The Banshee

Lore & Background

Descriptions of the banshee vary. Sometimes she has long streaming hair, which she may be seen combing, with some legends specifying she can only keen while combing her hair. She wears a grey cloak over a green dress, and her eyes are red from continual weeping.

She may be dressed in white with red hair and a ghastly complexion, according to a firsthand account by Ann, Lady Fanshawe. Lady Wilde in her books provides others. The size of the banshee differs between regional accounts: though some accounts of her standing unnaturally tall are recorded, the majority of tales describe her as short, between one foot and four feet, often as an old woman or to emphasize her fairy nature. Sometimes the banshee assumes the form of a sweet-singing virgin of the family who died young, given the mission to become the harbinger of coming doom to her mortal kindred.

She may be seen at night as a shrouded woman, crouched beneath the trees, lamenting with a veiled face, or flying past in the moonlight, crying bitterly. The cry of this spirit is mournful beyond all other sounds on earth and betokens certain death to some member of the family whenever it is heard in the silence of the night. In John O'Brien's Irish-English dictionary, the entry for Síth-Bhróg states that she-fairies or women-fairies are credulously supposed by the common people to be so affected to certain families that they are heard to sing mournful lamentations about their houses by night whenever any of the family labors under a sickness which is to end by death, but no families which are not of an ancient and noble stock are believed to be honored with this fairy privilege.

Common Misconceptions (Editorial)

A common misconception is that the banshee is always tall and ghostly, but the facts on record show that while some accounts describe her as unnaturally tall, the majority of tales portray her as short—between one and four feet—often as an old woman or to emphasize her fairy nature. Another misconception is that the banshee appears to any Irish family, but the facts specify that only families of ancient and noble Goidelic stock are believed to receive this warning, with no such privilege granted to other families. It is also sometimes assumed that the banshee is a simple ghost, but the facts clarify she is a fairy spirit from Old Irish lore, specifically a “woman of the fairy mound,” and is sometimes described as the ghost of a murdered woman or a mother who died in childbirth, not a generic specter.

Reader's Guide

The banshee is a central figure in Irish death-lore, serving as a supernatural messenger whose keening warns of an imminent death in the family. Her connection to the síde, or fairy mounds, roots her in the ancient mythological landscape of Ireland. The tradition of the keening woman (bean chaointe) in Ireland and parts of Scotland parallels the banshee's role, with professional keeners wailing laments at funerals.

Irish legend speaks of a lament sung by a fairy woman when a family member died or was about to die, even if the person had died far away; her wailing would be the first warning. The banshee is also a predictor of death, warning by screaming or wailing if someone is about to enter a situation where they are unlikely to come out alive. She is associated with the death coach, said to either summon it with her keening or travel in tandem with it. When several banshees appear at once, it indicates the death of someone great or holy.

Tales sometimes recount that the woman, though called a fairy, was a ghost, often of a specific murdered woman or a mother who died in childbirth. In some parts of Leinster, she is referred to as the bean chaointe, whose wail can be so piercing that it shatters glass. The banshee is traditionally associated with families of 'pure Milesian stock' and those with Ó or Mc/Mac prefixes, though exceptions exist, such as the Geraldines and the Bunworth Banshee.