1825 (ca.): The Rilehan Banshee

In 1825, Thomas Crofton Croker made note in his book Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, published that year, of a then-recent family experience with an Irish phantom known as a Banshee.

        A servant for his family named Peggy Rilehan, whose father had helped supply many stories for Crocker's book, was in a room with Crocker's sister when she claimed to have heard a shriek and seen something pass across the window. Crocker's sister later told the author that she had seen nothing out of the ordinary, but that Ms. Rilehan had suddenly screamed and then exclaimed: "There it is, there it is -- what always appears when any of the Rilehans are to die!"

        Two or three days after this occurrence, a cousin of the servant girl, who had been in jail for his involvement with an attack on a local barracks, was tried, found guilty, and executed. Was this the death Ms. Rilehan claimed was predicted?