Amongst the most popular cases of Banshee haunting both published and
unpublished is that related by Ann, Lady Fanshawe, in her Memoirs. It
seems that Lady Fanshawe experienced this haunting when on a visit to Lady
Honora O'Brien, daughter of Henry, fifth Earl of Thomond,[4] who was then,
in all probability, residing at the ancient castle of Lemaneagh, near Lake
Inchiquin, about thirty miles north-west of Limerick. Retiring to rest
somewhat early the first night of her sojourn there, she was awakened at
about one o'clock by the sound of a voice, and, drawing aside the hangings
of the bed, she perceived, looking in through the window at her, the face
of a woman. The moonlight being very strong and fully focussed on it, she
could see every feature with startling distinctness; but at the same time
her attention was apparently riveted on the extraordinary pallor of the
cheeks and the intense redness of the hair. Then, to quote her own words,
the apparition "spake loud, and in a tone I never heard, thrice 'Ahone,'
and then with a sigh, more like wind than breath, she vanished, and to me
her body looked more like a thick cloud than substance.
"I was so much affrighted that my hair stood on end, and my night clothes
fell off. I pulled and pinched your father, who never awaked during this
disorder I was in, but at last was much surprised to find me in this
fright, and more when I related the story and showed him the window
opened; but he entertained me with telling how much more these apparitions
were usual in that country than in England."
The following morning Lady Honora, who did not appear to have been to bed,
informed Lady Fanshawe that a cousin of hers had died in the house at
about two o'clock in the morning; and expressed a hope that Lady Fanshawe
had not been subjected to any disturbances.
"When any die of this family," she said by way of explanation, "there is
the shape of a woman appears in this window every night until they be
dead."
She went on to add that the apparition was believed to be that of a woman
who, centuries before, had been seduced by the owner of the castle and
murdered, her body being buried under the window of the room in which Lady
Fanshawe had slept.
"But truly," she remarked, by way of apology, "I thought not of it when I
lodged you here."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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