originally published Aisling and Other Irish Tales of Terror, 1993
Tom Hackett, an Irish-American living in Mass., has lost his father and returns to the family home in Cape Ann to settle affairs. He receives a visit from an Irishman named Cichol O'Driscoll, who's come all the way to deliver a letter that should have been sent in 1928. It turns out to have been written by Tom's grandfather to his wife.
His father was born in Ireland but raised in the U.S. And was in the navy in Massachusetts in the 20's, and among those who took part in the raids on Innsmouth. After the raid, all the men were given 4 weeks leave, so Hackett Snr. decided to visit the ancestral country, and went for a vacation on the Irish coast.
The fishing was good, but the locals were odd. A strange little girl appears to him, making some rather ominous-sounding statements, involving the ancient Irish legends of the Fomorii. Hackett can't get many answers out of the locals about such things, though. The girl appears to him again, with a threatening prediction. Hackett comes to believe that he has been chosen as a sacrifice.
Tom begins to realize that something is up here, and that he too is in danger...
An effective and atmospheric story, but not all that Lovecraftian. Still not bad.
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