Rathlaheen sits just a short distance from Bunratty Castle, in the flat Clare countryside between the village and the River Shannon.

In 1956, the wailing of a banshee was heard inside the cottage. Those present had no doubt about what they were hearing. And in keeping with the banshee’s long-established role in Irish tradition – not a ghost, but a harbinger, an announcement rather than a haunting – a death in the family followed shortly afterwards.

The banshee does not stay. She comes when she is needed and she leaves. What remains at Rathlaheen is the memory of that night in 1956, passed down as one of those accounts that the people who were there never quite managed to explain away.

It is worth noting that 1956 was the same year restoration work began on Bunratty Castle – a project that transformed the ruined tower house into what it is today. Whether there is any connection between that disturbance of the surrounding area and what was heard at Rathlaheen, nobody has suggested. But the timing is not without interest.