Editor’s Note: This comes from Co. Offaly.

To tell the truth… I did not believe in the banshee until it came home to me that there is such a thing as the banshee. I proved it. I was putting in the cows one evening. We had three cows and I put in a mash for one of the cows. When I was coming down with the cows – I heard a terrible cry, and didn’t I run down. I thought someone was after meeting with an accident [someone had just had an accident]. But there was nothing wrong with either beast or human. Now, when we seen that nothing happened, it kind of left our heads what had occurred. But that same evening I heard the cry, Mary Anne [narrator’s sister] had a letter in her pocket. She took out the letter which was from a brother of ours who was in North America, Martin was his name. And Martin said in the letter that another brother of ours had gone to hospital, he wasn’t so well. About three weeks after that we got word that he was dead. So it would appear that at the time we heard the terrible cry our brother, Mike, was after dying [had just died]. But I would not believe in such a thing unless it come home to me. And that is not such a terrible long time ago. (quoted in Lysaght 1998, 84-85)