What happened in Ireland’s last witch trial?

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Shane Coleman (0:28)

That's fieldmaps.ie The Hard Shoulder with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman On Newstalk with Ciara Now, Dr. Marie Cassidy, former state pathologist, is investigating Ireland's last witch trial, a new documentary exploring the 1711 trial of eight women in Ireland McGee in Antrim accused of witchcraft. It premieres on RTÉ One tomorrow, Thursday night. I'm delighted to say Dr. Marie Cassidy joins us now.

Thanks indeed for talking to us. Tell us a little more. It's an extraordinary story. Tell us about the documentary.

Marie Cassidy (1:09)

Yeah, I mean, that's what it is. It's an extraordinary story and it's a story that I knew nothing about until it was brought to my attention. But it's incredible that thinking back 300 years ago, there were active witch trials around the world. And we all know about the Salem witch trial, but I had never heard of a witch trial in Ireland.

And this one was brought to my attention and it was just fascinating seeing the background to it and what transpired over a very short period in fact.

Shane Coleman (1:44)

This all relates or the story related to an 18 year old young woman named Mary Dunbar and an accusation that she was demonically possessed and the reasons she alleged why she was so possessed.

Marie Cassidy (2:02)

Yes, I mean, it was quite amazing that this young, this young woman is brought in to Island McGee.

And it's quite an isolated spot. It's a peninsula about 20 miles from Belfast, but it's its own little community. And she came into this community and all sorts of strange happenings occurred. And she said that this was because these women were appearing to her as visions. And she was more or less possessed by these women and actually named and shamed eight women. And these women were taken to task because of that.

Shane Coleman (2:43)

Yeah. And they were found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison and a pillory, four stints in the pillory on Markaday, which I think entailed being pelted with stones or whatever came to hand. So we don't know actually what became of the women. We do know a man was was put to death in a father and husband of one of the of the accused and was put to death in a second trial. But I mean, it's not that long ago. I mean, it's 300 years ago. It's it's incredible to think these things were happening.

Marie Cassidy (3:18)

I know. And I mean, and particularly in Ireland, because this really wasn't heard of in Ireland, because prior to that, most of the cases of alleged witchcraft were dealt with by the church.

And they looked, you know, they looked into it and they dealt with it themselves. But in this particular case, for whatever reason, the church decided that they couldn't deal with the situation. And so they then went to the authorities and said, well, can you do something about it? And of course, once the authorities were involved, this became then a criminal act, and that was why they ended up in court. So it was a tragedy.

Shane Coleman (4:03)

You explore, I mean, this was a Scots Presbyterian community, and a lot of them had only come to Ireland relatively recently. You explored the differences surrounding witchcraft in Gaelic Ireland, to use that term, versus Scots Presbyterian communities.

Marie Cassidy (4:24)

I mean, there's the Scottish side of it, and I was ashamed of my Scottish attitude to know nothing about it at all. I didn't know what had been happening in Scotland, but literally thousands, and mainly women, were condemned to death because they had been found guilty of being witches. And when this small community, this Ulster-Scots community, came in to the, or settled in the peninsula, they brought with them all of this Scottish heritage, and their ideals, and their beliefs, and their prejudice. And of course, they would be well aware of what was happening in Scotland and how you dealt with, you know, people who were accused of witchcraft. And in Scotland, if they were found guilty, you were killed. They actually strangled these people. And as I say again, it was mainly women that were involved. Whereas in Ireland, then, as I say, it was the church that mainly dealt with it. So it was done in a much more moderate fashion. And you certainly didn't get the women who were accused being, they weren't brought to court and they weren't found guilty and sentenced to death. So it was very much more benevolent because they looked on, as with everything in Ireland, there's a strong culture of myths.