Banshee: Mythological Irish Women Retold - The Irish Bestseller

by Ailbhe Malone

Featuring new and original stories

Jane Casey Sunday Times bestselling author of Cruel Acts | Naoise Dolan Sunday Times bestselling author of Exciting Times | Salma El-Wardany Critically acclaimed author of These Impossible Things | Wendy Erskine Gordon Burn Prize-longlisted author of The Benefactors | Nikita Gill Sunday Times bestselling author of Hekate | Anne Griffin Irish Times bestselling author of Listening Still | Sarah Maria Griffin Award-winning author of Spare and Found Parts | Jess Kidd International award-winning author of Things in Jars | Megan Nolan Sunday Times bestselling author of Acts of Desperation | Sheila O'Flanagan Sunday Times bestselling author of The Honeymoon Affair

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In this spellbinding anthology, Ireland's most electrifying female writers breathe new life into ancient Irish myths, reclaiming the stories of women who have too long stood in the shadows of warriors and kings.

Editor and journalist Ailbhe Malone was raised on these legends - but the women, always cast as mothers, warriors or witches, were never given the lead. And so, Banshee was not just a retelling but a radical reclamation.

Banshee transports you to treacherous landscapes and salt-crashing seas, generational curses and mystical islands. Here you'll find unruly mothers, rule-breaking queens, and women outrunning their destiny - stories pulsing with desire, danger and defiance.

This is a celebration of womanhood - and an homage to the ancient stories that still shape us.

Genres: Short Stories, Mythology, Ireland, Irish Literature, Fiction

231 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 26, 2026

Reviews

[Hannah]

Absolutely phenomenal retellings of classics - personal fave has to be the retelling of the Children of Lir as obnoxious drama school kids

[Karyn Moy]

*Saoirse Ronan voice* Irish women — !!!!

[Koli]

I did enjoy the telling of some of the stories, however a lot of them I personally didn’t enjoy the modernisation of them and the jumping from different writing styles. Nonetheless, I did thoroughly enjoy reading this book and just because all of it wasn’t my cup of tea, doesn’t mean it won’t be someone else’s

[Lorraine]

Spectacular 😙👌🏻

[Sarah Doyle]

Absolutely amazing.

[Otone]

Short stories that don’t shy away from the violence continually inflicted on women by men and patriarchal societies. Not a frolicking retelling of Irish myths, if that’s what you’re looking for!

[emma broderick]

i enjoyed this but unfortunately not as much as i wanted to - i felt that even though the myths were supposed to be centred around irish women the main plot drive were still actions taken by men? i know they were adaptations of real myths but i feel with the amount of creative liberty that was used there could definitely have been more of an effort to change them in that regard.

i understand a lot of it was to draw attention to the mistreatment of women in irish society but it would have been nice to just have one or two that didn’t focus on that, rather a world where women controlled the narrative.

but i did enjoy the listen and do recommend for anyone getting into irish folklore! my favourite was The Swans by Naoise Dolan

[Molly Ferguson]

I wish this book had been out before I had finished writing my own book about Irish women writers reimagining folktales. These are reinterpreted with such freshness and creativity! A few of my favorites include: "The Swans" by Naoise Dolan, "The Changeling" by Jane Casey, "plus she can drive your getaway car faster than any" by Wendy Erskine, and "Woo" by Sarah Maria Griffin. I might use one or two of these in classes I teach, as well.

[Fionnbharr Rodgers]

This is good craic- nice light reading, from some of the best writers working in Ireland at the moment. It’s not really fair to offer any criticism. However, there is one glaring issue: considering the remit is to rewrite old Irish stories with the women at the centre, where’s Úna? Regardless what version of the story of Fionn and the Giant, Úna is the hero of the story who keeps Fionn from getting a cross-Causeway arse-kicking. Seems a massive oversight.

[Sadhbh O'Sullivan]

I looooved this collection of short stories. Naoise Dolan’s, Sheila O’Flahagan’s and Salma El-Wardany’s were my standouts that I keep thinking about. I know embarrassingly little Irish folklore so this was a delight through and through. 4.5

[Niamh O'Connor]

Difficult to rate this book as it is a collection of short stories, where some are more original and cleverly written than others so it sits somewhere between 3 and 4 star rating depending the page you open it to

[Sinead Thewlis]

I thought I was back in the 80s listening to Marian from Bosco telling me stories. The audio book is not to be recommended. I was really looking forward to this as I'm in an Irish mythology era but it felt rushed and reductive.

[Sarah Mac]

dnf

[Rosc]

A remarkable collection of stories , that can be read without knowing the origin stories . Certain authors brought me to this book , but it was ones I had not read who have impressed me the most .

[ToriBeth]

Some of the stories were brilliant, others not so much.

[Claire]

3.5

Holiday read

[Emma Gregory]

Beautifully written retellings. Cried at Nikita Gill's "a most deceiving woman".

[Olivia]

wow, loved all these stories! did some reading on the origins of the myths afterwards.

[Hannah Wilkinson]

Editor Ailbhe Malone writes in her introduction about how the traditional Irish tales of her childhood, despite sometimes being named for their female characters, often seem to be portrayed with no interiority or agency. This collection gathers traditional Irish myths and hands them to a powerhouse lineup of modern Irish writers. The brief is clear… put the women of Irish folklore front and centre, and they all deliver.

Full disclosure, I went in knowing none of the original myths. That didn’t diminish the experience at all, though people familiar with them might read differently. The stories stand on their own two feet, while still having a feel of folklore about them. You don’t need a mythology degree… just a willingness to lean into the weird. For me, not having any prior knowledge made the collection feel even more immersive.

Throughout the collection we visit salt-lashed coasts, forbidden forests and even modern-day Dublin. Each contributor taking their own mythic thread and pulling it in a different direction… in terms of style, tone and time period. Handily, Malone includes a few lines at the beginning which explains the origins of each myth, and I found it really fun to see where each writer took their story using the original as an inspiration. There are both traditional stories and modern interpretations of curses, mermaids and women turning to water.

What I loved most is how varied the interpretations felt. Some stories lean into the folklore aspect, heightening the atmosphere and dread. Others feel more contemporary, rewriting stories that were never originally meant to centre women at all. But they all have a common feeling of defiance.
As you might expect given the strength of Irish lit released in the last few years, the prose across the collection is consistently strong stylistically. There’s lyricism, yes, but also bite. That very specific Irish balance between the eerie and the darkly dry really works.

As always with an anthology, there are some which will inevitably hit harder than others depending on your taste. But the overall quality is impressively high, and the collection felt very cohesive.