The Banshee - Elliott O'Donnell

“‘But as well as the Banshee do you know that we have a headless coach attached to our family; it is proceeded by men, who lead the horses, and none of them have heads.’

“Like a flash came that never-to-be-forgotten vision of that awful procession I had seen as a child, and of which I had never made any mention till then. I remember now that after I saw the headless coach we heard that our grandmother was dead. I believe that the headless coach belongs to her family.

“Petronella O’Donnell.”

The headless coach referred to in the foregoing account comes to us, I believe, from the Vize family. My grandmother before her marriage was Sarah Vize, daughter of John Vize of Donegal, Glenagad and Limerick. Her sister Frances married her cousin, David Roche of Carass (see Burke’s “Landed Gentry of Ireland,” under Maunsell family, and Burke’s “Peerage under Roche”), their son being Sir David Roche, Bart.

The great-great-grandmother of Sarah Vize was Mary, daughter of Butler of the house of the Earl Glengall Cahir. Sarah Vize’s mother, my great-grandmother, before her marriage was Sarah Maunsell, granddaughter of William Maunsell of Ballinamona, County Cork, the fifth son of Colonel Thomas Maunsell of Mocollop.

In the accompanying genealogical tree, tracing the descent of the O’Donnells of Trough from Niall of the Nine Hostages, the O’Briens of Thomond and the O’Rourkes of Brefui, may be found the basis upon which my family’s claim to the dual Banshee rests.

The original may be seen in the office of the King of Arms, Dublin. The following is merely an extract:

him, in direct descent, to Foirdhealbhach an Fhiona O’Donnhnaill, who had two sons, the elder, Shane Luirg and the younger, Niall Garbh. From Niall Garbh the illustrious Red Hugh and his brother Rory, Earl of Tirconnell, were descended, from Shane Luirg, whose rank as “The O’Donnell” was taken by his younger brother, presumably the stronger man of the two, the Trough O’Donnells are descended.

The line goes on thus: