The Witchcraft Trial of Bridget Cleary

Long ago, in County Tipperary, Ireland, Bridget Cleary was put on trial for being a changeling. The judge was her husband; the jurors were her father, cousins, and neighbors. After nine days of ritualized torture, they concluded that 26-year-old Bridget was indeed the victim of fairies and her spirit had been abducted. A priest was called in to give her last rites, and she was burned to death in the fireplace.

What makes this story amazing is that it took place in eighteen ninety-four.

How on earth could this happen? How on earth, in 1894, could a dozen people who knew Bridget Cleary be so steeped in the "old religion" that they would do this to the poor woman?

To understand what happened to Mrs. Cleary, you have to understand her. Bridget was described as intelligent, of high spirits, and maybe more than a little weird. She was barren, for one thing, despite several years of marriage, and she perhaps too much enjoyed the freedom that childlessness afforded. Bridget was also interested in the old pagan faith and visited ancient sites. She may have carried on an extramarital affair. Her husband had a personality to match and a fierce belief in banshees, goblins, ghosts and fairies, to the point that he believed his mother's old tale that the fairies had abducted her for three days. Michael Cleary was petrified of his wife's activities and perhaps jealous and threatened. His repeated warnings to her to stop visiting "those places" went unheeded. So when she fell ill, perhaps with pneumonia, after one of these not-so-surreptitious visits, her husband and family decided it was time for an exorcism, and they grew more and more convinced over the ensuing days and sleepless nights that she was indeed possessed of an evil spirit. And perhaps Bridget believed it herself.

After she died, her family made an effort to cover up the crime, but her badly burned and battered body was found in a shallow grave. Nine people went to prison for their roles in her death, including her husband, who served 15 years for manslaughter.

Bridget Cleary's death made headlines throughout the world, but nowhere more so than in London, where many were shocked that pagan beliefs still held such a strong grip in Tipperary. The sensational case became a political weapon in the hands of the British, who pointed to Bridget's fate as a reason to keep Home Rule from the "backward" Irish.

A couple of recent books delve into the case and the historical backdrop and consequences for the beleaguered people of Ireland. The Cooper's Wife is Missing by Joan Hoff and Marian Yeates (New York: Basic Books, 2000) and The Burning of Bridget Cleary by Angela Bourke (Viking, 2000) both emphasize Irish culture and history in explaining the bizarre case. [An aside: one day perhaps someone will solve the mystery of why it is so often that two books come out at the same time about one old interesting case. Can someone explain this twinning to me?]

To this day, one can hear in southern County Tipperary an old child's rhyme:

Are you a witch? Are you a fairy?

Are you the wife of Michael Cleary?

Sources

"Burning a Witch. Cloneen, Ireland, the Scene of an Awful Tragedy," The New York Sun, reprinted in The Newark Daily Advocate, April 15, 1895.

"A Wife Murderer Sentenced. Burned His Wife in the Presence of Her Father and Relatives," by the United Press, i.e. Williamsport (Pennsylvania) Daily Gazette and Bulletin, July 6, 1895.

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UPDATE: Since I wrote this post in June 2005, I've seen a huge number of hits from people searching for Bridget Cleary on Google.co.uk. I get the impression there must be a documentary broadcast about the murder. Would some Clews visitor kindly advise where you're hearing about the case?

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To buy the book from Amazon.com:

Comments

[dawn hewitt]

im very interested in the story of bridget cleary,and have written and researshed a lot of material for a paper i have to present,i cannot seem to find any further info on Michael cleary(husband)once he docked in montreal...did he change his name,remarry,die???could you help?thanks

[Laura]

Dawn -- you're not the only one interested in the end of Michael Cleary's story. The authors of the two books don't say. A Canadian reviewer of Bourke's book wondered, "Did he live out the rest of his life on Montreal, and end up buried in Mount Royal Cemetery? Or does he lie in a churchyard in some quiet rural Quebec village?" http://www.amk.ca/books/h/Burning_Bridget_Cleary
Unless he had descendants, and they care to tell the story, it might be lost to time.

[Debi]

The daughter of a friend in Ireland, Ms. Shauna Farrell, has landed a leading role in a production of "Are You The Wife Of Micael Clery." Being unfamiliar with the title, I looked it up on the internet to gain information.

[Alice]

I came across the story of Bridget Cleary when a documentary about it was recently shown on tv. It sparked my interest and since then I've tried to gain more information about it via the net.

[D]

Just watching a documentary on Irish television about this case. I missed the first bit so looked it up and saw your site. Extremely interesting and horrifying case, and also included interviews with the then current resident of the house that it occured in (still used as a residential property). As for Michael Cleary, he served 15 years out of a 20 year sentence and after his release emmigrated to Canada where he lived out the rest of his life - at least that's what the documentary stated at the end. Hope that helps?

[david]

see this page
http://www.rte.ie/tv/hiddenhistory/fairy_wife.html

[Eadaoin]

I seen a documentry o RTE last night,and found it very interesting.I do belive there is still more to this "story" and am also intrested in Micheal Cleary and have found your information usefull.

[lisa O'Sullivan]

I watched a documentary on the burning of Bridget Cleary last on RTE Irsih network.

I found it very disturbing that such a thing could happen in Ireland.

Interesting but very very sad

[lisa O'Sullivan]

I watched a documentary on the burning of Bridget Cleary last on RTE Irsih network.

I found it very disturbing that such a thing could happen in Ireland.

Interesting but very very sad

[Tip]

" Would some Clews visitor kindly advise where you're hearing about the case?"

Last night I saw a programme on the history channel (Sky TV) called "The Burning of Bridget Cleary" and I felt it created far more questions than it answered, so I came here in search of some way to understand the unthinkable.

[Susan Belcher]

I am an amateur crime historian, and a teacher of criminal and forensic psychology. I found a reference to Bridget Cleary in a couple of old books about witch hunts and the yorkshire witch. These were only passing mentions, so I decided to google the case to see what happened, after all you can't teach something you don't know!

[kim]

there was a program called "The Burning of Bridget Cleary" on the Crime and Investigation channel (237) today in the UK at 1:00 am.

[lizz]

documentry on crime and investigation channel on cable tv "the burning of bridget cleary" would be interesting to know what became of michael cleary.

[Ita McDonnell]

I came across a reference to poor Bridget in Cultural Studies 15(1) 2001, 33-57 written by Clair Wills. What an extordinary story.

[Ita McDonnell]

I came across a reference to poor Bridget in Cultural Studies 15(1) 2001, 33-57 written by Clair Wills. What an extordinary story.

[Debi]

Ms. Shauna Farrell, a delightful,lovely and very talented young lady whom I first met when she was about 2 years old, played Bridget Cleary in a play.

[carole gill]

There was a documentary on the case some months ago on the Crime and Investigation channel in the U.K., that's when I first heard about this frightening case. I see comments above with regard that.
I was shocked frankly.
I did read the excellent book, "The Burning of Bridget Cleary."
I don't think I will ever have the same warm cuddly feeling about fairy rings glowing at night on hills and all sorts of magical things happening.
Ignorance is always dangerous in my mind.
Never more so than in the case of the most unfortunate Bridget Leary.
Michael Cleary was so terribly ignorant, that I came away thinking he actually didn't begin to understand remotely the gravity of what he did (with others).
Ireland was horrified by the case--and it should in no way reflect badly on the people at that time.
This was an isolated place with very uneducated people. they actually, I believe, didn't know any better.
And I suppose that is what horrifies me the most about the case.

[Lou Baldino]

We are carrying the rememberance of Bridget Cleary through the music of our celtic band "Burning Bridget Cleary". The focal part of the band are 2 accomplished teenage fiddlers from Pa.,Rose and Genna.We had the pleasure to visit Bridget Cleary's cottage,aka "the fairy cottage", when we visited Ireland last year. Feel free to check out our website at www.burningbridgetcleary.com and myspace.com/burningbridgetcleary3

[Vincent Neville]

I found a very interesting link,which, though it doesn't mention the case gives a history of Gender and the Insanity Defence in 19th Century Ireland

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1472557/

I am inclined to believe that the fairy theory was a cover up or a defence strategy. Most of their neighbours were literate and could read and write and would probably have been prosperous in a Little House in the Prairie way.

[Vincent Neville]

I posted a bit too quickly.

Here is a link to the Census of 1911 for the immediate area where the Clearys lived. By the standards of the time it was well off but it also notes the occupations and whether the residents could read and write. Most of the adults could. So they neither appear isolated or badly educated.

http://www.census.nationalarchives.i...e/Ballyvadlea/