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WITCHCRAFT, THE PRESS, AND CRIME IN IRELAND, 1822–1922

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2018

ANDREW SNEDDON  and
JOHN FULTON
ANDREW SNEDDON*
Affiliation:
Ulster University
JOHN FULTON*
Affiliation:
Ulster University
*
Ulster University, Cromore Road, Coleraine, bt52 1sa[email protected]
Ulster University, Cromore Road, Coleraine, bt52 1sa[email protected]
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Abstract

Drawing on witchcraft cases reported in newspapers and coming before Ireland's courts, this article argues that witch belief remained part of Protestant and Catholic popular culture throughout the long nineteenth century. It is shown that witchcraft belief followed patterns established in the late eighteenth century and occasioned accusations that arose from interpersonal tensions rather than sectarian conflict. From this article, a complex picture emerges of the Irish witches and their ‘victims’, who are respectively seen to have fought accusation and bewitchment using legal, magical, physical, and verbal means. In doing so, the contexts are revealed in which witchcraft was linked to other crimes such as assault, slander, theft, and fraud in an era of expansion of courts and policing. This illustrates how Irish people adapted to legal changes while maintaining traditional beliefs, and suggests that witchcraft is an overlooked context in which interpersonal violence was exerted and petty crime committed. Finally, popular and elite cultural divides are explored through the attitudes of the press and legal authorities to witchcraft allegations, and an important point of comparison for studies of witchcraft and magic in modern Europe is established.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 741 - 764
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

The authors thank the Historical Journal’s anonymous reviewers, Dr Elaine Farrell, Dr Kyle Hughes, Dr Leanne McCormick, and Dr John Privilege for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.

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26 Ibid., p. 262.

27 Waters, ‘Magic and middle classes’, pp. 633, 639–44.

28 Ibid., pp. 644 n. 31.

29 Fulton, ‘Conjurors and courtrooms’, chs. 3 and 4.

30 Davies, ‘Newspapers and popular belief’, pp. 155–6, 164; Waters, ‘Magic and middle classes’, pp. 632–53.

31 For further examples, see Belfast Newsletter, 11 Apr. 1834, 16 Aug. 1856; and Irish Times, 16 Aug. 1886.

32 Waterford Chronicle, 6 July 1844.

33 Cork Examiner, 5 July 1844; Tipperary Vindicator, 10 July 1844.

34 Waterford Chronicle, 6 July 1844.

35 Irish Times, 18 July 1879.

36 Kildare Observer, 7 July 1900.

37 For examples of this, see Nenagh Guardian, 20 Aug. 1870; Belfast Newsletter, 9 June 1870, 25 July 1870; Irish Times, 18 July 1879.

38 Barclay, ‘Irish police court columns’, p. 262.

39 See cases in section III below for examples of this.

40 See Belfast Newsletter, 11 Apr. 1834, 28 July 1869; Roscommon Journal and Impartial Reporter, 22 Oct. 1864; Ballymena Observer, 28 Apr. 1911.

41 Bourke, A., The burning of Bridget Cleary: a true story (London, 1999), pp. 128–9Google Scholar. See also Irish Times, 5, 13 July 1895; Times, 22 July 1895; and Southern Star, 6 July 1895.

42 See Anglo-Celt, 16 Apr. 1857; Dublin Weekly Journal, 26 Apr. 1864; Irish Times, 27 Apr. 1895; Irish Independent, 30 Apr. 1921; A. Sneddon, ‘Witchcraft, representation and memory in modern Ireland’, forthcoming.

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46 Other occupations given include: 4 servants, 3 cunning-folk, a tailor, a publican, a schoolteacher, and a retired police constable.

47 The province/county breakdown is as follows: Ulster = 19 cases: Down 6, Antrim 5, Cavan 5, Tyrone 2, Fermanagh 1; Munster = 13 cases: Tipperary 4, Cork 1, Kerry 2; Limerick 2, Clare 2, Waterford 2; Connaught = 7 cases: Leitrim 2, Galway 1, Sligo 3, and Mayo 1; Leinster = 8 cases: Dublin 2, Wexford 1, Kilkenny 1, Carlow 1, Louth 1, Queens, 2. Source: Irish newspapers, 1822–1922.

48 Howlin, ‘Criminal justice’, pp. 82–3.

49 For a witchcraft case that does not follow this pattern, see the below discussion of the trials of David and Letitia Boyd in Co. Antrim in 1896.

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58 Jenkins, ‘Witches and fairies’, p. 305.

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60 Conley, Melancholy accidents, pp. 90–7.

61 Cork Examiner, 12 Nov. 1861; Evening Freeman, 16 Nov. 1861; Waterford Chronicle, 22 Nov. 1861; Mitchelstown petty sessions order book, 8 Nov. 1861, National Archives Ireland (NAI), court order books: petty session books, CS/PS1/7278.

62 Irish Examiner, 12 Nov. 1861.

63 Irish Times, 21 Apr. 1879; Roscommon and Leitrim Gazette, 26 Apr. 1879. For similar cases in Co. Limerick in 1880, and in Co. Waterford in 1888, see Dublin Daily Express, 28 May 1880; Munster Express, 26 May 1888.

64 Conley, Melancholy accidents, pp. 32–3.

65 Nationalist and Leinster Times, 15 July 1893.

66 Nenagh Guardian, 20 Aug. 1856. See also Belfast Newsletter, 16 Aug. 1856.

67 Kerry Sentinel, 14 May 1892; Census Ireland, 1901, www.census.nationalarchives.ie; Kerry Evening Post, 11 May 1892; Irish Examiner, 11 May 1892.

68 Kerry Evening Post, 10 Aug. 1892; Census Ireland, 1901. See also Kerry Weekly Reporter, 13 Aug. 1892.

69 Dundalk Democrat, 13 July 1901; Forkhill petty sessions order book, July 1901, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), HA/1/52/A/26.

70 Kilkenny People, 22 Feb. 1908; Census Ireland, 1911, www.census.nationalarchives.ie.

71 Anglo-Celt, 2 Nov. 1918; Census Ireland, 1911.

72 Anglo-Celt, 2 Nov. 1918.

73 Waters, ‘Witchcraft in Oxfordshire’, p. 107; Porter, ‘Witchcraft and magic’, pp. 266–72.

74 Irish Times, 14 June 1911; Census Ireland, 1911.

75 Dublin Daily Express, 15 July 1911; Castlebar, Co. Mayo, prison register, 10 June 1911, NAI, Castlebar prison registers, 1878–1919, book number 1/4/4, item 2. For asylums and criminal lunacy in nineteenth-century Ireland, see Cox, C., Negotiating insanity in the southeast of Ireland, 1820–1900 (Manchester, 2012)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Finnane, M., Insanity and the insane in post-Famine Ireland (London, 1981), ch. 3Google Scholar; Prior, P. M., Madness and murder: gender, crime and mental disorder in nineteenth-century Ireland (Dublin, 2008), chs. 1–3Google Scholar.

76 O'Donnell, ‘Killing’, pp. 59–62.

77 Tipperary Vindicator, 21 May 1861.

78 Tipperary Free Press, 3 July 1866. See also William O'Brien [complainant], James Keane [defendant], Bansha petty sessions, Co. Tipperary, 2 July 1866, NAI, court order books: petty session books, CS/PS 1/9267.

79 Anglo-Celt, 18 July 1896.

80 Anglo-Celt, 11 July 1908; Census Ireland, 1911.

81 James McCaffrey [complainant], Mary McCaffrey [defendant], Belturbet petty sessions, Co. Cavan, 4 July 1908, NAI, court order books: Co. Cavan petty session books, CS/PS 1/2574.

82 Anglo-Celt, 9 Jan. 1851.

83 Dublin Evening Mail, 6 July 1860. See also King's County Chronicle, 11 July 1860; Kerry Evening Post, 11 July 1860.

84 Belfast Newsletter, 31 Mar. 1837.

85 O'Donnell, ‘Lethal violence’, p. 672.

86 Cork Constitution, 21 Sept. 1864; Carlow Post, 24 Sept. 1864; Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier, 20 Sept. 1864.

87 Nenagh Guardian, 9 Oct. 1895; Thomas Meehan [complainant], William Burke [defendant], 19 Sept. 1895, NAI, court order books: Cahir petty sessions, Co. Tipperary, CS/PS 1/2789. Thomas Meehan [complainant], William Burke [defendant], 3 Oct. 1895, NAI, CS/PS 1/2789.

88 Belfast Newsletter, 18 Mar. 1896, 19 Mar. 1896, 20 Mar. 1896, 2 July 1897, 9 July 1897, 16 July 1897; Pall Mall Gazette, 20 Mar. 1896; Freeman's Journal, 20 Mar. 1896; crown book of Carrickfergus, 1894–9, PRONI, ANT/1/2/B/2; true bill, Carrickfergus spring assizes, 17 Mar. 1896, PRONI, ANT/1/2/L/6/8; petty sessions district of Whiteabbey, 14 Mar. 1896, PRONI, ANT/1/2/L/6/8/29.

89 In nineteenth-century England, magistrates were similarly approached to bring criminal charges of witchcraft despite a lack of statutory provision: Davies, Witchcraft, magic and culture, pp. 100–3.

90 Freeman's Journal, 8 Sept. 1830. See also Southern Reporter and Cork Commercial Courier, 9 Sept. 1830; Morning Post, 16 Sept. 1830.

91 Clare Journal, and Ennis Advertiser, 26 May 1856.

92 Westmeath Independent, 12 Nov. 1853.

93 Tyrone Constitution, 15 Feb. 1867. See also Enniskillen Chronicle and Erne Packet, 28 Feb. 1867.

94 Belfast Newsletter, 25 July 1870.

95 Kerry News, 6 May 1902; Waterford Standard, 7 May 1902; Kildare Observer, 10 May 1902.

96 Waterford Standard, 21 May 1902.

97 Monod, P. Kléber, Solomon's secret arts: the occult in the Age of Enlightenment (London, 2013), p. 202CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davies, Witchcraft, magic and culture, pp. 96–119.

98 Davies, People bewitched, pp. 114–16.

99 Davies, Witchcraft, magic and culture, pp. 97, 118–19, 196–7; Waters, ‘Magic and middle classes’, p. 645. For European ‘reverse witch trials’: Blécourt, W. De, ‘The continuation of witchcraft’, in Barry, J., Hester, M., and Roberts, G., eds., Witchcraft in early modern Europe: studies in culture and belief (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 343–50Google Scholar; L. Oja, ‘The superstitious other’, in Davies and de Blécourt, eds., Beyond the witch trials, pp. 69–80.

100 Davies, Witchcraft, magic and culture, p. 193.

101 Waters, ‘Witchcraft in Oxfordshire’, pp. 102–3.

102 Davies, Witchcraft, magic and culture, pp. 177, 189, 196–9, 210; idem, People bewitched, pp. 2, 109–14.

103 England and Wales had a population of 8.9 million in 1801, rising to 32.5 million in 1901. Ireland had 6.8 million people in 1801, and 4.5 million in 1901: Black, J. and MacRaild, D. M., Nineteenth-century Britain (Basingstoke, 2003), p. 170CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

104 Waters, ‘Witchcraft in Oxfordshire’, p. 106.

105 Howlin, ‘Criminal justice’, p. 84.

106 Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 9 July 1827.

107 Anglo-Celt, 1 Oct. 1904.

108 See McMahon, T. G., ‘Religion and culture in nineteenth-century Ireland’, History Compass, 5 (2007), pp. 845–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 855.