Montrealers in the Griffintown neighbourhood were keeping their eyes open on Saturday for the ghost of a murdered 19th-century sex worker who is said to retun every seven years.
The legend says that Mary Gallagher's ghost comes back to look for her severed head on the anniversary of her decapitation on June 27, 1879.
A group who gathered in Griffintown early Saturday afternoon 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 introduced herself as a "lady of the night," and told the crowd how she'd been brutally murdered by her best friend.
Gallagher, the actress explained, had spent an evening drinking with a man named Michael Flanagan, as well as with her best friend, Susan Kennedy. As the legend goes, Kennedy became jealous of Gallagher and the male attention she was receiving. As Flanagan slept, Kennedy attacked Gallagher, first with a bottle and then with an axe, the actress recounted. "With that axe, do you know what she did? She murdered her best friend," the ghost told the crowd.
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 be reminded of an urban legend and to remember the history of a neighbourhood that has profoundly changed.
People walk through the Griffintown area of Montreal during an event to mark the death of Mary Gallagher on Saturday, June 27, 2026. Gallagher was murdered on this day in 1879 and is said to return as a ghost every seven years in the area where she died.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
"I think it's interesting to keep urban legends alive," said Painchaud, who wore a headless ghost costume attached to a backpack. "It's a story that's very popular in the ghost lore of Montreal, and I think people have fun with imagining they could (see) a supernatural being."
Griffintown "was very much an Irish immigrant neighbourhood, very working class, a lot of poverty in the neighbourhood," they added. "A lot more gritty."
After the actress's presentation, the crowd walked through the streets of Griffintown, where modern condos and trendy restaurants have obscured most traces of the neighbourhood's past.
The spot where Gallagher was reportedly murdered is now occupied mainly by a university, the École de technologie supérieure.
Claraence Painchaud, an art mediator with the City of Montreal, poses as Mary Gallagher during an event to mark her death in Montreal, on Saturday, June 27, 2026. Gallagher was murdered on this day in 1879 and is said to return as a ghost every seven years in the area where she died.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Suzanne Lalande, a Griffintown resident, showed up to attend the event dressed in period clothing. Her first name -- similar to that of Gallagher's reported killer -- drew a reaction from the actress playing the murdered woman. At the end, the two posed with their arms around each other, and proclaimed that Susan and Mary were friends again. "She's wonderful, beautiful, she didn't deserve to be killed like that," Lalande said, with a smile.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2026.
By Morgan Lowrie | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.