WATCH: Ireland's former state pathologist investigates the country's last witch trial

Former State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy brings a scientific perspective to Ireland’s last witch trial in a new one-hour documentary airing Thursday 29 October at 10.15pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.

Dr. Marie Cassidy Investigates Ireland's Last Witch Trial will tell the story of how the close-knit community of Islandmagee was shaken to its core by rumors that an eighteen-year-old woman named Mary Dunbar claimed to be demonically possessed.  

The story took an even darker turn when Mary accused eight local women of practicing witchcraft, which she said was causing her torment.

In 1711, at a time when witches were still feared throughout Europe and America, these accusations sparked a witch hunt on Islandmagee, a peninsula on the Antrim coast, twenty miles north of Belfast.
 
While witch trials across Ireland were rare, the Ulster-Scots Presbyterians who lived on this peninsula treated these claims of demonic possession and witchcraft very seriously.
 
Dr Marie Cassidy, who was Ireland’s state pathologist for fourteen years, pursued a career with a special interest in trials concerning women and the justice system.  In this documentary, Marie will use her investigative skills and a 21st century-scientific perspective to explore the circumstances of this historic trial. 
 
The women were arrested for witchcraft, and the trial that followed would be widely publicized, controversial, and the last held in Ireland.  The eight accused were found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison and four stints in the pillory on market day. The pillory was a brutal punishment that entailed being held in stocks and pelted with fruit, vegetables, stones, or whatever came to hand. It likely resulted in serious injury.  Whether the women survived the sentence is unknown.

Over the course of the documentary, Marie will travel to Dublin, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Islandmagee to meet experts on the beliefs surrounding witchcraft in Gaelic Ireland and Scots Presbyterian traditions. She will also speak with experts on the lives of people in Ireland in the 18th century and ‘Witches of Scotland’ podcasters and campaigners Claire Mitchell KC and Zoe Venditozzi about the impact the witch trials in Scotland had on the Islandmagee case. Dr. Cassidy also interviews the authority on the Islandmagee witch trials, Dr. Andrew Sneddon, who delves into the details of the arguments for and against convicting the women.
 
The documentary is supported by the Northern Ireland Screen Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund.

Dr Marie Cassidy Investigates Ireland's Last Witch Trial broadcasts on Thursday, 29 October, at 10.15pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.