Anybody any stories about banshees

Quinn126 wrote: »

Was just thinking today about how i once couldn't sleep one night cause i heard a horrific scream right outside my window, at the time I was a child and 100% presumed it was a banshee. Except no one died. Which i think makes a banshee story kind of plausible, anyone have any stories about them?

Sounds like a fox, the crying of a fox has been described as a wailing women or young child.

There is a lot more to the origins of the banshee, I'd recommend you look into the origins as it's interesting and does take a bit of the myth out of the whole story.

I have a story about a banshee and it's an absolute howl truth be told.

I’ve known two people who claimed to have seen one. They did not know one another and they both described the same thing.

Banshees, according to the lore, run in families. If your family has a banshee, you will know.

Keening (caoineadh) was a mourning custom in Ireland which survived into modern times. Keening was the preserve of women, and in any community there were particular women who would lead the keening, sometimes on a professional basis (i.e. they were paid for this service). The more important a person was, the more keeners would be assembled to take part in mourning their deaths.

Right. So far, so completely natural. But bolt onto this the supernatural idea of second sight, and you have the notion of a keener who is aware of a death that has occurred at a distance, or that is about to occur. Important and ancient families are naturally the object of particular attention and respect from the fairy world, and therefore one or more fairy women (bean sí) will attend to keen for impending deaths in the family.

Some have been appearing on the Late debate (RTE) recently & Saturday with Katie Hannon, or at least they sound like Banshees , screeching, hyperventilating , incoherent mumbling etc etc

Quinn126 wrote: »

Was just thinking today about how i once couldn't sleep one night cause i heard a horrific scream right outside my window, at the time I was a child and 100% presumed it was a banshee. Except no one died. Which i think makes a banshee story kind of plausible, anyone have any stories about them?

theres a book on them - well more than one but this one is recent and Irish

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Banshee-Cormac-Strain-ebook/dp/B00E0WV36Y

Peregrinus wrote: »

The Irish were early adopters of surnames; we had surnames before most other European cultures did.

But, yeah, the banshee tradition is probably older than that. It predates family names.

But it doesn't predate families. There were families before there were family names, and there were important families, and less important families, and families that no-one cared about. So the notion of banshees attending important families could easily predate the development of inheritable family names.

(Whether it genuinely does predate the adoption of family names, I can't say. But there's no fundamental reason why it couldn't).

banshee stories go back to the 8th century. family surnames didnt come about until the 11th century. Families were clans and septs, which were groupings or people not necessarily related - so though they mightnt have had surnames and not be called families, they also werent necessarily related to each other which kinda ruins the whole idea of banshees following bloodlines.

Wailers and keeners did exist though, which suggest either the banshee idea comes from those, or that the idea that banshee follows important families is an extension of hiring people to pretend they care you died - ie based in ego.

Not to pick nits, but nobody said anything about bloodlines, any more than they did about surnames. If you have a concept of family at all - and we know that Gaelic society had elaborate and detailed concepts of family, with nuanced language for kinship groups defined by different degrees of relationship - then whether it's bloodline-based or not it is possible to have a concept of banshees tied to family. And with the adoption of surnames then that would give rise to a banshee-surname connection.

But, yeah, we don't know whether they did have such a concept. The whole family banshee thing could have arisen at or some time after the time surnames were adopted, or it could be a modern development.

But so what? Folklore is in constant evolution. A notion that if any aspect of banshee folklore wasn't around in the 8th century it is therefore in some way inauthentic wouldn't really make sense.

So I am writing up a little something about banshees and was wondering if someone could help me with something. Now I am not claiming to believe in these nor am I denying that they exist but I know people out there have claimed to have seen a banshee or heard a banshee and I was just wondering if you guys could describe to me what you saw/heard. I have a story told to me by my boss in work which is quite interesting and never heard of the banshee legend like this before. I also have another story which seems cliche. I will share it (on this post) but would like to see another two or three people's stories beforehand. I am wondering if I should have them PM'd to me in case anyone tries to make stuff up from other's stories but we'll see how it goes here.

You saying they are real then?

Yes but we have very advanced science and instruments nowadays, and still there is no real evidence of any such paranormal entity or experience.

But I appreciate we still live in an age where people believe mediums can talk to dead people, or in horoscopes or in pictures falling off walls or feathers appearing in the ground in front of them as evidence.

What view of the paranormal do you have belief in?

outside of things Ive experienced myself, I dont know about the paranormal. Im not afraid of those words 'do not know'. I don't have to pretend I know it all. Sceptical basically. As Ive said before on this forum, how can we tell if videos and audio etc are real unless we record them ourselves and know for sure they haven't been faked? If one IS faked, does that mean they all are? Logically, no it doesnt but its healthy to doubt. Sceptical. Not sure. Not certain. The subject needs more research but its not an easy thing to do at present.

“A skeptic is a doubter. A cynic is a disbeliever.”