Montrealers watch for ghost of Mary Gallagher, said to return every seven years

MONTREAL — Montrealers are gathering today in the Griffintown neighbourhood to search for the ghost of a murdered 19th-century sex worker.

The legend says that Mary Gallagher’s ghost comes back once every seven years to look for her severed head on the anniversary of her death on June 27, 1879.

A group who gathered in Griffintown today didn’t have to wait long before spotting Gallagher.

A blood-stained actress portraying the murdered woman staggered around drinking from a bottle as she recounted how her former best friend murdered her with an axe over a rivalry over a man.

A spokesperson for the culture centre organizing the event says it’s not clear how many of the details of Gallagher’s story are true.

But Claraence Painchaud says the event is an opportunity for Montrealers to keep an urban legend alive and to remember the history of what was once a working-class Irish neighbourhood.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2026.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press