The Banshee ✯ The Irish Banshee is a solitary female fairy connected to a family, although it lives in the forest. The Banshee will scream when a family member’s death is imminent, and long after the death in mourning. From this legend we have the phrase “scream like a banshee.” It is thought that the legend rises from the practice of “keeners,” women who wail in mourning at funerals, sometimes professionally.✯