Ghost Stories & Paranormal Encounters

The Irish Banshee is typically known as a foreteller of death and is associated with the people of the mounds, commonly called The Good People or Fearies/Fairy. They also may be an ancestral spirit appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death such as the O’Brians, O’Gradys and so forth.

Common Forms of the Banshee

The three most common forms of Banshee are usually a washing maid with blood stained on her apron, an old woman clothed in a grey cloak to represent mourning, or a beautiful young woman in tattered clothing, suggesting a rape. There are also stories about handsome young men setting off into forests searching for Fearie Gold and coming across a Fearie Mound.

The Irish Banshee

Soon after they cross the path of the Mound they meet a young maiden in the woods, sitting on a stump and combing her hair with a silver comb. This is of course, a Banshee. Usually the men are so smitten with this beautiful woman that they become insane, and are eventually spirited away. In some Irish legends, the banshee can also come in an animal form such as a hare, raven or crow.

The Wail of the Banshee

The exact sound of a Banshee cry varies in many tellings of the myth. In different parts of Ireland the wail of a Banshee can be different sounds according to the person in question and the region where they live. The most common forms are two wooden boards being hit together, a woman wailing together with the screech of an owl, or even a low, melancholy singing.

The haunting wail of a Banshee heard from a home symbolizes death for a member of the family. If a banshee call is heard wailing for three nights in a row, then the entire family is supposedly about to die in fortnight after the third night.

Other Variations of the Banshee

The Irish Banshee

Across Northern Europe there are many different forms of the Banshee, all with similar characteristics and warnings. The Scottish Bean Shìth is the ghost of a woman who lost her firstborn child and is constantly doomed to search for it for all of time. The sound of the Bean Shìth usually foretells the death of a child, family member or the fall of a House/Family.

The Welsh Gwrach-y-Rhibyn or Hag of the Mist is portrayed as an ugly, foul looking old woman with warts and scraggly dirty hair. She usually cannot be seen and lives in boggy and fog drenched areas, crossroads and brooks. If encountered, the Hag of the Mist calls the persons name, appears and follows them until they ultimately die.

How to Ward off a Banshee

Ultimately, there is no way of warding off a Banshee once she has claimed your soul for Death. But living a good, honest life wavers the chances of ever encountering a Banshee. Although this is not written in stone. Some people believe that you are marked for the Banshee the day you are born. Others think that an accumulated life if sin causes the Banshee to haunt you. Personally, I assume that a Banshee’s choice is random and quick, as is the act of death itself.

Written by Kaetlyn for Bean Nighe Banshee