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In 1895 twenty-six-year-old Bridget Cleary disappeared from her house in rural Tipperary. At first, some said that the fairies had taken her into their stronghold in a nearby hill, from where she would emerge, riding a white horse. But then her badly burned body was found in a shallow grave. Her husband, father, aunt and four cousins were arrested and charged, while newspapers in nearby Clonmel, and then in Dublin, Cork, London and further afield attempted to make sense of what had happened. In this lurid and fascinating episode, set in the last decade of the nineteenth century, we witness the collision of town and country, of storytelling and science, of old and new. The torture and burning of Bridget Cleary caused a sensation in 1895 which continues to reverberate more than a hundred years later. Winner of the Irish Times Prize for Non-Fiction… (more)
User reviews
The author chose to use this story as an example of the collision of cultures that were on-going in the Irish/British disputes. Unfortunately I felt the case was a weak one, the evidence showed that Bridget and her husband Michael were not getting along, she was barren, opinionated and perhaps overly flirtatious. Wanting to be master in his own house, Michael had both beaten and threatened her previously. I believe Michael played upon his neighbours jealousy and ignorance which induced mass hysteria that had them believing in the fairy story when in truth Bridget fell victim to Michael’s anger.
I didn’t love this book, finding that it read much like someone’s term paper analyzing culture, politics, religion and mythology. The case was horrific, but I think the author stretched out her information to the point of watering down the story. There was so much unrelated information that the narrative had no clear direction and was quite confusing at times.