The Banshee: The History of a Truly Scary Irish Spirit

Anyone who ever saw the Walt Disney movie Darby O'Gill and the Little People when they were a young kid doubtlessly has carried with them one memory of the movie that was seared into their subconscious and repeatedly tried to burst through to the conscious mind in the form of nightmares. I'm talking, of course, about the Banshee, and even though that movie was made back before Sean Connery's Irish brogue made him all but unintelligible, not to mention long before anyone had ever even thought of CGI, that special effect was perhaps the scariest in kids movies to that point. I unfortunately was at the mercy of a slightly older cousin who thought the height of humor was to cry out for the banshee whenever we were outside in the darkness of night. Funny guy. His name is Chris. He lives out west. Feel free to beat him up.