Amidst the denizens of the Spirit World who occasionally drift into our sphere, there is none more terrifying, more dreaded, than the Irish banshee. She is the herald of Death. To hear her mournful wail in the dark of the night can mean only one thing: someone in your family has just received a summons to the grave.

Banshees are always female, always Irish, connected to certain old Irish families. There are eight major ways that a banshee can get her point across.

1. Screeching
We have all heard the old expression, "to screech like a banshee." But what does the wraith actually sound like?

Many who have heard it state that it resembles a cat having a bad day. In 1983 Anne Hill in Dublin thought that she heard a cat screeching outside. She looked out of the window and saw to her surprise a little woman, about the size of a doll. She was sitting on the windowsill combing her long hair and wailing! However, Anne's mother could not hear it.

That opinion changed the next afternoon as Anne was walking home. Her mother met her on the sidewalk and in tears informed her that a favorite aunt had suddenly died.

In County Clare the banshee connected to the Lynch family often wails like a feline while sitting on some rocks. It is so prevalent that the outcropping is known locally as Creagán na gCat.

2. Wailing
Sometimes the sound of a banshee is not so grating, but is a sad lament. This is undoubtedly related to the traditional funeral practice known as "keening." These are the actions and sounds of professional, hired mourners. Such women would cry, pull their hair, and go through all manner of lamentations. The Catholic Church has long-since disapproved of this ancient practice, not because of the theatrics, but because it is not genuine. The women who sound like their heart is breaking may have never even met the person over whom they are so distraught. This old practice is quickly disappearing today, but recordings of actual Irish keeners have been made by folklorists, trying to capture a vanishing part of the culture.

Banshees most often make those exact same sounds. In Nemestown, County Wexford, in 1910, a banshee was heard wailing at house of a man named Richard Barry. One witness actually saw the specter sitting on windowsill, dressed in a black cloak, and (as is almost always the case) combing her hair. Mr. Barry died two days later.

There was a similar case of a wailing banshee on Rathlin Island in County Antrim. In the 1950s family and friends were gathered for a sad vigil at the home of a dying woman. After paying their respects to the dying lady, most of the callers retired to another room to say a rosary and other prayers. It was then that they heard the sad wailing outside.

Knowing full well what it was, most stayed in their seats and gripped the beads a little harder. A few could not resist the temptation and made their way to the window. They all saw a small woman dressed in shroud-white crying out in sadness. The sick woman died soon thereafter.

3. Requesting Assistance
There are times when the wailing is so emotional that those who are not familiar with the spirit believe that a living person is outside, wounded and in need of help. They try to render assistance, only to find that their efforts, while good-intentioned, will not change things. Such a case occurred in the 1940s in the city of Derry, Northern Ireland.

Family and friends had been summoned to a small house on a side-street known as Fulton Place, quite near the old historic church known as the Long Tower. The old man who lived in that house was dying. Among those who came to offer their respects was a twelve-year-old girl, who no doubt wished that she could have been anywhere else.

The young lady thought that she heard loud wailing outside, but with so many women crying and the men talking it was hard to be certain. But there was no doubt as to what came next. The girl suddenly heard an insistent knock on the door.

She looked at the door to see who the people would let in. But to her utter amazement, everyone else ignored it. She was the only one who heard the knock—just as she had been the only one who could hear the wailing outside in the yard.

Frustrated at the adults in the house, she walked over to the front door and opened it herself. What she saw was not what she had expected. Instead of another guest wanting to be admitted, she saw a hideous old hag wailing outside. She did not look at all human, as indeed she wasn't. She was a banshee.

Seeing that the door was opened for her, the old crone started towards the house. The poor girl screamed and fainted dead away. As soon as she did, the ugly hag vanished. Death's messenger had come for him. The old man died that very night.

4. Singing
The cry of the banshee is not always shrieking or wailing on the night wind. Sometimes it is a gentle, lovely Irish melody, on occasion accompanied by the traditional harp. The sound of the voice is described as angelic, as though Kirsten Flagstead was out on the lawn.

There was an instance of this occurring to the Baily family near Lough Gur. This lake is closely connected to the ancient Celtic fertility goddess Áine, who became the banshee connected to the Fitzgerald family after the coming of Christianity.

As a woman lay in her bed dying, the assembled family and friends suddenly heard the most beautiful singing just outside. As has often been described in accounts of banshees, the sound rose into the air then went over the top of the building. The old woman breathed her last while hearing the gorgeous melody.

The O'Flaherty family also has a banshee that sings beautiful songs. Once, a woman in the family received the grim message. She had been known throughout her life as an extremely pious woman and took her Christian faith very seriously. One night, the family heard not just the regular banshee, but a veritable otherworldly choir gently serenading the holy woman. There was just one slight problem: the pious woman was in perfect health! Could the dark message had been for another member of the family? No. Soon after the unexpected concert she contracted pleurisy and quickly died.

The banshee always knows.

During the dark time of the potato famine, many Irish families had to tearfully leave the Emerald Isle to make a new life across the sea. In the United States they often faced racial and religious discrimination, their hopes for employment barred by cruel signs that read, "Irish Catholics Need Not Apply."

But things changed. By the 1860s the country divided and was ravaged by the Civil War. Young Irishmen flocked to join the armies of both sides, feeling that this would prove that they were as loyal as any other American. Both armies had Irish brigades who distinguished themselves in battle.

One of these young Irishmen, a Confederate soldier, was one night on a ship headed to Charleston. These were dangerous waters with Union warships patrolling, searching for blockade runners. Suddenly the young soldier heard lovely singing on the ocean!

Of course, he had heard stories about the banshee singing since he was a small boy. Could it have been his imagination? Seeing another soldier nearby, not Irish, he asked if his fellow soldier had heard the singing, too? With a terrified voice he replied he replied that he had. Both had a frightful voyage after that, staring out into the blackness of the ocean, praying to see the lights of Charleston.

But nothing happened. Soon the ship reached port in Charleston and the soldiers disembarked. As soon as mail call came, the young Irishman learned that his brother, also in the army, had died in battle.

5. Speaking
Although such instances are quite rare, there are occasions when a banshee does not wail or sing, but rather gives the dark message verbally. These sometimes even have conversations with the recipient.

In 1014 the Irish king Brian Boru was engaged in the Battle of Clontarf, resisting the Viking invasions. On the night before the great battle, he was visited by the ancient Celtic harp-playing goddess Aiobheal. She told him that he, his son, and even his grandson were going to die in the next day's battle against the Norse invaders.

By chance, the day of the battle was Good Friday. He felt that the best thing he could do as a Christian king was to remain in his tent praying. That is what he was doing when warriors loyal to the Viking chieftain Sigurd charged in and killed him.

The great Irish poetess Lady Jane Wilde recounted an unpleasant encounter with a speaking banshee. The doomed person was a young, athletic, and quite healthy woman, a lovely lady who would set the dance floor on fire. Nonetheless, she was visited by a banshee. In an evil voice the specter said to her, "In three weeks, death; in three weeks the grave dead, dead, dead!"¹

At first the young woman laughed it off, thinking that she had imagined it. But days later she suddenly became ill. No matter what her family did, the sickness grew worse. Then, just as the dark prophecy had foretold, she did indeed go to her grave.

6. Washing of Souls
Sometimes the banshee does not screech, wail, sing or speak. Another dark tradition states that on occasion the banshee will appear in a stream washing clothes that are stained with blood. The clothes are those of the person who is destined to die soon. There is even a stream in County Clare known as the Daelach, the "Banshee's Brook."

The water here is red. Encounters with this washerwoman-type of banshee are well known in ancient Irish literature. The greatest of all Irishmen, the warrior hero Cú Chulainn met the gloomy goddess The Morrigan in this form just before his final battle.

There are numerous examples of meeting this type of banshee. One occurred in 1318 during the Norman Wars. In 1318 Richard de Clare was leading his troops to face Conchobhar Ó Deághaidh. Crossing River Fergus, he saw an ugly hag who identified herself as dobarbrónach, which means, "the water-dismal one." She had little time for conversation, as she was washing bloody armor. When asked about the identity of the person whose armor she was cleaning, she happily replied that it was his; he was destined to die in the upcoming battle.

And he did.

7. Knocking at the Door
One may debate as to whether this is the banshee or another type of death messenger. Sometimes before a person dies, there is no banshee wailing outside or washing bloody clothes, but rather a mysterious, loud, pounding sound. No one is ever seen, but the grim message has been delivered.

One such case of this took place in County Wicklow in the 1700s. An elderly woman was quite ill, being treated daily by a nurse. When the woman finally fell asleep, the caregiver quietly went downstairs for a bit of a rest and a cup of tea.

Her break did not last long, though, for suddenly she heard a terrible banging sound from the ceiling. Knowing that the kitchen was just underneath her patient's bedroom, the nurse ran back up the stairs, fearful that the old woman had rolled over and fell out of the bed. That would not go over well with her employers!

She ran into the bedroom, terrified of what she would find. But thankfully the old woman was fine, sleeping peacefully. The nurse looked about to see if some piece of furniture had somehow fallen, but no—there was no reason for the loud noise she was certain she had heard.

Later, she asked one of the men in the family about the sound. He sighed and confessed that it was the family banshee. There could now be little doubt that the woman would die soon. And of course, she did.

When Irish move away from their homeland, the banshee will follow, as we saw with the Confederate soldier. In 1982 in Boston, a woman of Irish descent named Antoinette was awakened by a loud knocking on the front door middle of a winter night. Checking it, she saw that no one was there, and there were no fresh footprints in the snow. But she had definitely heard it, as had her daughter.

Soon afterwards, she received the sad news of the death of an uncle back in Ireland.

8. Arriving by Death Coach
Sometimes the banshee rides in style.

There is an old Irish legend about what may be called, "the death carriage." This is a horse-driven coach that goes about at night. The driver is often described as being a headless wraith, what is known as a dullahan. Inside the coach is a banshee, being chauffeured to her destination.

There is just such a case from 1821. Cornelius O'Callaghan, an extremely ill young man, was returning home. Desperate, he had tried travelling to various spas to regain his health, but nothing worked; now he was coming home to die. A few servants waited up for the carriage to arrive to help him into the house.

Finally, a coach pulled up. One of the servants rushed up and opened the door. He let out a scream and fainted dead away. Rather than the young man, there was a skeleton inside! The ghostly vehicle vanished.

Later, the real coach arrived with Cornelius. As expected, he died soon thereafter.

If one should encounter the Cóiste Bodhar on a roadway at night, it is necessary to fall face-down on the ground and cover one's eyes. To see it may cause the banshee to toss blood on the witness. Or worse, the brougham may stop and take on an unscheduled passenger.

While death will come for everyone, only certain Irish families are given the somber warning of the clan's banshee—a message that they would much rather not receive. But how should one react to this grim warning?

Seeing how Death is everyone's destiny, perhaps the best response is that of one Irishman, Sean Clement, of Laragh in County Wickland. In 1948 it was reported that when he heard the local banshee crying out at the ruins of a nearby castle, he would stand in the middle of the street and yell right back at her!

Alcohol may have been a factor.