County Kildare

A Kilcullen Fairytale.

Residents in Kilcullen have not been sleeping too soundly this past week. Reason is not the close proximity of the festive season, but the reported presence of the "fairy-woman," our legacy from the ancient seanachie, that "spirit" peculiar to the Irish - in short, our old friend, the Banshee.

Well may the sceptics scoff and logically minded laugh in scorn - but she was seen, it has been told. A local Juliett, dallying by the not so bright wayside with a not so local Romeo, cast her eyes upon the spectre and (with commendable presence of mind, we think) promptly fainted.

Dismayed, but daunted not, right gallantly did Rome carry his fainting sweetheart to her home. The train of after events is not too clear, but it would not appear as if the young man did not hanker after further encounter with the fairy-woman - so he enlisted the aid of a taxi-man to reach his own more distant abode. Or perhaps we do him an injustice - the task of carrying Juliet may have overtaxed his strength.

In any event we cannot guarantee the truth of the latter part of the story; or, for that matter, any part of the story!

Some, no doubt, will not agree with us when we dismiss the whole matter as a figment of imagination, or, more probably, the upshot of a practical joke. It is a seasonal story and we would like to treat it as such and leave to the fairy-woman the freedom of the four winds and unconditional licence to exercise her vocal chords [sic.] (do banshees have vocal chords?) in practice of her weird wail.

But for a lot of Kilcullen's mothers the alleged incident had much more serious repercussions. Children are all ears, they say, and Kilcullen's youngsters missed little of the story, and dreams of banshees and fairy-women are not nearly as pleasant as dreams of Santa Claus and Christmas pudding. And children screaming in early morning nightmares are not conducive to the regulation period of rest presecribed for hard-worked parents.

It is hardly likely that the practical joker (we have no doubt there was a practical joker) is married, but we can only hope that it is so and that the sleep-shattering yells of his (or her) offspring has brought retribution and the belated judgement that the fairies are best left alone.

Leinster Leader, 22nd December, 1951.