Ghost Turnip

Region

Ireland

Associated With

National Museum of Ireland - recipient and custodian; Róis Ní Braonáin - donor of original lantern; Eileen Barnes - creator and painter of plaster-cast model

Defining Feature

Painted plaster cast preserving the face of a Donegal Halloween turnip lantern

Status

Preserved - plaster-cast model listed as on display

Overview

Ghost Turnip is a painted plaster cast of a carved Halloween turnip lantern from County Donegal.

The National Museum of Ireland received the original lantern from Fintown schoolteacher Róis Ní Braonáin in 1943. Museum artist Eileen Barnes created and painted the cast, reproducing its narrow eyes, small mouth and tooth-like forms.

Ní Braonáin described this kind of lantern as typical of local Halloween practice around 1900. The cast is listed as on display at the Museum of Country Life in County Mayo.

Why It Mattered

Casting preserved something that would normally shrivel and disappear. The painted model kept the particular face of a Donegal household lantern available to later museum visitors. It gives the wider Halloween tradition a specific object, donor and place, rather than reducing many local practices to one generic symbol.

Dates and Attribution

• 1943 is the confirmed year when the museum received the original lantern, not a confirmed carving or casting date.
• Róis Ní Braonáin associated this kind of lantern with local practice near Fintown around 1900, but that does not date this specimen.
• The original carver is unidentified; Ní Braonáin donated the lantern, while Eileen Barnes created and painted the plaster-cast model.

Museum Object and Display

• The National Museum of Ireland catalogues “Ghost turnip” as accession F1943.350, associated with Fintown, County Donegal.
• When accessed on 04/10/2026, the museum listed the cast as on display in the National Folklife Collection at the Museum of Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar.
• The original vegetable was reported to be close to disintegration, but its eventual fate and the cast’s moulding process are undocumented in the cited records.
• No measurements are supplied for the cast.

Recorded Donegal Lantern Practice

• A Donegal account in The Schools’ Collection describes hollowing a turnip, cutting facial openings and placing a lighted candle inside.
• The account says young people hung the lanterns from trees to frighten people on Halloween night.
• This testimony documents a wider Donegal practice rather than the individual history of accession F1943.350.
• No manufacturer, retail market, standard lantern pattern or named turnip variety is associated with the museum object.

Gallery