When in the movie does this scene take place?
About fifteen minutes or so before the end of the film.
Katy (Janet Munroe), in a fit of temper, tries to catch the old family horse, which leads her all the way up the hill to the castle ruins. Darby (Albert Sharpe), having himself witnessed the horse turning into a púca, smells disaster in the wind and gives chase. By the time he catches up with them, the damage is done, and Katy lies injured on the ground (one assumes that she took a nasty fall after being frightened by the spectral horse). Darby and Michael (Sean Connery) bring her back to the cottage, but it would seem that her prospects are not good, as the old man soon hears the dreaded voice of the banshee. His subsequent confrontation with the harbinger of death was the single most terrifying moment of my childhood, thank you very much.
The Banschee scared the ever livin’ crap out of me as a child as well. You are not alone.
Odesio
The bain sidhe should have scared the crap outta James I of Scotland; no telling if he realized that’s what he was talking to at the time. 
That film, and especially that scene, scared the pee-widdle out of me when I was a kid. I don’t think I slept for a week.
We could start a support group – middle aged people scarred for life by the banshee. I just found recently (I think it came up here) that the clip is on YouTube:
They’re scarier in real life tbh.
Where they go by the name Dementors.
Ah, I got it wrong. Watching the clip I see that the banshee first appears as soon as Darby finds Katy at the ruins. It’s when she swoops up to the door of the cottage, though, that the entire gradeschool portion of the audience (and a few of the older contingent as well) soils their collective britches.
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I seriously thought this was a band name at first.
What a great, fun movie that was! If you check out the bonus features in the DVD you can see how clever Disney was in doing the special effects in this 1959 movie – such as the use of forced perspective and mechanical effects. Seeing a very young pre-Bondsian Sean Connery (singing!) was also a great treat.
I must confess I’d gotten this one confused with The Gnome Mobile. This one didn’t have Walter Brennan though; I loved the actor who was in it though and will have to see it again. (Since Darby and Gill are both surnames in my immediate family there were all kinds of jokes about us and the movie when I was a kid; they died down for a while but when two of my she-relatives started dating short men they both came back with force amongst ourselves.)
I too had confused this one with The Gnome Mobile although I had seen part of this one as a kid and it scared the bejeebus out of me too.
Funny though, when I first looked at the clip I thought “who’s the Sean Connery lookalike…oooooh. Never mind.”
Thanks everyone. I’ve added this movie to my Netflix queue and I’ll be on the lookout for the scene.
I had nightmares bout it for years!!!
Does anyone know who played the banshee in the film??
I was in my 20s when I saw the movie for first time and that scene rattled me. I remember thinking, “That’s an awfully intense scene for a movie that little kids are watching.”
Well, I came in here to say that Darby O’Gill was a notable Scare the Crap outta me movie as a lass, but, now, have to add Sampiro’s post as a great example of why Southern writers are the best. Read it slow and outloud…lovely.