Irish Legend?
Maybe.........but why are there still reports of these strange spirits being seen & heard today ........?

In Ellesmere Port, England, in the autumn of 1997, a 50-year-old housewife named Sarah Wayne was sitting up late one Saturday night, waiting for her 18-year-old daughter Cheryl to return from a nightclub. Sarah hadn't been keen on her teenaged daughter going out to the club, but Cheryl had argued that she was old enough to look after herself and added that Liam, the boy she was after, went to the club on a Saturday night.

Sarah's husband Derek was in Nottingham driving a heavy-goods vehicle to a depot. Derek was very protective towards his only daughter, and certainly would have done his utmost to prevent Cheryl from going to the nightclub.

The time was 2.30 a.m., and still there was no sign of Cheryl, so her mother dimmed the lights in the parlour and peeped through the net curtains at the deserted street outside. A wind was starting to stir, and a clutter of dried leaves scraped by on the pavement. Sarah scanned both ends of the road for twenty minutes, but Cheryl was nowhere to be seen. Around 3 a.m., Mrs Wayne sat sipping a cup of tea in the living room, watching the BBC News 24 service on the muted TV. At around 3.30 a.m., she fell into a light sleep, but a sound woke her up minutes later. Sarah opened her eyes, startled, and saw Cheryl walk past the living room in the hall outside. The girl was sobbing, and her platinum blonde hair was a mess. It hung down in front of her face.

'Cheryl! What's wrong love? Where have you been?' Mrs Wayne bolted from the armchair and followed Cheryl, who had headed straight to the kitchen. Sarah assumed that her distraught daughter had been rejected by Liam at the club, but when she walked into the kitchen, the woman got the shock of her life. The kitchen was empty; Cheryl was nowhere to be seen.

Then came the sounds of a yale key rattling in the front door. Cheryl came in with her friend Jacqueline, laughing and talking about boys they'd danced with.

Cheryl had her long blonde hair piled up in a bun on her head and wore a bright red mini skirt and a white sleeveless top. The figure her mother had pursued to the kitchen had its hair draped over its face and seemed to be wearing black clothes. Sarah Wayne suddenly realised that she had mistaken a weeping ghost for her daughter, and her heart somersaulted. She told Cheryl and her friend about the weird apparition, and the girls and Mrs Wayne became so scared, they all refused to go into the kitchen until it was dawn.

Later that morning, at 8.30 a.m., a policeman and policewoman called at Sarah Wayne's house to inform her of her husband's death in Nottingham. He had left the cab of his lorry at 3.30 a.m. that morning and suffered a fatal heart attack. The death happened at the precise time when the crying ghost walked through the Waynes home. Was the apparition just a so-called 'open-eye' dream of Mrs Wayne, who had just woken up, or was it a banshee? Mrs Wayne believes it was a banshee, and was so unnerved by the experience, she later moved from the house and now lives in Bebington, Merseyside.

The second report of a banshee comes from three witnesses. It all began in the early hours of a Wednesday morning in August 1998 when Freda Piers, a 44-year-old housewife of Saltney, Chester had difficulty sleeping. Freda usually had no trouble getting to sleep, but on this balmy morning at 2 a.m. she became restless, and insomnia began to steadily set in. Freda therefore left her snoring husband and went down to the kitchen to make a coffee. She turned on the radio and for about a minute she listened to Magic 1548, a Liverpool-based station. She was just about to tune into the MFM radio station, when the disc-jockey Jon Jessop urged listeners to go and look out their window to see if there was any sign of a lost snow-white terrier named Brandy, because its owner was frantic. Freda dimmed the lights, opened the window blinds, and gazed out at the moonlit close. She then heard a low howling sound which sent a shiver down her spine. The DJ then said that the terrier had been lost in northern Liverpool, so Freda realised that there was no hope of the dog being outside of her house in Saltney. She took a quick look through the gaps in the blinds - and saw a hooded figure in black standing across the road. The figure looked like a monk wearing a black habit and cowl. What's more, the figure seemed to be the source of the uncanny weeping, and it was looking up at the bedroom window of the house opposite. Red curtains were drawn in this window and a faint bulb burned behind them.

Freda telephoned her best friend Eunice, who lived next door to the house where the strange figure was lurking. After some twenty or so rings, a bleary-eyed and grumpy Eunice answered her phone, and Freda told her about the figure in black standing in the neighbouring garden on the lawn. Eunice took her cordless phone to the window and peeped out. She told Freda that an old white-haired woman was looking up at next-door's window with a sorrowful but demented look, and she appeared to be crying. Eunice was so frightened at the sight of the deranged old woman, she hung up on Freda, dialled the police and shook her husband awake. Eunice's husband, Kevin reluctantly hauled himself out the bed and took a look out the window. He too saw the eccentric old woman in black. He opened the bedroom window, despite his frightened wife's pleas not to, and he shouted down to her, 'What's wrong love?' The creepy-looking woman failed to reply, and continued to stare up at next door's window and started to make a bloodcurdling howling noise.

Freda, meanwhile, was attempting to awaken her husband Sam from his slumbers to tell him about the crazy old woman on the other side of the close.

A police car zoomed to the scene with its roof-light flashing. Eunice and Kevin were distracted from looking at the old woman by the blue flash of light from the police car, and when they glanced back at the lawn, the nocturnal visitor had inexplicably vanished, in what must have literally been the blinking of an eyelid. Two policemen rushed from the squad car with high-powered torches and flashed their beams across the garden where the mysterious figure had stood. Eunice felt so stupid and confused at the woman's vanishing act, she withdrew from the window and pulled her husband back too. Seconds later, out of burning curiosity, she chanced a peep through the net curtains and the blinding beam of a police torch singled her face out at the window. Eunice had no option but to lean out the window and admit that she had rung the police because of the strange prowling woman.

The police listened, then knocked on the front door of Eunice's neighbour. A middle-aged man came to the door not long afterwards and invited the police in. About fifteen minutes later, an ambulance roared into the close. The ambulance men hurried to the house next door and were admitted in by the policemen. By now, Freda, Eunice, and their husbands were standing on the pavement near the house that was the cynosure of all the activity. Eunice and her husband recalled that an Irish couple named O'Brien had recently moved into the house.

About fifteen minutes later, the covered body of Mrs Obrien was taken to the ambulance on a stretcher. Later that morning, Freda and Eunice heard from neighbours that Mrs O'Brien had died in her sleep. Her husband Pat had awoken at 2 a.m. to the sounds of someone crying outside in the distance. He had tried to wake up his wife Philomena to tell her about the strange sobbing sound, but Mrs O'Brien failed to respond, and wouldn't wake up. Mr O'Brien panicked when he felt her neck and got no carotid pulse. She felt cold, and Mr O'Brien realised his wife was dead.

Mr O'Brien claims that his own mother's death 25 years earlier was foreshadowed by the wailing of a banshee, and has no difficulty accepting that a banshee cried for his late wife in the early hours of that warm August morning.

Hammy x x x

Thank you for recounting these two stories for us Hammy.

The 2 ghosts in the stories were Bansidhe, or maybe not, if they were they were very unusual ones, most Bansidhe scream or howl, when a death is near or has just taken place, and are very rarely, if ever, seen.

The thing that makes these accounts interestng is that in both of them, the Bansidhe, if that is what they were, are seen by the relatives of the deceased, not merely heard.

What I thought of when I read both accounts was immediately a Crisis Apparition, a ghost that appears to the relatives of the deceased at the time of death, but on thinking about it, the Crisis Apparition is usually the ghost of the person that has died, and unless the person that died in the first one was hiding something from his wife, it was not him.

Say that, there are plenty of accounts of Bansidhe that are just saw and seen to be crying pver something, but these are generally the Scottish version, and not the Irish version, which is the one that howls and is very rarely seen.

Phew!

Another non-sleeper from Hammy.

Incidentally, have you ever listened to the cry of a female fox? We have loads of urban foxes in the suburbs of Manchester, and late at night, they cry out to each other.

The sound makes you jump. It really can be unpleasant, like a woman screaming out in anguish.

I wonder if foxes have sometimes been mistaken over the years for the cry of a banshee?

As for the apparitions, though...

Hi Cufflink

Yes, my house backs onto a large grassey area, then there are fields, and I hear foxes (and cats) screaming........it sounds quite chilling doesn't it?? BUT it's always obvious what it is.....it's not a sobbing and crying as described by many people in modern encounters.

Hammy x x x

PS - Blimey - you were up early this morning Mr!

"up early? Hadn't been to bed"

what the ........ ????????

hey......... all that wailing .... it wasn't YOU was it?



Hammy x x x
(another nocturnal animal)

Where do you get these stories, Hammy?

Hi Snuffy

I used to read them, then painstakingly type them (generally getting my inter-net conncetion cut off mid-way and having to start all over) but now I just cheat!! I cut & paste from my favourite web sites!
Last year I was self-employed and writing my book on ghosts in Dorset. I spent a lot of time researching history, geology etc etc , and came across some fantastic sites. If you'd like some addy's, send me a PM


Cufflink ~ I am stunned............ I thought EVERYONE knew that us hamsters were nocturnal!!!!!
And I'd pay good money to see you in that 'Junior Banshee' outfit

Hammy x x x

will you be wearing your 'Junior Banshee' outfit?



Hammy x x x

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



awww Cuffy..........is you a scaredy???????????

Hey people,its been quite a while since iv posted a new topic so bear with me please.

I was reading about Banshee's recently and i was wondering if they really existed.If so what are they?Some kind of ghouls/demons sent to make people fear them.Or could they be protective ghosts,not wanting to scare others,but warn them of an upcoming disaster.I have read of some Banshee's that stick tocertain families throughout every generation.I also know of the different variations of Banshee's e.g Beann Nighe,or the Washing Woman,and they all have the prediction of death in their Cv's.Please let me know your views and opinions on this.

Man that was hard work,i need to exercise my topic posting brain more.

The story (or lengend) -goes that Banshee's usualy were seen around family's and the scream that they emited usualy was a forerunner- to someones death. So in Ireland if you heard a Banshee in the sixteenth century someone in your family was going to pass away soon or just did.

They were supposed to look like old hags or lovely women. (I don't know which one) But that was the story.

Me? I think it might be just a story- I don't think it could be true- of course if Banshee's were real then we shouldn't be too scared. They're not ghosts or anything- just forerunners very loud and creepy forerunners.

have there ever been any reports of Banshees in america or they strickly an Irish folklore?

I dunno about any Banshiees in America but the story i am going to tell took place in Auckland, New Zealand 30 or so years ago.

Sally had been force to sleep in the family room one night because the walls of her room were being painted. Sally eventually drifted off to sleep unphased by this new sleeping enviromnent. At exactly 1.00am she was amoken be a meaningful sobbing right outside the family room window, which happened to be situated directly above where Sally was sleeping. Now Sally had alwasy been told be her mother that it was always the Christain thing to do to discover what was wrong when someone was heard crying. Just a little frightend Sally jumped out of bed and hurried towards her Mother's bedroom. As she stood at the doorway she thought it strange that her mother did not wake up simply due to the presence of someone at the door ( as she usually did ). Sally actually had to enter the room and rouse her. By this time the crying had moved away from the window and was slowing making itsway down the drive way towards the street. When Sally's mother finally woke up she quickly explained that there was a crying outside and that she wanted her to come and investigated. The Mother looked bewildered and claimed that she could hear now crying. Despite her skepticism Sally's mother followed her daughter's lead to the front door. On the porch, Sally exclaimed" Look Mum!! There he is , the man who is crying , he is just walking down the street now !!"
Her Mother still look puzzled as she replied " A man crying? I still dont see anything "
"Look!" Sally pointed, just a little frustrated, "He is wearing a red woolen jumper, just like Daniel's!!"
Daniel was Sally's older brother in his early twenties. He had gone to a beach North of Auckland for the weekend with Sally's other brother Simon.
The Mother still could not see or hear anything unsual so both she and Sally retreted back inside.
" Look, you must have been imagining things " Sally's Mother remarked but at that moment Sally's young sister Alice came out and claimed that she too could her the crying from her room.
Now the next day, Simon came home distraught with the shocking news that Daniel had drowned. When asked the time of the incident , the answer was 1.00pm. This was 12 hours after the crying had first begun outside the family room window.

Im not sure if the apparition in the above story was a Banshee because it was male and resembled Daniel. Some jokingly say that it was proabably a guardian angel crying because he had lost his job. What it was that appeared that night, it forshadowed death in a similar way the Banshee does in Irish folklore.

Yes, there are reports of banshees in America(excuse the grammar, the quote apostrophe key isnt working)Where I live in the state of south dakota there is a tale called the badlands banshee. Not the same as the foreshadowing of someones death but a screamer that is said to have an accomplice, very few have heard 1 and seen the other but I can post the accounts here is anyone wants.

When I was in the second grade my music teacher played a recording for us made by a composer who had apperently heard the scream of the banshee. The composer basically opened up a piano, and dragged a hammer across the strings in a random and annoying order. He played the sound again for another person who had also heard the scream and he agreed that that was what the banshee sounded like.
The story she told us about the banshee is this:
There was a woman in Ireland who had many children, probably 8 or more, and one day she went to work and when she came home, all of her children were gone. She asked some people down the road if they had seen her kids, and they said they had seen a covered wagon with four strange men walking on the outside of it(meaning it would have been full on the inside). The woman knew that these men must have taken her children, so she vowed that she would haunt them and their decendents for all eternity. So she killed herself the next day and the banshees have been heard screaming ever since.

Of course, this is the american version of an Irish legend, so we probably have the whole thing screwed up.

Yeah i agree with thesap tell us about the Banshee

All Irish legends are true

Never heard of the Banshee before it sounds cool though

I just went to the library and found whole bunch of info on the Banshee

I guess the idea of the banshee treading the shores of the 'new world' (America) is not such a difficult thing to imagine anyways. If the banshee is peculiar to certain famileies or whatever, it's possible they could've followed them here when lots of the Irish people were immigrants way back.

Awesome stories Hammy, thanks for sharing them!

Hoagy

interesting stories!

The woman who used to do home help for my grandad before he died is a widow. She claimed that before her husband died she saw and heard a banshee. I heard this years ago so I cant remember wether it was the same night or a few nights before the death. She's also a bit fruity but swears this is the truth. Im of the opinion myself she likes to tell stories and exaggerate but who knows?