To the Editor of the Weekly Irish Times - 29th July 1893

To the Editor of the Weekly Irish Times.

Dear Sir, - I write on this subject to mention two cases of banshees, the popular accounts of which have some features which differ from the established belief as generally expressed in legends of the banshee. The first is said to be attached to a family, not Irish at all, and until lately resident in the west of the county Limerick. The first of the name who came to Ireland was an officer in the army of Queen Elizabeth, who got large grants out of the Desmond forfeitures, but, like many others in similar circumstances, his descendants became more Irish than the Irish themselves. In 1641 the head of the family having recently died, and his son being a minor, a younger brother, who was his nephew's guardian, took a leading part in the rising and massacre of that year, and in the following year he, with many others, was killed at the battle of Liscarrol, in Co. Cork.

The popular tradition is that his wife, on hearing suddenly of his death, lost her reason, and, throwing herself from the battlements of the castle in which they resided, was killed, and her ghost became the family banshee, and from then out gave warning in the usual way of the approaching death of the head of the family. Most of the extensive property was forfeited in 1649, but some was saved for the heir, on the plea that he, being a minor, acted under his uncle's influence in the part which he took in the years 1641-2; what was left was, however, forfeited in consequence of the attachment of the then owner to the cause of James II (he was related to Lord Clare).

The family, however, remained in the country, and got leases of some portion of their former estates, and in their fallen fortunes were faithfully attended by the banshee. Some 50 years ago or so, the [?] head of the family died in Limerick, and the story goes, and is even still believed in the neighbourhood, that previous to his death the banshee was heard near the old family residence, and that on the strength of this warning the family vault was opened, and when a messenger came from Limerick to have it opened he found that it had been already done.

I will not go into the question of the accuracy or otherwise of the banshee, or of that of the existence or otherwise of the banshee, but I have conclusive evidence that she could not have originated in the manner alleged, having lately copied the inscription on the tomb erected to the memorey of her husband by the lady whose ghost was supposed to have become the banshee, which is dated A.D. 1664, and who herself belonged to an Anglo-Irish family, though descended in the female line from the last Earl of Desmond. The stories told of this banshee are just such as are usually current of those attached to real old Irish families. I believe that banshees are sometimes supposed to be the ghosts of someone connected with the family to which they are attached.

The second case is that of a sort of banshee unattached, at the town of Ballingarry, Co. Limerick, whose cry is heard previous to the death of members of several families of the real old Irish stock, no matter how humble their present position may be. In this case the unearthly cry is still heard, and as far as I can make out, always previous to the death of some old inhabitant.

I give you these  two instances of existing belief in the banshee for what they are worth, as a contribution to an interesting branch of Irish folk-lore now dying out.
- Yours, &c., F.R.S.A.I.



To the Editor of the Weekly Irish Times,
Abbeyleis, July 17, 1893.
Dear Sir, - Permit me to ask a few questions regarding the banshee, which subject is now going on in your columns. Firstly, does it appear in different forms, or can it be seen, or is it only heard? Secondly, does it only appear when some one is dying belonging to it? Thirdly, did any of your readers ever see or hear one? as I have often been talking to people who [?] and believe in such things; but I have never yet known any one that saw anything worse than themselves.
I hope I am not troubling you too much.
- I am, dear sir, yours faithfully,
J.W.Dunn.


To the Editor of the Weekly Irish Times.
Castle Island, July 19, 1893.
Dear Sir, - The peasantry of Ireland, like those of most other countries, have a vast stock of legends and superstitions which were at one time implicitly believed in, but which the spread of education in the present day has completely exploded. this is not the case in the belief of the appearance of the banshee, however. Belief in the appearance of that spirit is strong to-day, not only among the peasantry, but also among educated persons, some of whom assert that they have seen it themselves.

The common idea of the banshee is a woman with her hair streaming in wild confusion over her neck and shoulders, and arms waving wildly as she shouts her wild caoine which proclaims death to some members of the family, whom she especially follows. I once heard a person who was neither uneducated nor superstitious say that he heard the banshee plainly one night as he lay awake in his bed. The hour was between twelve and one o'clock. When asked whether the crying was like that of a human being, he said it was something like the keen sung in various parts of Ireland at wakes, but sung in such a manner that he had never heard anything to equal it before. The following morning proved that the banshee had not given her warning in vain. A neighbouring gentleman, the descendant of an old Celtic family, had died during the night, between the hours of twelve and one, just a few moments after the banshee had ended her wailing.
- I remain, sir, yours faithfully, M.D.R.

To the Editor of the Weekly Irish Times.
Dear Sir - I have read with amusement a number of letters from your numerous correspondents on the above subject. But none of them have been able to satisfy my mind that such a thing exists. Those who have, as they say, heard it, and are believers in it, will greatly oblige by answering the following questions:-
1st. Is it a spirit or an animal?
2nd. If an animal, what are its habits?
3rd. If a spirit, in what form does it manifest itself?
4th. When and where does it appear?
Until I get a satisfactory answer to each of these questions I must look upon the "Banshee" as a mith and a delusion, which I regret in many Irish people cling to, and only because these delusions were handed down to them from their ancestors.
- I remain yours truly, R.K. Hamilton.

All from the 29th July 1893 edition of the Weekly Irish Times.