Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau are greeted by Canadian Ambassador to Ireland Kevin Vickers at Dublin Airport. Photo: Arthur Carron

The Canadian Ambassador to Ireland believes his official residence in Dublin is being haunted by the ghost of Padraig Pearse.

Kevin Vickers, who made headlines when he rugby tackled a protestor to the ground during a Easter Rising commemoration service, thinks the spirit of the 1916 leader lives on in the elegant setting of Glanmire House.

The ambassador describes hearing unusual bangs, laboured breathing and heavy footsteps in the residence's halls, in a recent social media post.

“Ghosts. I never believed in ghosts. Until I arrived here," he said.

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Mr Vickers is not easily spooked. He was hailed as a hero in 2014 when, in his role as Sergeant-at-Arms, he shot dead a gunman who had opened fire in the Canadian parliament building in Ottowa.

When he moved into his Irish home in Ranelagh in 2015 Vickers heard rumours that Pearse had once lived there.

After extensive research he discovered documents signed by Pearse to lease the grounds between 1908 and 1912.

“I wonder if it is he who walks the hallways of this residence," Vickers writes.

“Some evenings he or she seems agitated. Then days go by and all is quiet," he said.

The evening before writing the post he was watching TV "when all of sudden I heard a heavy chain fall on the floor in the dining room. I immediately went there and there was nothing on the floor".

According to the BBC, Vicker’s maid Anna is sometimes nervous to go upstairs.

Vickers says that is anyone doubts “the validity of this story, you are welcome to come and stay a night or two here."

He has no plans to exorcise Pearse’s ghost out of respect to the Irish people.

“I have joked with the Papal Nuncio that I could get us both kicked out of Ireland if I got him-to perform an exorcism,” he said.

Vickers had a 30-year career with the Canadian Mounties and in 2006 was appointed Sergeant-at-Arms in Canada's House of Commons.

Online Editors