Banshees.

IanMc666

Has anyone ever heard one scream??

Totally interested in this.

Apparently people with a "Mc" surname are the only ones to hear it.

Curious to hear some stories.

Riamfada

No,considering they are mythological creatures. I did see a minotaur putting out his wheelie bins though. There is already a thread about them here. (Banshees that is, not environmentally conscious minotaurs)

calistro

And you can see her too.!!!!

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Riamfada

calistro wrote: »

And you can see her too.!!!!

images.jpg

My eyes, the googles do nothing.

Liamario

Riamfada wrote: »

My eyes, the googles do nothing.

Try googling boobs

GodlessM

IanMc666 wrote: »

Has anyone ever heard one scream??

Totally interested in this.

Apparently people with a "Mc" surname are the only ones to hear it.

Curious to hear some stories.

Mc simply means 'son of'; there's no reason why it would tied to banshees. As for whose heard one, that ability really comes down to the lore. Regarding the banshees as death omens there's two main beliefs; you die, or a family member dies. Where I'm from they say that you would die, so if that's the case if someone had heard it then they wouldn't be able to post here and tell you would they? This is allassuming in their existence of course. I'd suggest following Riamfada's link, as there's a lot going on there at the moment.

IanMc666

Yeah that's the extent of my knowledge when it comes to them.. That it means a member of your family or you will die. What sparked my thought of it was I was staying down the country with an ex about two years ago and I was awake in the early hours and heard a strange yell and her mother also heard it and we both have "Mc" in our surnames so it was a bit odd.

And no it wasn't a cow or farm animal :P

Fuzzy Clam

I don't have "Mc" in my name and I hear them too.
We call them foxes around here.

Ismhunter

Well no but a friend of mine claims he has. Not a friend of a friend type thing. I know the lad well. What makes it interesting is that he is a very conservative evangelical. They are not the type of people who believe in or give creedance to anything that could be construed as "pagan" and yet he tells me about seeing a banshee the night before there was a funeral in a local graveyard as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
The graveyard is the old one on Carrickbrennan Rd in Monkstown Dublin.

LC_x

Iv'e heard alot of stories on them but apparently any one who has o' or mc' in your name (if you dont have one in english and you do in irish also counts) you can hear her scream and if you do then it means that someone close to you(family,friends...) is about to pass away.Also apparently if you are walking a lonely road at night and feel like your being followed NEVER turn around(because apparently it would be your last time).Also never pick up a stray comb on the street(bad omen).

My friends father once told us a story that he was walking home after a night in a pub and all of a sudden it got cold and he felt as though he was being followed then he felt a cold hand touch his shoulder. He never turned around when all of a sudden it got warmer again and he made it home safe.He swears it was the banshee to this day.

Also never cross a field no matter how well you know it in the dark(apparently you will not find your way out until morning).


Of course these are just stories told to me as a child so i don't know the truth.

I know some more stories too if your interested let me know.

paranormal

two family's i have spoke to believe that the banshee follows their family's and a couple of them claim to have seen her and heard the scream .one family have heard a knocking on the window just before a member of the family dies this story was told to me by a few members of the family who say the heard the knocking while they were at the bedside of the person who was unwell.the two family's are neighbors and believe that the banshee follows a track that runs by both houses .last time they heard her and the knocking was about 3 years ago.i myself am not to sure about this type of story but i tought i would pass on the story.also both family's surnames have no MC or O in them. i think alot of these screams can be put down to wildlife (but maybe not all who knows).

GodlessM

Regarding names, banshees were said at times to be tied to one family, but the name isn't a trigger or anything. 'Mc' and 'O' pretty much mean 'son of', and have nothing strange about them. Something tells me the banshee wouldn't care about the name and look it up in the directory to find a family of Mc's to haunt.

paranormal wrote: »

two family's i have spoke to believe that the banshee follows their family's and a couple of them claim to have seen her and heard the scream .one family have heard a knocking on the window just before a member of the family dies this story was told to me by a few members of the family who say the heard the knocking while they were at the bedside of the person who was unwell.the two family's are neighbors and believe that the banshee follows a track that runs by both houses .last time they heard her and the knocking was about 3 years ago.i myself am not to sure about this type of story but i tought i would pass on the story.also both family's surnames have no MC or O in them. i think alot of these screams can be put down to wildlife (but maybe not all who knows).

I remember the knocking at the window stories. Good to see I wasn't the only one.

Asphyxia

My father claimed to have heard and saw one years ago. People with Mc and O' in their surnames are said to be haunted by them and you have more a chance of seeing them when you're in a group of three...

'Two out of three can see a Banshee'

I loved the stories my grandfather and father used to tell me when I was a child

Riamfada

Is anyone remotely interested in the origin of the banshee myth?

paranormal

i love a good story as much as the next man but i dont think i will doing any research on the banshee .everyone to there own i say .but if any of ye have any luck finding one let us know .never say never

GodlessM

Riamfada wrote: »

Is anyone remotely interested in the origin of the banshee myth?

Was thinking the same thing, as it seems people here are taken up by their own versions of it (such as it's apparant preference for particular names ). Pity that people aren't interested in what is essentially a part of their own culture.

paranormal wrote: »

i love a good story as much as the next man but i dont think i will doing any research on the banshee .everyone to there own i say .but if any of ye have any luck finding one let us know .never say never

You say 'finding one' as if the origin is a multiple thing. Also, don't know why you are under the impression this story is lost or something; thousands of people know it and it's very easy to find. Research isn't really necessary; thankfully all versions of the original legend are fairly consistent unlike the flak people have made up since then.

Hurricane-Dean

GodlessM wrote: »

Regarding names, banshees were said at times to be tied to one family, but the name isn't a trigger or anything. 'Mc' and 'O' pretty much mean 'son of', and have nothing strange about them. Something tells me the banshee wouldn't care about the name and look it up in the directory to find a family of Mc's to haunt.

In Irish legend, a banshee wails nearby if someone is about to die. There are particular families who are believed to have banshees attached to them, and whose cries herald the death of a member of that family. The most common surname attached to the banshee was Mac

paranormal

GodlessM wrote: »

Was thinking the same thing, as it seems people here are taken up by their own versions of it (such as it's apparant preference for particular names ). Pity that people aren't interested in what is essentially a part of their own culture.



You say 'finding one' as if the origin is a multiple thing. Also, don't know why you are under the impression this story is lost or something; thousands of people know it and it's very easy to find. Research isn't really necessary; thankfully all versions of the original legend are fairly consistent unlike the flak people have made up since then.

i think you took me up wrong. i meant good luck finding a banshee not finding the origin of the story of the banshee.and i know the story is not lost as i have heard it and the many accounts of people who say they have encountered a banshee .so dont worry i am under no impression that the story is lost as it is part of my culture. being irish myself i was brought up hearing the storys from when i was a child

GodlessM

Looks like I did, my bad paranormal.

Hurricane-Dean wrote: »

In Irish legend, a banshee wails nearby if someone is about to die. There are particular families who are believed to have banshees attached to them, and whose cries herald the death of a member of that family. The most common surname attached to the banshee was Mac

I guess I need to explain this in full. The part about it being tied to families with particular names was added by seanachi to make the tale for terrifying, almost always by naming the name of one of the listeners. In time this tradition became accepted as part of the story, and the more common irish names were generally attached, nearly all of which had the prefix 'Mc', 'Mac', or 'O' attached to them. This is where this came from; it is not a part of the original legend as told by the Celtic people.

P.S. Don't take your quotes direct from Wikipedia or accept everything on a wiki as fact

Adrian009

The Irish are/were Gaelic, NOT Celtic! The Celts were the ancestors of the French, Germans, Swiss, Chez, northern Italians and some Spanish.

Urizen

Adrian009 wrote: »

The Irish are/were Gaelic, NOT Celtic! The Celts were the ancestors of the French, Germans, Swiss, Chez, northern Italians and some Spanish.

Interesting. Source?

On a related note, I did hear a screamlike noise the night my grandmother died. At the time, however, I thought it was brakes or something, so I'm inclined to put it down to coincidence (unless I'm in a supernaturally mood. Then it's banshee all the way).

Riamfada

Urizen wrote: »

Interesting. Source?

He is right, there were very few Celts in Ireland, possibly none.

Adrian009

Urizen wrote: »

Interesting. Source?

On a related note, I did hear a screamlike noise the night my grandmother died. At the time, however, I thought it was brakes or something, so I'm inclined to put it down to coincidence (unless I'm in a supernaturally mood. Then it's banshee all the way).

Read the relevant chapters in "A New History of Ireland" volume one (Irish history to 1169). Written by the very best Irish scholars, and damm near definitive. Saying the Irish were Celts is like saying because the Irish now speck English, they must be British citizens. Our culture was broadly Celtic, but we ourselves never described ourselves as Celts. Believe me, I know because I've looked! It all started back in the 18th century when people started confusing culture and ethnicity.

Adrian009

Riamfada wrote: »

He is right, there were very few Celts in Ireland, possibly none.

I would'nt say there was none. After all, there must be a reason why our own term for "foreigner/stranger" is "gall", meaning someone from Gaul (former name for what is now France and Belgium). But yeah, the Irish and British (but not the English!) were of a different ethnic grouping than the Celts.

Riamfada

Getting way off topic here but there is very little material culture in Ireland to indicate the presence of any sort of Celtic peoples. Leaving the etymology aside we were never broadly celtic, we lived differently, dressed differently and burried ourselves differently although we do share similarities in language. Ironically the origins of Celtic Ireland as we were brought up to believe was born out of English rule.

GodlessM

Adrian009 wrote: »

The Irish are/were Gaelic, NOT Celtic! The Celts were the ancestors of the French, Germans, Swiss, Chez, northern Italians and some Spanish.

Sorry, have a habit of of mixing the two up in typing.

Urizen

This is all news to me. Damn cheap Junior Cert history...

Adrian009

Urizen wrote: »

This is all news to me. Damn cheap Junior Cert history...

That's what I thought too! I think perhaps that actual history is far too complicated to be taught in school, especially the junior and leaving cert!

Riamfada

And we dont want all those yanks finding out that we are shafting them on tanky celtic imagry!

Hugsey

Well about 8 or 9 years ago, I woke up one night/early morning to hear like a wailing or like a baby crying clear as anything..............freaked me out as we didn't have a baby in our house or neither of hour neighbours had any babies either.
What freaked me out even more so, went into work the following day only to hear a workmate and a good buddy of mine had died in a car crash in the early hours of the morning, around the same time I heard the crying. So I'd swear it was a banshee I heard :eek:

Riamfada

Hugsey wrote: »

Well about 8 or 9 years ago, I woke up one night/early morning to hear like a wailing or like a baby crying clear as anything..............freaked me out as we didn't have a baby in our house or neither of hour neighbours had any babies either.
What freaked me out even more so, went into work the following day only to hear a workmate and a good buddy of mine had died in a car crash in the early hours of the morning, around the same time I heard the crying. So I'd swear it was a banshee I heard :eek:

Probably a fox ... also every time Jessica Fletcher turns up in town someone snuffs it, perhaps Jessica Fletcher is a banshee.

kopfan77

I haven't see too many posts where people actually believe they may have experienced a banshee wail....so i may as well post my story.

I'm not a person who typically believes in this kinda stuff. I'm a scientist and pretty much believe that there's an explanation for all of these types of phenomena....however!!

Im now 33, and back just over 10 years ago, Id been out for a few scoops with my mates...im from a smallish country town. At the end of the night I was strolling home to the folks place, bout 2 miles outside the town out in the country....calm, clear night. About a half a mile from home I heard this unmerciful painful scream! Now being from the country all sorts of thoughts went through my mind...Ive heard foxes, owls etc in the past...but id never heard anything like this...it was sooo human and was like a woman in sheer agony. I spent ages peering over hedges, calling out but nothing....pretty freaked out I legged it home.

Next day, my granny who lived next door, was feeling slightly unwell....woman was in her mid seventies, but sprightly as hell and in pretty good nick. Doc sent her in to hospital as she was a diabetic and her blood pressure or something was a bit all over the place.....to get to the point, less than 24hrs after I heard that awful scream, my granny collapsed on the ward in the hospital and died of a heart attack.

Despite every scientific bone in my body saying its all a coincidence and it must have been some sort of animal...deep down I cant help but feel and wonder that I may have experienced a banshee wail!

fontanalis

As someone said on a thread in the Mythology section, as the banshee legend comes from the Tutha de Danann, if you believe the banshee is real then you must believe the Tuatha de Danann were real.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos_s%C3%AD

Edinduberdeen

Adrian009 wrote: »

The Irish are/were Gaelic, NOT Celtic! The Celts were the ancestors of the French, Germans, Swiss, Chez, northern Italians and some Spanish.

Em... Celtic is a linguistic term only - Celtic people were not a genetically related ethnic group. Celtic is just a term to group together different peoples who spoke similar, related languages (what we now call Celtic languages). Gaelic is a branch of the insular Celtic languages. In that sense, the Irish are/were indeed both Gaelic and Celtic (while the Welsh, for example, are Brythonic and Celtic - Brythonic being the other branch of the insular Celtic languages).

Carry on...

Riamfada

Edinduberdeen wrote: »

Em... Celtic is a linguistic term only

No it wasnt. Material culture and burial rites were shared among the Celtic tribes. Ireland displays almost non of these Celtic ways of life.

Carry on....

fontanalis

Riamfada wrote: »

No it wasnt. Material culture and burial rites were shared among the Celtic tribes. Ireland displays almost non of these Celtic ways of life.

Carry on....

It's not that straight forward. The term celtic was sued to describe languages back in the 1700's. The term was also used to describe various groups of people across a wide area and time range who probably never called themselves celtic.
There does seem to be lingustic similarities to river names in central europe and some artifacts did make their way to Ireland (although the La Tene stuff seems limited to the Northern part of ireland).
The term is thrown around too much as if it's some ethnic label to describe a monolithic group of people.

GodlessM

fontanalis wrote: »

The term was also used to describe various groups of people across a wide area and time range who probably never called themselves celtic.

And there you've just proved your own wrong; the Irish people never called themselves Celtic therefore they weren't.

Riamfada

I guess we will agree to disagree. But using language as a basis for ethnicity is problematic. If we didnt know better would we assume that all latin speaking clerics from the 5th century to the 17th century were Roman? I also speak English but I was born in Ireland, Im Irish & my material culture reflects that.

anywhooo...... this debate is probably better suited to my domain.

Edinduberdeen

GodlessM wrote: »

And there you've just proved your own wrong; the Irish people never called themselves Celtic therefore they weren't.

I'm sure the La Tene folk didn't call themselves Celtic either, yet we would call them that now.


But yes, this isn't the forum to discuss this Riamfada, apologies!

Micky Dolenz

Riamfada wrote: »

Probably a fox ... also every time Jessica Fletcher turns up in town someone snuffs it, perhaps Jessica Fletcher is a banshee.

Yeah, the Vixen has a very high pitched scream and can sound like wailing. Quite spooky if you don't know what it is.

Cots1

My mother claimed she heard the banshee one night turns out it was just a cow that fell in a ditch

noel farrell

bit of fun in carlow for paddys day yanks hoping to see a banshee at old ruins of ducketts grove house . you can watch it on youtube .destination truth banshee . its 4 hours if you have time , more than likely it will be taking piss out us irish

maccored

that destination truth thing is a complete load of bollocks. dont waste your time.

deelite

I've never heard a banshee cry/wail but when we were kids we were told by the granny never touch a comb found on the street (hairbrushes were fine to touch and play with but never combs) - she said it was a sign the banshee had been around the night before. Whilst the banshee was stalking her prey she'd be combing her hair but the comb would get tangled in the hair and would fall out - and the person who picked up the comb would be the next person to die....did anybody else hear of this story when they were kids.

eamon234

kopfan77 wrote: »

Next day, my granny who lived next door, was feeling slightly unwell....woman was in her mid seventies, but sprightly as hell and in pretty good nick. Doc sent her in to hospital as she was a diabetic and her blood pressure or something was a bit all over the place.....to get to the point, less than 24hrs after I heard that awful scream, my granny collapsed on the ward in the hospital and died of a heart attack.

:rolleyes:

o1s1n

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

I don't have "Mc" in my name and I hear them too.
We call them foxes around here.

I have a 'Mc' and two 'O's in my name so I must be knackared so!

There's no sound scarier than a fox wailing at night. It's horrible. I can imagine how people could jump to conclusions and think it's something otherworldly.

shuffles88

deelite wrote: »

I've never heard a banshee cry/wail but when we were kids we were told by the granny never touch a comb found on the street (hairbrushes were fine to touch and play with but never combs) - she said it was a sign the banshee had been around the night before. Whilst the banshee was stalking her prey she'd be combing her hair but the comb would get tangled in the hair and would fall out - and the person who picked up the comb would be the next person to die....did anybody else hear of this story when they were kids.

I'm familiar with this but it was only if you found it, not a total ban on combs:). I don't know what would possess you to pick up a comb you found on the street in the first place!