Irish witch trial of eight women revealed 300 years later

Professor uncovers details on sensational Irish witch trial

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A University of Ulster professor found evidence of three trials in Ireland involving 11 individuals accused of witchcraft in the early 18th century.

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A Irish witch trial that occurred 300 years ago has become the focus of a new book.

A University of Ulster lecturer is researching Ireland’s witching history for his upcoming book “Witchcraft and Magic in Ireland, 1586-1946.” Dr Andrew Sneddon teaches the only Irish course dedicated to the European witch hunts.

According to his research, he found evidence of three trials in Ireland involving 11 accused individuals.

The most prominent trial dates back to March 1711, when eight women appeared in a Carrickfergus court on trial for witchcraft. The women were accused of the demonic possession of a teenage girl's body mind and spirit. They were later found guilty and were put in stocks where the public threw stones and rotten fruit at them, before they were jailed for a year.

The incident occurred in Islandmagee, a peninsula off the east coast of County Antrim.  Sneddon suggests the intensity of the witch trial was down to the local residents' strong Scots-Presbyterian heritage.

"There was a lot of belief in Protestant settler islands and mainland Ireland, even if there weren't many trials," he says. "There was one trial in Youghal, Co Cork, in 1661 among an English settler community.

"They brought their ideas with them to Ireland. Witch hunting in Scotland was one of the worst in Europe, far worse than England. Some 3,800 people were prosecuted there, and more than three-quarters were put to death by strangling and burning. But in England, and so by extension in Ireland, they had common law, so those convicted were only hanged."

The case itself was widely documented, which allowed the professor to use primary sources, including witness statements, newspaper articles, pamphlet, letters and even legal documents.

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