Are you a witch, or are you a fairy, or are you the wife of myself, Michael Cleary?

July 1, 2008 6:34 PM

Early in July of 1895, a grand jury convened and returned an indictment against Michael Cleary of Ballyvadlea, Co. Tipperary, for the murder of his wife, Bridget. Bridget Cleary had been set on fire and burned to death in the hearth of the Cleary house, in front of family and friends, because Michael Cleary said she was a fairy changeling, and not his wife at all. That night, he sat for hours near a Kylenagranagh cairn with a silver knife, insisting the true Bridget would soon ride past on a white horse, and he could cut her bonds and set her free.

Bridget was not an ordinary or downtrodden Irish country housewife; she was a seamstress, assertive and handsome, who made her own money. She was said to have been carrying on with a local merchant. Did Michael look for an excuse for her murder? Or had he been hoodwinked by the local cunning man? It seems she had been genuinely ill, but this could not have been been helped by the fact that she was repeatedly doused with urine, dosed with herbs, and burned with hot iron in an effort to drive the fairy out of her.

An Australian true-crime commentator (Phil Cleary, of course) has posted a documentary of his own experience with the story on YouTube, of which I have only seen part.

The inevitable band name -- Burning Bridget Cleary.

There was a TV movie about the story, about which I know nothing, although I should like to see it.

posted by Countess Elena (22 comments total)

She was a changeling. Level five. The reason Michael killed her was that he had just gotten enough XP to cast a high powered public burning spell and was worried he didn't have enough HP for a weaker spell. Also, he got tired of gold farming.
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 7:11 PM on July 1, 2008 [4 favorites]

Thank God people no longer believe in this horseshit anymore!
posted by Static Vagabond at 7:19 PM on July 1, 2008

Interesting post. It would be great to learn more about Irish folklore.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:33 PM on July 1, 2008

They're drunks! How often does this happen and go unreported? Right? Right?
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:46 PM on July 1, 2008

I got mixed up and read the date as 1985 at first glance. Whew! I sure am glad this kind of thing only happened so long ago.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:55 PM on July 1, 2008

Thank God people no longer believe in this horseshit anymore!

When I was returning from Croyden after receiving my second visa in 2005, I spent the train back to Birmingham in a serendipitous conversation with the now Bishop of York, John Sentamu, who was coming back from London. He was extremely angry at the reporting of the exorcism of that little girl, because the Mail on Sunday and the Sun had intimated to possibility that over 1,000 children had died in London's African's homes in ritual exorcisms. It was an enormous step back for the conservative Anglican and Pentecostal churches in London who had embraced African ministers. But the step back was based on trumped up reporting and inaccurate figures and one very stupid set of parents who masked their own abuse of their daughter with religion like others do as well.
posted by parmanparman at 8:36 PM on July 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

At first glance, I thought this post was about Beverly Cleary. It made the incident fifteen thousand times more traumatizing.
posted by dinty_moore at 8:54 PM on July 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Sounds a lot like a schizophrenic or psychotic delusion.

There's even a clinical name for it: the Capgras Delusion.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:59 PM on July 1, 2008

Great post. It's been a while since I read Digital Medievalist. Thanks, Countess.

It would be great to learn more about Irish folklore.

Some resources.
posted by homunculus at 9:45 PM on July 1, 2008

had been set on fire and burned to death in the hearth of the Cleary house, in front of family and friends,

If one of my friends tried to pull this stunt, I've have to excuse myself from the dinner party.

"No dessert for me Paddy and I should be headed home... Can't stay for the ritual burning of the Mrs. Don't meant to be a killjoy. Got to get up early for work tomorrow."

So what about the family and friends? They were all down with the fairy changling explanation?
posted by three blind mice at 10:51 PM on July 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Whew! I sure am glad this kind of thing only happened so long ago.

There have been deaths and mutilations in New Zealand as a result of exorcisms in the last year, at least one of which involved a cleric from a mainstream denomination. One poor girl had her eyes gouged in an attempt to get at the devil; another was drowned.
posted by rodgerd at 1:00 AM on July 2, 2008

Well, I'm certainly not going to use ClearyFS on my next Linux install.
posted by DU at 4:02 AM on July 2, 2008

Thank God people no longer believe in this horseshit anymore!

Indeed.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:09 AM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

From the Wikipedia article:

"At some point, Bridget told Michael that the only person who'd gone off with the fairies had been his mother."

Michael: You've been taken by fairies!
Bridget: Your MOM'S been taken by fairies!

So really, who can blame him?
posted by Hamadryad at 8:48 AM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

so wait, did she ride by on the horse or what?
posted by shmegegge at 9:30 AM on July 2, 2008

That's...kind of a horrifying choice of band name when you know the history behind it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:44 AM on July 2, 2008

UbuRoivas writes "There's even a clinical name for it: the Capgras Delusion."

I wasn't aware of cases of Capgras where the delusion concerned only one member of the family, rather than a belief that all close friends and family were replacements. Do you have any cites?
posted by orthogonality at 11:29 AM on July 2, 2008

Hm, interesting point.

I am not a psychiatrist, but there's one in the Wikipedia article in which a woman thought her husband had been replaced by a clone / impostor / android / shapeshifting cuttlefish, but he was the only member of her family who she felt had been replaced.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:21 PM on July 2, 2008

three blind mice, I giggled at your comment for ages, because I could hear Dermot Morgan reading it. As to your question -- from what I can gather, the various witnesses went from a cautious half-belief to horror when Michael Cleary beat and burned Bridget to death. But some of the men there, including Bridget's own father, had earlier helped Michael "test" her on the gridiron of the hearth!
posted by Countess Elena at 5:01 PM on July 2, 2008

orthogonality: maybe try Merrin & Silderfarb: "The Capgras Phenomenon", Archives of General Psychiatry, v33, 1976, pp965-8 for a husband-only Capgras presentation.

(excerpted in Antonio Melechi: Fugitive Minds (on Madness, Sleep and other Twilight Afflictions), p69)
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:26 PM on July 2, 2008

I wasn't aware of cases of Capgras where the delusion concerned only one member of the family...

The link cites one.
posted by DU at 4:37 AM on July 3, 2008

'Hellboy' Taps Into Ancient Irish Folklore
posted by homunculus at 10:12 AM on July 6, 2008