The banshee is a particular kind of spirit which comes from Irish Myth, usually depecited as a woman, the banshee is commonly seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld.
The banshee is most well known for her scream and it is said that when one hears the cry of the banshee it means they or someone in thier family is going to die.
Banshees beleived to be a form of nature spirit, and in some cases even viwed as being a fairy creature, a banshee can even be called the Fairy Woman.
The legend of the banshee came from the idea, that traiditonaly when a citizen of an Irish village died, a woman would sing thier lament and legend has it that for five great Gaelic familes the O'Gradys, the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, and the Kavanaghs a fairy woman would sing and having foresight she would appear before the death to keen.
It was said that if several banshees were to show up at once it meant the death of someone great or holy, some stories recounted that the woman, though called a fairy, was a ghost, often of a specific murdered woman, or a woman who died in childbirth.
Banshees are frequently described as dressed in white or grey, and often having long, fair hair which they brush with a silver comb, though some say that the comb combs from confussion with local mermaid myths, it also relates to an old Irish supersition, if you ever see a comb lying on the ground in Ireland, you must never pick it up, or the banshees (or mermaids - stories vary), having placed it there to lure unsuspecting humans, will spirit such gullible humans away.
Banshees are also seen sometimes as being dressed in green, red, or black, with a gray cloak.