The Irish Banshee

Medieval Murder

Today we’re going to start a series exploring Irish folktales, beginning with the Banshee.

The word “banshee” comes from the Irish “Bean Sidhe” which has many translations including “Woman of the fairies”, “Lady of death,” and “Woman of sorrow.”

Banshees haunt the Irish landscape, wailing, screeching, and keening in sorrow. The screeching of the banshee can only be heard at night and is said to foretell the death of a family member if you hear her wail. Banshees have also been known to act as an omen of other tragedies or misfortunes as well. In different folk tales, banshees can be are portrayed in two ways, either as a spirit who mourns the dead and shares the sorrows of the family for whom they are warning or as a hateful creature whose cries are a celebration of suffering.

The National Folklore Collection in Ireland has several stories about banshee’s that have been collected from various sources, mostly from originating from the 1930s. One of these stories was called “The Banshee” and was collected in 1936 in County Wexford as part of an oral history project and it is part of the Main Manuscript Collection.

“The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0193, Page 357” by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.