The Banshee

From bean sídhe, fairy woman. A solitary female figure heard, occasionally seen, whose keening signals an imminent death in a particular Irish family. Some families were said to be “followed” by their own banshee, passed down generations. She is most often described as small, dressed in grey or white, with long unbound hair. The cry is neither human nor animal but distinguishable from either. In 1937, the Irish Folklore Commission sent 100,000 schoolchildren out to collect what their parents and grandparents still believed. The banshee turned up in notebooks from all 26 counties of the Free State.