Banshee Details You Might Not Know

Little details that matter and are often confused and at risk of being lost to time

If undelivered please return to Mrs. Róisín Hynes, Carlow, Ireland,

Letter Stamped: 23rd of October 2024

A chara,

I hope you are doing well.  

Thanks so much for your last letter. I am so glad you liked the Irish faerie story behind the song Danny Boy. You mentioned that you would like the music for the original tune. The first music sheet enclosed reflects this music as it was first heard in the castle on the harp. Over time it had lyrics added to it and became known as “The Derry Air” and as you mentioned is also known as “In Derry Vale” with beautiful lyrics on the accompanying music sheet all about being a little homesick for Ireland. I have also included the music sheet for “Danny Boy”, which you are more familiar with. I hope that helps. I am so glad that you mentioned that the song was also known as “In Derry Vale” as it reminded me to tell you all about your Irish family guardian spirits, both the pleasant kind and the not so pleasant kind.

I can understand that you have a lot of questions about the Irish faeries and passing on your heritage to your family in a natural way so that this rich heritage won’t be lost. I think it’s best to tell you about these things in the same way I discuss it naturally with my own family. Each week I drive up to my grandparents and bring my two little daughters and as we take the lesser used country roads, I point out different things that catch my eye that can give them a connection to their heritage, the meaning of a twisted tree trunk at the cross road, a haunted bridge, the road that Cromwell marched his army down, pipes and rent books hidden in walls, ancient tree meeting places, secret tunnels below us, the great history behind a tiny village and so on. We also take “Mammy Mystery History tours” to places a little further afield sometimes.

So as Halloween is around the corner, lets start with the Banshee, or the "bean sídhe" in Irish, as this has come up three or four times in my extended family this week. Now you probably already know a lot about the banshee so I will fill in what I think might be the cracks and then you write back to me with any questions that you have. I am going to be seeing a very important man just before Christmas, so any questions I can’t answer I will ask him for you.

The first thing to know is that a banshee is a welcome guardian spirit of a family whose purpose is to wail or “keen” as a warning to you that the death of a family member is about to take place so that you can ready your nerves to receive this news or perhaps prepare your will and family legacy.

Part of you may begin to understand this if you have already experienced another type of family guardian spirit, such as a butterfly landing on your hand or a robin nearby. This is also known as a family guardian spirit that takes animal form to give you a sign that you are on the right path and to keep moving forward.

A great many Irish families have animal guardian spirits. In the O’Kane’s (my maiden name) ours is called Ben Evenney, and he is the guardian spirit of the O'Cahan family. The spirit of Ben Evenney is the spirit of the Benevenagh land (known as Derry Valley, like the song “In Derry Vale”). It would be a good idea for you to look into whether you have both a family banshee and a family animal guardian spirit also. Remember that they follow bloodlines so even if your family no longer carries an old Irish name, you may still hear or see the banshee or experience the animal guardian spirit.

Hearing the banshee call is a significant gift to have or to allow to develop within you. To develop it you have to be open to the idea that hearing it is real and that you may expect it someday. You may also see the banshee which is always an upsetting sight to be honest. I was told by a man that his father seen a banshee combing her hair and he got such a fright he couldn’t go to work for three days. Every child in Ireland is warned never to pick up a comb on the ground or the banshee will come looking for it.

And this brings me to the next thing about banshees. Sometimes seeing a banshee will mean that you are going to die and sometimes it doesn’t. They may have different powers or different intentions. That is probably why the father in the above story didn’t leave his house for three days, for fear of death, not knowing if seeing the banshee meant it would be his death or someone else’s. He didn’t die in this case, someone else did, but others have.

There is a very famous example of this that made world news. Tragic Sophie Toscan du Plantier is said to have often walked to Three Castle Head in Cork, one day seeing the locally famous ruined castle banshee known as “The White Lady”. She got such a fright that she made her way straight to a neighbour’s house that was closer than her own home and told them what she saw. Unfortunately for her the neighbour’s were not Irish and did not understand what she had saw and her significance. Perhaps neither did Sophie as she was French. Sophie was murdered mere hours later. I have not watched the Netflix documentary that tells this story, but I believe it is in “A Murder in West Cork” or the other one is “Murder at the Cottage” if you want to see it for yourself.

Now do you know that Ireland does not have one banshee? It has hundreds, probably more and they are all look different. Ancient family bloodlines have their own banshee, while others belong to castles and locations such as Three Castle Head as I just mentioned. Some significant families have a ruling banshee, The O’Brien (Ua Briain) families ruling banshee is named Aibell and she rules over twenty-five other banshees who are always at her side. The O’Kane’s also have a ruling banshee named Grainne Rua who is accompanied by a chorus of other banshees when she wails. So this brings me to my next point, Banshees have names, some known, some not, some have known graves too and each look different in appearance. In my own birth family, we have a known grave for our family banshee Grainne Rua on the foothills of Benbradagh mountain.

A banshee could appear as a very young woman, middle aged woman or as an old woman with a shrivelled appearance. She could be dressed in white, or green, or appear as a dark shadow, or with a dark cloak. She levitates or glides in movement. She could be tall, or as little as three feet high. She can have red hair, grey hair, blonde hair, silver hair and has even been seen as headless. This is all because each are different as I have said. I know someone who saw the banshee in Kilkenny hospital not long ago. She appeared as a three-foot-high shrived woman in bright luminous green walking right behind an oblivious nurse towards a private room. The young resident passed away that night. The lady found out about the death because she confided what she had seen in the cleaning lady first thing the next morning knowing the woman would instantly believe her. And you know what, she did.

There are many stories and some on record about the Banshee in Ireland. Some people have seen her simply move past them as they go about their business. Others have seen her combing her hair with her broken toothed comb, while sitting on a wall outside someone’s home. You would want to hurry past in case she throws her comb at you, in which case if it hits you, you will die.

Last week my grandmother brought up a story that a married couple who were friends of her parents both seen a banshee sitting on a gate as they walked home on evening. They got a huge fright and hurried on past her down the road towards their house as quick as they could, but she appeared on every gate they passed until they reached their house. In the morning, the grandad of the house was found dead in his bed. This story may reflect the accompanying banshees belonging to that ruling family banshee, each appearing on every field and house gate along that road.

There is so much more that I can write to you about on this topic, but that will have to be enough for this evening. I will say one last thing, it would be good to have something of iron in your home to prevent her coming into your house. An iron horseshoe will at least keep her outside. I have two in our home, one in the kitchen and one in the garden. That is why she was seen in Kilkenny hospital, there was no iron horseshoe preventing her entry.

A lovely lady I met in Kilkenny can arrange to send you an Irish iron horseshoe if you want but just make sure to hang it in a “U” shape and not an “N” shape for extra luck. I will add a note of her details in the envelope along with the music sheets. If you are asking for one please tell her I sent you. Now I’m off to bed, I’ll write to you again next week.

Don’t forget about the old traditions now around the corner for Samhain and early November. If you need a monthly reminder of them, let me know and I’ll write down our family’s favorite ones.

Mind yourself and give my best wishes to the family. 

P.S. I will telegram you some old Irish Halloween recipes for you through Instagram.

Beir bua agus beannacht,

Róisín

Sliocht sleachta ar shliocht bhur sleachta.