By Jonathan Williams

Following on from last year’s successful interviews with Paul Francis, Miss X and Geraint Hopkins, I’ve decided to see if I can find out anymore about Haunted Llanelli.

Is Llanelli, Wales’ Most Haunted Town?

Who better to talk to than Llanelli’s own Spirit rescuer Irene Allen-Block, who was quoted by The Wales on Sunday as saying that Llanelli is a “hotbed of ghostly activity.”

My name is Irene Allen-Block. I’m a spirit rescuer with over 40 years experience and Llanelli has more than its fair share of haunting and negative energy.

When did you first become aware of the paranormal?

I have had the ability to see spirits for as long as I can remember. This was just very normal to me, so there was never any single occurrence which I can call a turning point.

I never even realised that I was any different than other children until I was about ten years old.

It was at that time that I became aware that such a thing existed called the paranormal and realised that I could sense and see things others couldn’t.

Can you tell us some of your early experiences?

The earliest experience I can remember was around the age of 4 or 5.   In those days it was relatively safe to play outside as long as I didn’t stray further then my mum could see.

A group of us village children all about the same age, would congregate to play outside of my house. Often as we played I would see a small boy of about the same age standing watching us.

He had wavy hair and short trousers, and he looked so sad and lonely.

Many times during these weeks of seeing him I would call out and try to get him to come and play with us but he never answered me.

I even asked the other kids to ask him, but they just looked at me strange and said ‘ask who?’

One day I was playing by myself on my brothers homemade stilts and I saw the boy there again watching me.

I was trying to walk on them,  but kept falling off more than staying on.  I fell off and went down on my bottom.  Feeling silly, I lost my temper at him and shouted for him to go away.

He just stood there and after a few more shouts, I yelled out that his mum and dad was looking for him. I could hear them calling.

With that, he took his gaze off of me, looked to the side, and disappeared right there and then!

I never saw him again and now often wonder if that was my first clearing of a spirit, I am sure it was.

Did you have any other experiences?

Looking back at those days there were lots of them. I saw spirits where ever I went, whether I was out shopping with my mum, or playing in the house.

One that stands out happened when I was about 7 years old. I then lived in a small English village in Sussex. I was allowed to go to play with my friend who lived down by the church. As I walked past the Vicarage, I saw a young girl in old clothing about my age playing in the garden.

I called out to her as I climbed up on to the gate to get a better look. She seemed to notice me, but never answered. This carried on all through the summer holidays.

Every time I went past the Vicarage garden she was there. Each time, I would stop and try to get her to talk to me with no success.

Time went on and eventually, as a family, we moved to London. I never gave the little girl another thought.

Years later, I went back to the village as an adult and whilst there, I decided to visit the church and the graves of my grandparents.

I had forgotten the little girl now, and went straight past the Vicarage garden and into the church. On the side there was a pile of small books that had been written on the history of the village.

Whilst flicking through the pages of one, I noticed my family name so I decided to buy a copy.

While I was returning home to London on the train I started to read it. There was a piece in there that talked about the time that renovations had been done on the Vicarage about 10 years previous.

The builders had discovered the skeleton of a young girl. It was thought that she was aged

between 7 or 8 years, and dated to about 250 to 300 years ago. She had been taken and given a proper burial in the churchyard. Somehow I know this was my little girl I used to watch playing.

Were any of them evil or bad spirits?

As a child I never saw anything malevolent and although sometimes I did see spirits that were in the form of adults, they just seemed to pass me by.

It was nearly always the spirits of children that I saw, and was interested in.  Maybe because that was where my attention lay.

Children don’t have fear until they have knowledge, and a lot of that is put into children by their parents. Much of it is for safety, for example look both ways crossing the street and don’t talk to strangers etc.

I was always trying to touch things to learn about them. Smoke, mists, ugly things, etc.

I had no fear. I felt we were connected. That all was connected, all part of life.

This is why I say don’t dismiss a child when they talk about friends unseen; it could be imagination or not.

Just keep an eye on the situation. As long as the character of the child does not change then most times, as the child gets older, the child seems to grow out of their friend.

I was lucky here, I had a father who understood and explained things in a way that wasn’t frightening.

To be continued in Part 2 when Irene talks about a very frightening experience for one family.

Click the logo to find out more about Irene and Spirit Rescue International.