[3] A fluent speaker of Irish, between 1730 and 1750 Bunworth was chosen five times as President of the local cúirt éigse (meeting of the bards), which was held every 3 years in Bruree, County Limerick.

Affectionately known as "the minister" by the area's Catholic residents, he enjoyed cross-community admiration and the locals looked to Bunworth "in matters of difficulty and in seasons of distress, confident of receiving from him the advice and assistance that a father would afford to his children".

According to Crofton Croker, he was "a man of unaffected piety, and of sound learning; pure in heart, and benevolent in intention, by the rich he was respected and by the poor beloved.

[6] The harp was the aristocratic instrument of Gaelic Ireland, and harpers enjoyed a high social status which was codified in Brehon Law.

[7] The patronage of harpers was adopted by Norman and British settlers in Ireland until the late 18th century, although their standing in society was greatly diminished with the introduction of the English class system.

In his biography of Turlough O'Carolan, historian Donal O'Sullivan writes: We may note as a remarkable fact that the descendants of Protestant settlers, who had been at most for three generations in the country, seem to have been just as devoted to the Irish music of the harp as were the old Gaelic families.

When news of his death spread, many of these musicians visited his house to pay their respects, with some depositing harps in the loft of his granary as a final gesture of gratitude.

[9] After he died, Bunworth's prized collection of harps was largely destroyed when the family moved to Cork for a temporary change of scenery, leaving a servant in charge of their Buttevant home.

Bunworth, and Croker does not mention his sources, simply stating: there are still living credible witnesses who declare their authenticity, and who can be produced to attest most, if not all, of the following particulars.

One week before the reverend's passing, a Mr. Kavanagh, the herdsman for the Bunworth estate, departed for Mallow to pick up medicine for the Rev.

Miss Bunworth dismissed this as idle superstition but Kavanagh insisted that a banshee with long, white hair and a black cloak followed him through the grounds of Ballybeg Priory keening, screeching, clapping her hands and, on occasion, calling out the reverend's name.

Bunworth was much loved and respected in the community and many locals were gravely concerned by the strange happenings which seemed to forebode the reverend's demise.

As was common at times of serious illness, people gathered at the house, mainly in the kitchen, with a smaller group of close friends in a room adjoining the parlour, the door to which was left open.

The stillness of the night was interrupted when a rose bush growing outside the parlour window was forced aside with some noise and a low female moaning was heard, accompanied by the clapping of hands.

The moaning sounded as if whoever was doing it was holding their mouth close to the window, and the elderly woman attending the sleeping reverend rushed into the adjoining room and asked if anyone else could hear the cry of the banshee.

The ground around the window had recently been dug, meaning that if the rose bush had been pushed aside by human hands footprints would have been left in the dirt, although none could be found.

The moonlight provided excellent visibility and the two men, hoping to dispel the mystery, searched along the road leading to the house, but to no avail.

[14] In 1995, a harp-shaped plaque was erected outside of Bunworth's former home in Buttevant and unveiled by Robert Warke, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.

[15] American instrumentalist TD Cruze released a song entitled "The Bunworth Banshee" in 2010, which was included in the album Irish eyes in 2013.