Irish Legends
Here are some famous Banshees
There seems to be ghosts nearly everywhere you look across Ulster. In
Belfast, one of the most haunted places is an underground tunnel connecting
two wings of Queen's University. It is very close to Friar's Bush which is
one of the city's oldest graveyards and is the place where many people were
buried as a result of the cholera outbreak in the 1880s.
On one occasion, three men entered the unlit tunnel but two stopped at the
entrance. The other man continued, not knowing his colleagues had left him
behind, but swears that he could feel someone holding his hand the whole
way.
York Road Railway Station is haunted by footsteps on the gravel by the rail
tracks and a strange figure in one of the engine sheds. Yet another ghost
has been seen sitting in the canteen in the middle of the night.
Belfast's most famous ghost is James Haddock whose constant appearances led
the authorities to have his gravestone pushed over.
Haddock was said to appear dressed in a white coat and once, in 1662, he
nearly killed James Taverner when his ghost frightened the man's horse.
Understandably, Dunluce Castle, built by Richard de Burgh, the Earl of
Ulster, is steeped in myth and legend.
Situated on one of the most stunning stretches of coastline in the British
Isles, it is the home of ghosts, banshees and giants.
The Derrygonnelly poltergeist has been reported on numerous occasions since
1877. The psychic researcher Sir William Barrett successfully communicated
with the ghost by asking it to guess how many fingers he had extended
inside his pocket. It is said that the manifestation was right each time.
Banshee or 'Bean-sidhe' is Irish for fairy woman. Her sharp, cries and wails are also called 'keening'. The English word 'Keen' is from the Irish 'Caoineadh' meaning lament.
There is no harm or evil in her mere presence, unless she is seen in the act of crying; but this is a fatal sign. The wail of a banshee pierces the night, it's notes rising and falling like the waves of the sea, it always announces a mortal's death. She is solitary woman fairy, mourning and forewarning those only of the best families in Ireland, those with most ancient Celtic lineages. Those whose names begin with 'Mac/Mc' or 'O', whose origin dates from the time of the Irish heroes. The banshee loves the old mortal families with a fierce and unearthly caring.
When a member of the beloved race is dying, she paces the dark hills about his house. She sharply contrasts against the night's blackness, her white figure emerges with silver-grey hair streaming to the ground and a grey-white cloak of a cobweb texture clinging to her tall thin body. Her face is pale, her eyes red with centuries of crying. But this is not the only way that the banshee appears, at other times she is seen as a beautiful young girl, with long, red-golden hair, and wearing a green kirtle and scarlet mantle, broached with gold, after the Irish fashion. Or she will appear shrouded and muffled in a dark, mist-like cloak.
White Lady of Sorrow some people name her, and Lady of Death. She is the Woman of Peace and the Spirit of the Air. For despite her wailing, she is somehow graced with a manner of peace.
Unseen, banshees attend the funerals of the beloved dead. Although, sometimes she can be heard wailing, her voice blending in with the mournful cries of others.
Each banshee has her own mortal family. Out of love she follows the old race across the ocean to distant lands. Her wails or keen can be heard in America and England, wherever the true Irish have settled. But they never forget their blood ties; and neither does she.
, and not so famous legends of Ireland
The Irish Fairy Folk
The Irish peasants left to fend for themselves in a world dominated by a corrupted church, oppressive landlords and an absence of local government and medicine turned to their own imaginations to understand and order the world around them-to make their peasant culture work. Stories like Nera and the Dead Man helped children to remember rules for staying healthy and safe and to maintain sanitation. Images from the ancient tales combined with observations -the wind in the winter forest-the Banshee- helped them to explain natural occurrences. You too should know them when you meet them!!
The Sociable Fairies
l.The Sheoques: Lived in sacred thorn bushes. Thief fairy music lead humans astray.Sometimes they switched a child with a fairy child to create a changeling which they caused to die in one year.
2. The Merrows: Seen as little horn less cows but really they have fishes tails and wear a red cap (cohuleen driuth). The men have green teeth. green hair,pigs eyes and red noses-women are beautiful and prefer human mates.
The Solitary Fairies
1.The Leprechaun: The one shoemaker seen mending shoes.Catch him and get crocks of gold.A thrifty professional.Take your eyes off of him and he vanishes. Red Coat seven buttons in each row and he spins sometimes on the point of a cocked hat.
2.The Cluricaun: Robbing wine cellars and riding sheep and shepherds dogs the live long night-found panting and mud covered in the morning.
3.The Gonconer(Ganconagh)-Love talker,Idler,appears making love to shepherdesses and milkmaids -smokes a pipe.
4.The Fear Darrig-Red man,Joker gives evil dreams
5.The Pooka-A horse ass etc... takes rider on a wild ride and shakes him off in the grey of morning especially drunkards-a drunkards sleep is his kingdom.When it rains with sun shining that means he will be out that night. When berries are killed by frost it is the Pooka's spit which is upon them and they should not be eaten.
6.The Dullahan-Headless or carrying his head.Black coach a bower with headless horses it goes to your door and if you open it a basin of blood is thrown at you-death omen.
7.Leanhaun Shee-Fairy mistresses seeks love of men-if they refuse she is their slave -If they consent they are hers-her lovers waste away -you must find one to go in your place.
8.The Fear Gorta-Man of hunger-brings good luck to those who give him food.
9.Banshee-Fairy woman -morning-wails over dead and calls for them.
10.The Fear Sidhe: Male Fairy (there are also fairies for parts and aspects of the home,for water(sherie) light Soullh and a host of lake fairies,dragons and ghosts)
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