A reputed person who lived in Belfast, Ireland, in the early 19th century and later reincarnated as Ruth Simmons (a pseudonym of Virginia Tighe). The story of Bridey Murphy became the subject of a best-selling book, The Search for Bridey Murphy (1956), which set off an immediate debate about reincarnation and raised the issue of the viability of hypnosis and past life regression as a means of obtaining otherwise inaccessible information.