Fairy Faith and Changelings: The Burning of Bridget Cleary in 1895 Author(s): Thomas McGrath Source: Studies: An Irish

Quarterly Review, Vol. 71, No. 282 (Summer, 1982), pp. 178-184 Published by: Irish Province of the Society of Jesus Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30090427 . Accessed: 22/02/2011 16:45
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FAIRY FAITH AND CHANGELINGS:THE BURNING OF BRIDGET CLEARY IN 1895 Thomas McGrath,M.A. Postgraduate History student at U.C.D. Despite all their inherent contradictions the ubiquitous fairies of rural Ireland played an important role in Irish oral tradition up to modern times. Tales of the Little People or the Good People as the fairies were often known, of the banshee, of the making of spells and pishoguery, of uncanny goings-on at strange hours, were taken quite seriously and form part of the great wealth of Irish folklore. A recent manifestation of fairy faith or belief in the fairies was the re-routing of a new County Mayo road in 1959 because workmen refused to destroy a fairy fort in its path.' In general, however, these folk traditions were innocuous but the burning of Bridget Cleary as a changeling in 1895 de600strates that the strength of belief in the fairies had dangerous potentialities.2 It was popularly believed that the fairies substituted one of their own kind, a changeling, in place of a person abducted by them. The changeling was, as might be expected, visually similar to the person taken by the fairies but after a while a gradual fading or pining away would take place leaving the real person in the hands of the fairies forever.' Sir William Wilde gave it as his opinion that this pining away was a form of marasmus or wasting disorder. In 1851 he wrote: ideasrespecting the It is this affectionwhichhas givenrise to the popular notions and in this country to the many superstititious 'changeling' entertainedby the peasantryrespectingtheir supposed'fairy stricken' of children; so thatyearby year,up to the presentday,we readaccounts and of to deathsproduced cruelendeavours curechildren youngpersons by such maladies by generally attempted quacksandthose termed'fairymen' and'fairywomen 5.4 W.B. Yeats mentions this aspect of the prevailingbelief in the fairies or siogs (in Irish in his book Irish Fairy Tales written in 1892: habithavethey a The siogsareon the wholegood but onemostmalicious and habit worthyof a witch. They steal children leave a witheredfairy a or At men thousand maybetwo thousand yearsold,instead. timesfullgrown andwomenhavebeen taken.Nearthe villageof Coloney(sic), Sligo,I have been told lives an old womanwho was takenin heryouth.Whenshe came themoff.5 backat the end of sevenyearsshehadno toesfor shehaddanced The power of this fairy faith became a frightening reality for Bridget Cleary in March 1895. She was about twenty-six years of age at this time and five years married to Michael Cleary who was a cooper by trade. Mrs Cleary worked as a dressmaker,and she also reared fowl and sold eggs. The couple lived with Patrick Boland, Bridget Cleary's father, Studies Summer 1982

in a new labourer's cottage in the towniand of Ballyvadlea, a remote and isolated district between the villages of Mullinahone and Cloneen about four miles from Fethard in County Tipperary.6 There were no children from the marriage which was described locally as a 'happy union'. It is not clear when Cleary came to the conclusion that his wife had been changed. One explanation is that on 4 March Mrs Cleary journeyed a mile from her home to sell eggs to an old relative. When she got there he was out and she waited several hours for him, in the process catching a cold, and so she spent the next couple of days in bed. This old man, who was a firm believer in the fairies, visited the Clearys a few days later and when he saw the woman in bed he pronounced 'that is not Bridget Cleary'.7 Another view is that Cleary came to this opinion over a longer period of time. Bridget Cleary made one reference during her interrogation to an attempt to burn her the previous Christmasin December 1894.8 Mrs Cleary was being treated for a nervous complaint for eight or nine years. On this occasion when she became ill her husband sent for the local doctor and priest. The doctor from Fethard, Dr Crean, diagnosed a slight bronchial catarrh and the usual nervous excitement. The priest, Fr Ryan, a curate of Drangan parish, thought Mrs Cleary was suffering from the beginnings of mental derangement although her conversation was quite coherent and intelligible. However, whatever the nature of Mrs Cleary's condition it did not improve and Michael Cleary, probably exasperated by the failure of both the professional and religious to cure his wife, sought other explanations for her illness. He turned to local folklore and concluded that the woman he was married to was not his real wife. He complained that she was 'too fine' for him and that she was two inches taller than his real wife; in effect, that she was a changeling. Whether of long term or more recent origin Cleary was not to be dissuaded from this viewpoint. He decided to consult Denis Ganey, variously known as a herb doctor and a fairy-doctor, who lived on nearby Slievena600 mountain. The herb-doctor was usually learned in the medicinal properties of herbs and able as a rule to set a bone, traditions which still survive in the area. The herb-doctor was also knowledgeable of the means by which fairies and pishogues could be removed. Ganey prescribed a herbal cure and on the night of 14 March relatives and neighbours gathered to see Bridget Cleary take the cure for the purpose of expelling the changeling. These included Patrick Boland, her father; Patrick, James and Michael Kennedy, her first cousins; Mary Kennedy, her aunt; locals John Dunne, William Ahearne and William Simpson. The fact that such a large number of people gathered at the house indicates a widespread local sympathy with Cleary's notion that his wife was a changeling. 179

An unusual ritual followed. Mrs Cleary refused to take Ganey's dose and a hot poker was used to force her to take it. Cleary walked about the house making charms and the sign of the cross before administering the herbs which were boiled in milk from a sau300an. She cried out and screamed when forced to take the herb mixture. At intervals over a period of ten to twenty minutes a liquid concoction of water, urine and hen's excrement was thrown upon the unfortunate Mrs Cleary. This noxious brew was thought to prevent fairy abduction. While this was taking place Patrick Boland and Michael Cleary questioned her. Her father asked her: 'Are you the daughter of Pat Boland Answer in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.'9 She answered but they were not satisfied with the manner in which she did so. They shook her then saying: 'Away with you, Away with you, Come home Bridget Cleary in the name of God." The shaking of the sick person has parallels with the efforts of primitive societies to drive out possessing spirits. The Vancouver Indians used to pommel the sick. Similarly, the Aborigines of Western Australia and the Hottentots of the Cape of Good Hope would 'shake,jolt and pommel'." Eventually Mrs Cleary became weak and was unable to answer the continuous questioning. At this point John Dunne said: 'Make down a good fire, and we'll make her answer.'12 Mrs Cleary was carried from her bedroom to the kitchen where a slow fire was lighting. As they held her over the fire she made no effort to struggle, being presumably too weak to do so. She seems to have been conscious of what was happening but unable to defend herself adequately. She did make one pitiful remark: 'Are you going to make a herring of me Give me a chance."3 She was held over the fire at half past eleven. None of the people in the room showed any sign of disapproval. She had to answer the questions before midnight, the bewitching hour, or the real Bridget Cleary would be lost to them. She was held on and over the fire for about ten minutes. Again her father asked her: 'Are you the daughter of Patrick Boland, wife of Michael Cleary Answer in the name of God.' She answered '1 am Dada'.'4 She was removed from the fire only when these questions were answered repeatedly by her. Then it appears that the occupants of the house were satisfied that they had one of their own that they had Mrs Cleary and not a fairy.15 Nevertheless Michael Cleary remained unconvinced, he was not easily swayed from his conviction that his wife's place had been taken by a changeling. He said to Patrick Boland: 'Have you any faith Don't you know it is with an old witch I am sleeping 16 Cleary sent again for the priest at six o'clock the next morning, 15 March. He told Fr Ryan that he wanted a Mass said in the hpuse for his sick wife. He secretly believed that a Mass would banish the evil spirits in the house. Fr Ryan noticed that Mrs Cleary was more nervous and excited than when he first saw her. He asked Michael Cleary if he 180

was giving his wife the medicine the doctor had ordered. Cleary told him that he had no faith in the doctor's medicine. Surprisingly, Fr Ryan had no suspicion of foul play. That evening Mrs johannah Burke went to the house with some milk for Mrs Cleary who was in bed. Mrs Cleary asked her husband if Mrs Burke had been paid for the milk. Mrs Burke said she had and showed her the shilling she had received. She took the shilling and put it under the bedclothes. Michael Cleary accused her of rubbing the shilling to her leg thus making some sort of pishogue. Mrs Cleary got an300 at this suggestion and said that there were no pishogues about her. This was the first of the incidences that was to lead to Bridget Cleary's death that night. Later on that night she was dressed and brought down to the kitchen for tea. The relations, friends and neighbours were in the house again and they were discussing fairies: 'Your mother used to go with the fairies', said Mrs Cleary to her husband, 'and that is why you think I am going with them.' 'Did my mother tell you that?' he asked her. 'She did; she gave two nights with them', she replied.17 Mrs Cleary was offered some tea but Michael Cleary intervened and said that before she should take the tea she should eat three slices of bread. Again he asked her three times: 'Are you Bridget Cleary, my wife, in the name of God?' She answered him twice and ate two slices of bread. But when she did not answer the third time he forced her to eat the third piece, saying: 'If you don't eat, down you will go.'18 She was unable to eat the bread. Her 'nervousness was probably caused by dyspepsia' which is an indigestion problem resulting from a disorder of the stomach and involving weakness, a loss of appetite and depression of spirits.19 This seems like a likely reason as to why the exhausted woman could not eat the bread. But Michael Cleary did not know this, and taking a lighting stick from the fire he told her he would burn her if she did not eat the bread. Still she did not eat it. In a fit of rage he put her on the fire, threw lamp oil over her and she caught fire. Several of the people in the house clamoured to get out when this terrible incident took place. They made no effort to extinguish the flames on the burning woman: however, it is probably fair to say that there was very little they could do because she blazed up so quickly and smoke billowed up to the roof and enveloped the room. The door of the house had been locked by Cleary and he refused to open it so that the changeling could not escape until he got his wife back from the fairies. He said to the s300tical Mrs Burke: 'Hold your tongue, Hannah. It is not Bridget I am burning. You will soon see her [the changeling go up in the chimney.'2 Mrs Cleary died. The official cause of death was shock due to burning. The upper parts of her body were charred and burned. The flesh was burned off the hips and the internal organs 181

were clearly visible. The changeling having failed to ascend the chimney, Cleary decided 'to drive it out through the door'.2' Taking a spade and with the enforced help of Patrick Kennedy he buried the body in (what they took to be an inaccessible spot. He locked the others in the house where they said the Rosary until he returned and made them swear not to tell anyone of the events of the night. Cleary had taken the idea that his wife was a changeling to its awesome conclusion and even he was to find it a strain on his credulity. The following morning he was found by Fr Ryan in Dranganparish church in a wild state, pulling out his hair and stricken with grief and remorse. He was between two minds however, for that evening he forced some of his neighbours to go with him to KylenagranaghHill, where there was a fairy fort, in the hope that as he had now got rid of the changeling his wife would be returned to him from the fairy habitation. He said she would appear riding a grey horse as she had told him so and he also stated that she would stay with him if he were able to keep her. During one of her insensible periods after the first burning, Mrs Cleary had muttered something to the effect that she would appear riding a grey horse. Cleary and his colleagues spent three nights at Kylenagranagh Hill fort, where they were watched by the police, before they gave 22 up. The rumour that Mrs Cleary had disappeared had quickly spread throughout the parish. The police became suspicious and Mrs Burke made a statement in which she admitted some of the minor details but claimed that Mrs Cleary had disappearedat midnight on Friday through the kitchen door. The participants were remanded at first on a charge of causing actual bodily harm while the police were searching for Mrs Cleary. On 22 March the R.I.C. found the body and later that same 600th ten people were charged at the Clonmel Assizes with wilful murder. The case was the cause cglubre of its day. It was rumoured and indeed strongly believed in some quarters during the trial that Ganey, the fairy-doctor, had escaped from his cell through the keyhole. However Ganey had no need of such a dramatic exit for he was acquitted on the grounds that his dose did not contribute to the woman's death. He was not present on the night Bridget Cleary died. All the accused were found guilty of causing Mrs Cleary bodily harm and sentenced to various terms of penal imprisonment. Michael Cleary was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to twenty years penal servitude 23 The charge of wilful murder was dropped in favour of manslaughter and indeed it is clear that the accused did not set out to kill Bridget Cleary. They were convinced that Mrs Cleary had been changed and her place taken by a fairy, and in seeking to rid the woman of the fairy 24 they adopted a gradualstiffening of trials ending in the fatal use of fire. 182

There was a strange mixture of folklore and religion in the talismans used and in the questioning of Bridget Cleary. The priests and the fairies were credited with extraordinary powers in Irish oral tradition. This is a role they shared side by side in Irish folk mythology. Yeats tells of a case where they were in competition: Threeor fouryearsago a manwroteto one of the Irishpapers, tellingof a case (of fairyabductionin his own village, how the parish and priestmade the fairies deliver stolenchildup again.25 the The manner in which Bridget Cleary's denouement is explained in her native area today is of interest in this respect. The story goes that Mrs Cleary was straining potatoes in her yard when the local priest chanced to ride by. Mrs Cleary's dog attacked the priest's horse and he asked her to call off the dog, but she made no attempt to do so and the priest kicked the dog out of his way. Mrs Cleary reacted by throwing boiling water from the potatoes at him. When this happened the priest told her to beware that she would die a violent death a death by fire. The implicit suggestion of this presumably apocryphal and fatalistic way of accounting for the woman's death is that the burning almost had to happen to fulfil the priest's prophesy. Perhaps this shows that the influence of the fairies in rural folk tradition has declined vis-v-visthat of the clergy.26 The burning of Bridget Cleary attained notoriety in its day as the last witch burning in western Europe. The magistrates at the trial and the Irish and British newspapers of the time treated the case as one of witchcraft. It was known as the 'TipperaryWitchcraft' case in the press. There is no relationship, however, between the con300ts of witchcraft27 and fairycraft. In witchcraft de600ic possession is invariably involved whereas the fairies have no connection with the devil in this sense. It is noticeable that the word 'witch' was used in the trial by the accused and it is still recalled in a poignant little rhyme which local children say: Areyou a witchor areyou a fairy Orareyou the wife of Michael Cleary but this is no more than an incorrect native usage of the word. Mrs Cleary's death resulted from the inability of her husband and her friends and neighbours to come to terms with her illness, the exact nature of which has never been scientifically pinpointed. In a general sense the problem would seem to be man's failure to appreciate the complexity of his own nature and to dismiss the unthinking, irrational prejudices that may be found there, fed on ignorance, a lively imagina tion, and fear of the unknown. The fairies were scapegoats for chance, ill luck and misfortune, and given the widespread belief in them, in the case in question, the changeling idea provided a humane and logical 183

explanation for the illness which affected the woman. It was the tragic paradox of Bridget Cleary's death that the participants believed they were acting in her best interests.28 FOOTNOTES 'Some on 23 1959.Quoted inReidar Christiansen, Notes theFairies Th. 1. Daily Mail, April andthe Fairy Breandan Aodha Gearoid Eoin(ed.), Mac and Mac in Faith', Bo Almqvist, to Sdamus Duilearga 0 HeTeditas: andStudies (Dublin, 1975), presented Professor p. Essays of a to for 102.I amgrateful DrKevin Folklore, U.C.D., reading Danaher, DepartmentIrish draft thispaper. of are for 'The at Clonmel' in 2. Themainsources thispaper as follows: "Witch-Burning" of The article follows Irish the Vol. Times 26, 27,28 Folklore, 6 (1895), 373-384. above pp. 'The 199 atClonmel'The March 2, 3, 6, 8 April 5. E.F. and in Benson, Recent "Witch-Burning" The of Vol. Examiner 23, 25, 27,28, Nineteenth 1895), 1053-8. Cork pp. Century, 37 (June and 1895. 29,30March;5, 6 April 5, 6 July 3, The 3. K. Danaher, Year Ireland, in Cork: Crofton Croker, 1972,p 122.SeealsoThomas 1971 and (New of Fairy Legends TraditionstheSouth Ireland York: ed.),pp.77-79. of 4. Census Ireland 1854, V, 1856, Report, Part Vol.1,Dublin: p.455. of 5. W.B. 1979 p. (London: ed.), 383. Yeats, and Fairy FolkTales Ireland of 29 Cork 1895. 6. The Examiner, March 7. The Examiner, March 30 1895. Cork 8. 'The atClonmel', cit.,p.392. loc. "Witch-Burning" 2 9. The Times, April 1895. Irish 10. Ibid. 11. E.F. art. Benson, cit.,p. 1056. 2 12. The Times, April 95. Irish 18 13. Ibid. 14. Ibid. 15. Ibid. 1895. 16. The Times,April Irish 6 atCbonmel', cit.,p.375. 17. 'The loc. "Witch-Burning" 18. Ibid. the of 6 18 19. Evidence DrCrean, Irish Times,April 95. atClonmel', cit.,p. 376. 20. 'The loc. "Witch-Burning" 2 April 95. 21. The Examiner, Cork 18 22. The Times,April 2 and 6 July 95. Irish 1895, theCork Examiner, 18 23. The Examiner, 1895. 6 July Cork 24. SeeW.R. Fanu, Le Years Irish (London: for 1894), 36-38, another Life Seventy of pp. in of of in possession,thiscase example theprescriptionfireasa 'treatment'fairy fortunately unused. 25. W.B. Yeats, cit.,p. 383. op. 26. Informationthe author Mr to from Martin Co. 25 Mullinahone, Tipperary, July Bolger, 1979.An almost similar account related Mrs was 27 by Purcell, House, Kyle Mullinahone, December 1979. 27. TheCork 6 the articles Examiner, July1895.Misleadingly above-mentioned usedthe forwant a better of of rural thus 'witchburning' knowledge Irish folktradition further phrase that was Also vein The by ingtheidea witchcraft involved. inthis isa play Patrick Galvin, Last on under discussion. P. Galvin, See Three Burning based, very admittedly loosely, theevent of Patrick Byrne's account thedeath Mrs of F. Plays (Belfast, 1976), 7-58. Cleary pp. closely follows traditional the as outlined Folklore, 6 (seefootnote This in Vol. 2). interpretation in if can inIreland (Cork, popular inaccurate synopsis be found P.F.Byrne, 1967), Witchcraft pp.56-68. on 28. Belief changelingslingers intheIrish in in1982. Co.Louth elderly In still an countryside son farmer This believes middle-aged to bea changeling. belief his stems thetime from his and I am sonfellintoa souterrain a schoolboy wasallegedly as to 'changed'. grateful Mr. Bradley, ofArchaeology, forthis John information. UCD, Dept. 184