A brand-new film of ghost stories, piseógs and superstitions told by Limerick schoolchildren will premiere at the Belltable tonight at 6.30pm as part of the Bualadh Bos Children's Festival.
'Revisiting the Banshee’, the latest project by folklorists and artists Aileen Lambert and Michael Fortune, returns to the classrooms of St Mary’s National School on King’s Island and Thomond Primary School in Moyross, where the pair first collected stories 21 years ago.
Back in 2004, their film ‘The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley’ charmed audiences with stories from Limerick of banshees and headless horsemen.
Now, with a new generation of storytellers, they have discovered that tales of the Banshee and old piseógs are very much alive.
"The original collection was called ‘The Banshee Lives in the Handball Alley’, but we came back 20 years later and some of the stories were absolutely spot on - like they were continuing directly from 20 years ago," said folklorist Michael Fortune.
"What struck us this time is the number of new families in Limerick, from all over the world, and the cross-cultural stories that have developed.
"A lot of them carry similar superstitions, like itchy hands - meaning money; itchy ears meaning someone’s talking about you - little things that connect everyone," Mr Fortune added.
The film captures chilling Banshee encounters from today’s children, echoing the tales recorded two decades ago.
"My father’s friend was down at the handball alley, and he touched the four corners and said her name four times," recounted one pupil.
"The gates shut locked. She [the Banshee] was singing on the wall, brushing her hair. He ran away, and she went after him and scraped his face," said the pupil.
Superstitions also feature strongly in ‘Revisiting the Banshee’. Children talk about blessing themselves at the sight of a black cat or ambulance, and the bad luck associated with placing new shoes on a table.
"If you get new shoes from the shop and put them on your table, you’re going to get bad luck," one child explained.
"Brand new tackies … fresh out of the box, you get bad luck if you put them on the table," added another.
One girl linked misfortune to superstition when her brother’s birthday pet dog tragically died.
"It was my brother’s tenth birthday - he got a dog for his birthday. A lovely fluffy white one called Snowball. A week before he passed away, I saw a black cat and I never blessed myself. A week or two later, the dog got hit by a car," she said.
The film also shows a strong tradition of piseógs in the area of Limerick it was recorded.
From "fork on the floor, knock on the door" to the ritual of crossing a dropped knife with your foot to ward off bad luck, the children’s accounts highlight how folklore continues to be passed down through families.
One girl laughed as she remembered her grandmother’s reaction when a knife fell in her house:
"My nana said: ‘knife to the floor, man to the door’. And then a fella came to the door with my cousin’s Amazon delivery. He was an old man. He gave the package to me and goes: ‘Here you go, my love’."
School principal Eoghan O’Byrne of St Mary’s National School on King’s Island said the project is not just about preserving folklore but also about inspiring his pupils.
"Even if we look at the kids that were in the films from 20 years ago, it’s brilliant to see how they’ve progressed in their lives. One’s now a school principal, others are teachers. It shows today’s children what’s possible," he said.
"It’s also been eye-opening for me - I heard stories I’d never come across before. The fork on the floor, knock on the door one really stuck with me."
Tonight’s Belltable screening is the only public showing of ‘Revisiting the Banshee’. But the full collection of 25 short films is available to watch online on the folklore website.
