The death coach is part of the folklore of north western Europe. It is particularly strong in Ireland but is also found in British and American culture. In Irish folklore, it is known as the Cóiste Bodhar (koe-shta-bower), meaning deaf or silent coach, and it is said that the sight or sound of the coach is the harbinger of death. It warns of imminent death to either oneself or to a close relative. In Ireland in particular the Death Coach is seen as a signifier of the inevitability of death, as the belief goes once it has come to Earth it can never return empty. Thus, once the death of an individual has been decided by a greater power, mortals may do nothing to prevent it.
The driver of the Cóiste Bodhar is said to be a headless horseman, called the Dullahan.
The Cóiste Bodhar is mentioned by W. B. Yeats in his collection Folk tales of Ireland.
In British mythology a death coach is said to be seen at times on the Royal Mile of Edinburgh, where it collects the souls of the dead.
The Cóiste Bodhar has been portrayed in the film Darby O'Gill and the Little People.
The Coiste Bodhar also appeared in Strange along with the Banshee who is able to summon the Coach.
Famous quotes containing the words death and/or coach:
“and so this tree—
Oh, that such our death may be!—
Died in sleep, and felt no pain,
To live in happier form again:
From which, beneath Heaven’s fairest star,
The artist wrought this loved guitar;”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“There is no country in which so absolute a homage is paid to wealth. In America there is a touch of shame when a man exhibits the evidences of large property, as if after all it needed apology. But the Englishman has pure pride in his wealth, and esteems it a final certificate. A coarse logic rules throughout all English souls: if you have merit, can you not show it by your good clothes and coach and horses?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)