Ireland abounds with tales of the banshee, a wailing creature whose visitation marks death. Her name in Gaelic is bansidhe -fairy woman- although most say she is not a fairy but a spirit who is sometimes benevolent, sometime malign. Banshees are linked by centuries-old legends to the great houses of Ireland, whose misfortunes are chronicled in the spirits' mournful cries or fiendish laughter.
In the seventeenth century, Lady Ann Fanshawe, visiting her friend Lady Honora O'Brien in Ireland, was awakened one night by an eerie voice. She peered through a window and saw a woman who seemed to hover just outside the glass. The phantom's body trailed into the mist, but her face, limned in moonlight, was clear - pale, green eyed, and lovely, framed by masses of red-gold hair. The apparition moaned three times, and then sighed and vanished.
When Lady Ann told her hostes of the flame-haired apparition the next morning, Lady Honora showed neither surprise or alarm. She explained that centuries before, a young woman was seduced and murdered by the castle's owner and her body buried beneath the room where Lady Ann had slept. One might wonder why the girl chose to attach herself to a family that had mistreated her; nevertheless, Lady Honora said, the young victim became a banshee who would appear when any O'Brien died. Floating outside the window above her grave, she would keen for the family member's passing. The banshee's appearance was no mystery to Lady Honora; at about the time Lady Ann saw the apparition, her hostess's cousin had died in the castle.
