The Banshee of the O'Brien Clan at Dromoland Castle, County Clare

The O'Brien family of County Clare — direct descendants of Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland who defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 — are among the most prominent Irish families traditionally attended by a banshee. Their ancestral seat, Dromoland Castle in Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare, is one of several locations where the O'Brien banshee has been reportedly heard. The O'Brien banshee is described in family tradition as a solitary female figure in a gray cloak, her hair disheveled, who appears near the castle or on the grounds of the family estate shortly before a death. Her keening is described not as a shriek but as a low, sustained wail of inconsolable grief — more heartbreaking than terrifying. Multiple members of the O'Brien family across the centuries have recorded hearing the banshee, and the tradition continued into the 20th century. The persistence of banshee belief among educated, aristocratic families — not merely among the rural poor — is one of the most striking features of Irish supernatural tradition.