Ireland here, and I have a great local ghost story that happened to a 12 year old and his 14 year old brother who lives in our village. I have no reason to believe they were lying either:
This is 100% true.
it was a dark and stormy night, well, dark at least, about 11p.m. and the younger guy had been dared by his brother to ride his bicycle down to the local cricket pitch, about three hundred metres out of the village, in a valley, without any lights around it. His brother also told him there were banshees down there, just to scare him. Now, if you don't know the banshee, their signature atribute is to scream and wail to a person, announcing the death of a loved one. That's kinda important so remember it for later.
So they cycled down to the cricket pitch, and it was terribly dark. The older brother was beginning to get a bit jumpy as well. All they could hear was the sound of their bikes and the river running unseen beyond the cricket pitch. Then the most awful and frightening sound erupted from right beside them, and something knocked the younger boy off his bike, but they didn't see anyone anywhere near them. The scream was incredibly loud, high-pitched and blood curdling, and had come from right beside them, but they had absolutely no idea what had made it. There was no one anywhere near them, they were completely alone and both scared out of their wits, as I said one of them had actually been knocked off his bike by whatever it was that made the noise. Then he looked at his bike and realised he had run over a cat. True story.
