School: Castlepollard (Infants) (roll number 11469)
- Location:
- Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: Mrs Davitt
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0721, Page 199
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- XML School: Castlepollard (Infants)
- XML Page 199
- XML “The Banshee”
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- The Banshee is a fairy woman that forewarns members of certain families in Ireland, (of real Irish descent), of their death by wailing in the vicinity of their homes.
It is said to be sometimes accoompanied by a "coach-a-bower" a kind of hearse drawn by sable horses, and this vehicle is driven by Dullahans or headless men.
Some very old peoples' descriptions of the Banshee represent her as being a thin spare red-haired woman draped in white diaphanous material that seems to float through the air but the most authentic account I have heard describes her as of dwarfish stature golden hair, dressed in a red skirt and seemingly devoid of feet. She is supposed to be continually combing her long tresses and a youth who had the temerity to wrest her comb from her almost died from the effects of her keening before she afforded him an opportunity of restoring it.
There are few old families in and around Castlepollard who have quite a nervous belief in the Banshee. They seem to have a sort of(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Elizabeth Davitt
- Gender
- Female
- Occupation
- Teacher
