Maeveen - The O'Neill Banshee

 

Maeveen - The O'Neill Banshee

Brean O’Neill  returned one day from a raid on his way home he spotted a cow whose horns were caught in a tree. It was a hawthorn tree.

He had heard that these wishing trees were sacred to the fairy folk but he paid no mind to these kinds of superstitions. So he approached the  cow and helped it to free its horns. “There you go.” 

The cow ran away and Brean continued his journey, unaware that he had angered the fairy folk. As far as the fairies were concerned, that cow had become their property the moment it got itself caught on their tree. Brean had allowed it to escape them; this would not go unpunished.

 

When Brean arrived home he called out to his daughter. “Maeveen, I'm home” but there was no answer.

After the incident with the cow and the Hawthorn tree the fairies had visited Breen's home before him they'd grabbed his daughter and dragged her to the bottom of the lake.

Brean was worried and began to search everywhere for her.

The Fairies

The fairies allowed Maeveen to visit her father just once while he searched. She appeared before him. “Maeveen, is that you?” 

She spoke. “Yes it's me the fairies came and they took me away but don't worry I'm safe in their kingdom now". And then she vanished from then on.

 

She could only return in order to warn of an impending death in her family if someone's time was near they would hear her mournful cries.

This was the origin of the O'Neill banshee in Irish Folklore.

Paul (O'Neill) Langan