Spooky Irish Spirits: The Banshee

It might surprise you to know that many of the traditions and spooky ghost stories you associate with Halloween can be traced back to our little island and the Celtic festival of Samhain.

In honor of Ireland being the Home of Halloween we’re sharing our favorite spooky spirits and stories with you. We'll delve into Fairies, and Vampires, and Witches, Oh My! But we're starting with one of Ireland's most famous and terrifying spirits: The Banshee!

The Banshee

With ghostly cameos in Spongebob and Star Wars, and a famous and very scary depiction in Darby O'Gill and the Little People, the Banshee can justifiably lay claim to being one of Ireland’s most famous spooky spirits.

There are hundreds of terrifying tales of the banshee from all over Ireland. And knowing the backstory to the Banshee only adds to the horror. So read on to find out important things like how to spot a banshee and what it means if you do!

How to spot a Banshee?

First things first, a Banshee is always a female spirit. But who she is and the form she takes can be different depending who's doing the telling. She is sometimes described as an old woman dressed in black with long hair and her face covered. Her face can be wizened with jagged teeth.

In other versions she is a beautiful or pale young woman wearing a shroud or dressed in white. She is often described as having long hair and can be seen carrying or using a comb and has blood red eyes from crying.

The one universal feature across all these stories is her eerie wail, said to be so piercing it could shatter glass. So you will certainly know her if you hear her!

What does a Banshee do?

It's this wail that the Banshee is famous for and if you do hear it, you may be in for a spot of trouble. Her spooky keening cries warn all around that someone has or will soon die!

Many stories say it is just the oldest Irish families that were granted the honor to be warned of a coming death by the Banshee. So those with the name O’Grady, O’Neill, O’Brien, O’Connor, Kavanagh and those with an ‘O’ or a ‘Mc’ in the surname like O’Brien or McNeill would be particularly spooked on hearing a wailing cry on the wind.

Where does a banshee come from?

The name Banshee comes from the gaelic bean sidhe which directly translates as "woman of the mound." In old Irish folklore a Banshee can be typically be found near ancient mounds, ruins, fairy rings, or graveyards.

A wailing spirit that tells of death is not such a stretch in Ireland - wailing and death are closely linked in Irish society. Up until relatively recently, keening from the Gaelic word caoineadh which means to cry or weep, was a traditional form of grieving for the dead and dying. There were even professional Keeners, women who were paid to attend a wake or funeral and wail for a lost loved one.

Are Banshee’s real?

It is not hard to see how someone could make the leap from Keening to a spooky spirit like a Banshee. Like many things in Irish culture, it can be tough to untangle the truth in the tale of the Banshee. Belief in this spirit is waning, but many Irish people are still adamant that they saw or heard a Banshee and that a death happened soon after!

So what do you think? Spooky story or terrifying truth? The Banshee certainly scared me when I was a child. The sound of a screeching fox or a rabbit still unsettles me enough to look over my shoulder too!

Share your Spooky Stories

Have your own spooky story to share? Let us know in the comments below. We would love to hear them.