The banshee whose cries are a harbinger of death in the family of the person who bears them, is a member of the ‘good people’, (fairies) and is supposed to be some person of the family, who, having met with a sudden death, was carried off by the fairies, whereby she is invested with the supernatural power of foreseeing the afflictions of her friends, which she has sometimes tenderness enough to lament. When a child is a long time sickly, and is not thriving, it is in general considered by its parents to be supposititious [sic], that the real child had been taken away, and this substituted by the good people. There are several instances of small children having been done away with privately. One of a most glaring description, and revolting to humanity, cam within my own knowledge, about twelve years ago, in the county of Limerick and parish of Fledamore:  boy, seven years old, who was looked upon by his parents as supposititious, was placed naked between three large fires in a field, the parents and several of the neighbours assisting. The mother addressed him to this effect: ‘You are not my child; go off to the good people whence you came, and restore my real child to me, or you shall be burned to death.’ The poor child being a cripple, and unable to move, cried out: ‘Oh! mother, dear, I am your child! Oh! mother, dear, I am your loving child! Save me, save me!’ This affecting appeal in no way operated on these inhuman wretches, who looked on unmoved till dripping flowed from him. Perceiving that be would not run away as they expected, they at length removed him: but he died in a few hours after. I happened to be in the parish chapel the following Sunday, when the Rev. Mr. Ryan denounced them in severe terms from the altar, and ordered them to come bareheaded and barefoot, covered with white sheets, for three Sundays, to chapel; yet the civil authorities took no cognizance of it; there was not even a coroner’s inquest, although there were five magistrates within a mile of the place, and the fact was as notorious in the neighbourhood as the noon-day.’ Anon, ‘Horrible Results of Superstition’ 1826