The Irish female spirit whose wail foretells death is the banshee.
The name comes from the Irish bean sí, meaning “woman of the fairy mound” or “fairy woman.” In folklore, a banshee’s keening warns that someone in a family is dying or has died, sometimes even before news reaches the household. Her cry may be described as a wail, shriek, scream, or lament.
The tradition is closely related to the human practice of keening, a performed funeral lament traditionally associated with Ireland and parts of Scotland. Stories often place the banshee near ancient burial mounds, and later accounts give her flowing hair, a pale or grey appearance, and eyes reddened by weeping.
The banshee is not the same creature as a dullahan, the headless rider sometimes linked with a death coach. A kelpie is a dangerous water spirit, while the sluagh are supernatural hosts or spirits in Scottish and Irish tradition. Similar warning figures include Scotland’s bean nighe and Wales’s cyhyraeth.