother's death in the book she wrote about her life in 1939.

After the death of her parents, Eileen was taken in by her aunt and uncle William and Martha Little who lived in Dollardstown near Beauparc House.

"She said her father shot himself in the head in a solicitor's office in Dublin and her mother was so distraught she drowned herself in the well," said Julie. "She knew the truth but she made up a fictional story. She also never lost any children, she only had one child in 1916 during the war and she covered it up I believe because she didn't want people to know that she wasn't married.

"It is a controversial book but I went ahead and I did it because it is the truth. There will be other physic mediums after me and they will be told the same story and at some point it has to stop."

Julie discovered that Eileen Garrett was born in a two room thatched cottage on the south side of Balrath Woods and not the opulent residence she described in the book she penned about her life.

"She described in her writing her bedroom at the top of a winding staircase. What she is actually talking about is Beauparc House because her uncle worked for Gustavus Lambert and I believe she herself also worked there in domestic service when she was about 17 or 18 before she went to London."

On upon Garrett's London she started training at the British College of Physic Science to hone and explore her abilities further.

"By 1925, she was very well known in England and was a very exciting trance medium at that time," explains the author.

"The president of another institution at the time, the London Spiritual Alliance, was Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes books," she added.

"He is famous for that but what he really wanted to be known for after his death was as a well known spiritualist. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote many spiritualist books but people don't remember him for that, they remember him as the Sherlock Holmes author.

"He died on 7th July 1930 and a well known psychic investigator at the time Harry Price wanted to see three months later if he could he communicate, so they went into a seance with Eileen Garrett because she knew Arthur Conan Doyle very well."

Two days previously, the first overseas air flight of the R101 Airship took place. The R101 was one of a pair of airships (the other being R100) designed and built in the United Kingdom in the late 1920s with the aim of operating luxury air travel between the UK and India — the “jewel in the crown” of the British Empire.

After making a number of flights within the UK following its completion in October 1929, the first overseas flight of R101 — to India via Egypt — was scheduled for 4th October 1930. However, the airship crashed during bad weather as it flew over northern France. There were only six survivors out of 54 passengers and crew. This marked the immediate end of airship development in Britain, with R100 being scrapped shortly afterward.

It was not only a milestone in British air travel history but would result in the Balrath born psychic medium becoming famous around the world.

"The captain of that airship came through the seance and gave very specific information through Eileen Garrett's mediumship," said Julie.

"It was checked out by the Royal Airforce and they were shocked at the accuracy on what he had said, nobody else could have known this information," she added.

Garrett who opened a publishing company and wrote a number of books on the subject of spiritualism along with starting a parapsychology magazine called Tomorrow was hugely successful and is still today an inspiration for others following in her footsteps. However, little is known about Garrett locally due to fear around the supernatural in Ireland, according to Coyle.

"I believe people don't know about her because Irish people shun the psychic and mediumship area," she said.

"Life would have probably been difficult for Eileen growing up given her ability because it would not have been welcomed by those around her," she added.

Julie says it was her own interest in Garrett and family tree genealogy that led her to unravel the truth behind the renowned psychic's life.

"The more I learned about her, the more questions I had," explains the founder of Oldcastle Spiritualists.

"She never gave any dates, names or places and her books are very vague. When I could find no trace of her birth certificate with the birth date stated in her book and no death cert for her father, things just didn't add up," she added.

"So I started to do my own investigations and that research took me five years."

The spiritualist healer believes that it is time for Eileen Garrett's true story to come to light.

"New psychics and mediums are always looking for pioneers from the past and people are always going to be told something that is not true," said Julie.

"My belief is that warts and all we should go back and recognise who Eileen Garrett was," she added.

"I believe Eileen wanted this to happen from a healing point of view. At this stage the truth has to come out. In spirtualism we have principles which are guidelines, the last one is eternal progression for every human soul. I believe that Eileen wanted to set the record straight."

* The Early Life of Irish Psychic and Trance Medium Eileen J. Garrett: Fact or Fabrication? is available to buy in Blacklion Stores Balrath & A&M News and Gifts Kells Shopping Centre. It is also available on www.buythebook.ie