Banshees.

kopfan77

I haven't see too many posts where people actually believe they may have experienced a banshee wail....so i may as well post my story.

I'm not a person who typically believes in this kinda stuff. I'm a scientist and pretty much believe that there's an explanation for all of these types of phenomena....however!!

Im now 33, and back just over 10 years ago, Id been out for a few scoops with my mates...im from a smallish country town. At the end of the night I was strolling home to the folks place, bout 2 miles outside the town out in the country....calm, clear night. About a half a mile from home I heard this unmerciful painful scream! Now being from the country all sorts of thoughts went through my mind...Ive heard foxes, owls etc in the past...but id never heard anything like this...it was sooo human and was like a woman in sheer agony. I spent ages peering over hedges, calling out but nothing....pretty freaked out I legged it home.

Next day, my granny who lived next door, was feeling slightly unwell....woman was in her mid seventies, but sprightly as hell and in pretty good nick. Doc sent her in to hospital as she was a diabetic and her blood pressure or something was a bit all over the place.....to get to the point, less than 24hrs after I heard that awful scream, my granny collapsed on the ward in the hospital and died of a heart attack.

Despite every scientific bone in my body saying its all a coincidence and it must have been some sort of animal...deep down I cant help but feel and wonder that I may have experienced a banshee wail!

fontanalis

As someone said on a thread in the Mythology section, as the banshee legend comes from the Tutha de Danann, if you believe the banshee is real then you must believe the Tuatha de Danann were real.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aos_s%C3%AD

Edinduberdeen

Adrian009 wrote: »

The Irish are/were Gaelic, NOT Celtic! The Celts were the ancestors of the French, Germans, Swiss, Chez, northern Italians and some Spanish.

Em... Celtic is a linguistic term only - Celtic people were not a genetically related ethnic group. Celtic is just a term to group together different peoples who spoke similar, related languages (what we now call Celtic languages). Gaelic is a branch of the insular Celtic languages. In that sense, the Irish are/were indeed both Gaelic and Celtic (while the Welsh, for example, are Brythonic and Celtic - Brythonic being the other branch of the insular Celtic languages).

Carry on...

Riamfada

Edinduberdeen wrote: »

Em... Celtic is a linguistic term only

No it wasnt. Material culture and burial rites were shared among the Celtic tribes. Ireland displays almost non of these Celtic ways of life.

Carry on....

fontanalis

Riamfada wrote: »

No it wasnt. Material culture and burial rites were shared among the Celtic tribes. Ireland displays almost non of these Celtic ways of life.

Carry on....

It's not that straight forward. The term celtic was sued to describe languages back in the 1700's. The term was also used to describe various groups of people across a wide area and time range who probably never called themselves celtic.
There does seem to be lingustic similarities to river names in central europe and some artifacts did make their way to Ireland (although the La Tene stuff seems limited to the Northern part of ireland).
The term is thrown around too much as if it's some ethnic label to describe a monolithic group of people.

GodlessM

fontanalis wrote: »

The term was also used to describe various groups of people across a wide area and time range who probably never called themselves celtic.

And there you've just proved your own wrong; the Irish people never called themselves Celtic therefore they weren't.

Riamfada

I guess we will agree to disagree. But using language as a basis for ethnicity is problematic. If we didnt know better would we assume that all latin speaking clerics from the 5th century to the 17th century were Roman? I also speak English but I was born in Ireland, Im Irish & my material culture reflects that.

anywhooo...... this debate is probably better suited to my domain.

Edinduberdeen

GodlessM wrote: »

And there you've just proved your own wrong; the Irish people never called themselves Celtic therefore they weren't.

I'm sure the La Tene folk didn't call themselves Celtic either, yet we would call them that now.


But yes, this isn't the forum to discuss this Riamfada, apologies!

Micky Dolenz

Riamfada wrote: »

Probably a fox ... also every time Jessica Fletcher turns up in town someone snuffs it, perhaps Jessica Fletcher is a banshee.

Yeah, the Vixen has a very high pitched scream and can sound like wailing. Quite spooky if you don't know what it is.

Cots1

My mother claimed she heard the banshee one night turns out it was just a cow that fell in a ditch

noel farrell

bit of fun in carlow for paddys day yanks hoping to see a banshee at old ruins of ducketts grove house . you can watch it on youtube .destination truth banshee . its 4 hours if you have time , more than likely it will be taking piss out us irish

maccored

that destination truth thing is a complete load of bollocks. dont waste your time.

deelite

I've never heard a banshee cry/wail but when we were kids we were told by the granny never touch a comb found on the street (hairbrushes were fine to touch and play with but never combs) - she said it was a sign the banshee had been around the night before. Whilst the banshee was stalking her prey she'd be combing her hair but the comb would get tangled in the hair and would fall out - and the person who picked up the comb would be the next person to die....did anybody else hear of this story when they were kids.

eamon234

kopfan77 wrote: »

Next day, my granny who lived next door, was feeling slightly unwell....woman was in her mid seventies, but sprightly as hell and in pretty good nick. Doc sent her in to hospital as she was a diabetic and her blood pressure or something was a bit all over the place.....to get to the point, less than 24hrs after I heard that awful scream, my granny collapsed on the ward in the hospital and died of a heart attack.

:rolleyes:

o1s1n

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

I don't have "Mc" in my name and I hear them too.
We call them foxes around here.

I have a 'Mc' and two 'O's in my name so I must be knackared so!

There's no sound scarier than a fox wailing at night. It's horrible. I can imagine how people could jump to conclusions and think it's something otherworldly.

shuffles88

deelite wrote: »

I've never heard a banshee cry/wail but when we were kids we were told by the granny never touch a comb found on the street (hairbrushes were fine to touch and play with but never combs) - she said it was a sign the banshee had been around the night before. Whilst the banshee was stalking her prey she'd be combing her hair but the comb would get tangled in the hair and would fall out - and the person who picked up the comb would be the next person to die....did anybody else hear of this story when they were kids.

I'm familiar with this but it was only if you found it, not a total ban on combs:). I don't know what would possess you to pick up a comb you found on the street in the first place!