Cork Banshee in English Nunnery?

A report that an aged relative of the late Lord Mayor of Cork saw the banshee on Saturday  night has roused interest in stories of the banshee. In this country, as in Ireland, there are many highly intelligent Irishment and Irishwomen who give clear accounts of the appearance of the banshee foretelling a death in the family of the person who sees or hears it.

It was an aunt of the late Lord Mayor of Cork, resident in an English nunnery, who saw the banshee on Saturday night, and who called for a priest to whom she reported her fears.

Dundee Evening Telegraph, 28th October 1920.

 This article fails to mention that the Lord Mayor of Cork, Alderman Terence McSwiney, died in Brixton Gaol after hunger-striking for seventy four days - his hunger strike and death drew worldwide attention to the actions of the British government in Ireland.

In the Leeds Mercury (30th October) the aunt is described as 80 years old, in a Chertsey Nunnery, and having seen the banshee on Sunday night, with the Lord Mayor dying the following day.

The Weekly Freeman's Journal (6th November) repeats:

The "Waterford News" publishes a letter from Mr. T.A. Flynn, Weybridge, stating an aged aunt of Lord Mayor MacSwiney is dying in a convent there. "It appears," says Mr Flynn, "that for the three nights previous to Sunday last she had heard the Bean Sidhe. She did not know that her nephew had died: in fact she is altogether in ignorance of his imprisonment. Consequently the Bean Sidhe's warning she took as a personal premonition of death."

 This is a different take on the story - "Chinese Whispers"?

Kinsale, County Cork

This story is told of a bean-sidhe who lived under the ground in Joanie's Wood near White Castle. She used to wear a bonnet and cloak, and her height was about one foot or hardly that. When members of certain families of the name Murphys, O'Donovans, Griffins or Bowens die she comes out of her hole and remains keening for generally about three nights. It is said that by night she walks from White Castle to Tigh Sasan graveyard after she has her sounds done she goes right back to the Wood again.

From the National Folklore Collection.