Thanks to Lyn for mentioning this site...
Trail Tipperary 1
Further down the page, we come to this...
"When I turned left 2 kms from Cloneen Village on the Drangan road I cycle through Ballyvadlea. This reminds me of a incident that took place in that townland where the last witch in Ireland was bunred in 1895. The peace among the pleasant farmyards of Ballyvadlea was shattered with the unfolding of a shocking crime, the cruel torture and burning to death of an innocent 26-year old woman, and this by her own kinfolk. Bridget Cleary lived with her husband Michael Cleary and father Patrick Boland on the townland of Ballyvadlea.They had been married for five years but had no children. On March 25th 1895, a doctor from Fethard, Dr.Creed, was called to the Cleary home it was there that he found Bridget Cleary suffering from slight Bronchial Catarrh and nervous excitement. Dr.Creen then prescribed medicine, but when her husband Michael Cleary feltthat the doctor's medicine was not working, he set about rectifying what he believed to be a supernatural remedy. Cleary (her husband) claimed that he believed Bridge to be a ‘Changeling’ and that his real wife had been spirited away by the fairies. Local superstition permitted her to be brutally burned to death. As the story goes during the days between mid and late March 1895, no-one had seen Bridget Cleary for several days. The police came looking for Bridget after they heard rumours that she had been burned alive having been found guilty of being a witch by her husband and his family. They eventually found a shallow grave with a badly burned body. The head was covered in a sack and an old sheet was robed round the rest of the body. All sorts of stories were rife as the locals formed their opinions of the discovery. Michael Cleary was found guilty of manslaughter, and spent 15 years in prison. Charges against some of his co-defendants were dropped, but four were convicted of "wounding'. The matter is not something one talks about even now when one is out around Ballyvadlea and one is definitely not going to find a monument to Bridget Cleary. The mountain I am circumnavigating (Slievenamon) is no ordinary mountain. It has a mythical aura about it which goes back to pre-history."
This is just down the road from me. I vaguely recall something someone said a few years ago about witch burning in Tipperary, but not hailing from here, I didn't connect with it. 1895 - while well over a century ago, it's uncomfortably close to modern times. I suspect fouler motives though.
Trail Tipperary 1
Further down the page, we come to this...
"When I turned left 2 kms from Cloneen Village on the Drangan road I cycle through Ballyvadlea. This reminds me of a incident that took place in that townland where the last witch in Ireland was bunred in 1895. The peace among the pleasant farmyards of Ballyvadlea was shattered with the unfolding of a shocking crime, the cruel torture and burning to death of an innocent 26-year old woman, and this by her own kinfolk. Bridget Cleary lived with her husband Michael Cleary and father Patrick Boland on the townland of Ballyvadlea.They had been married for five years but had no children. On March 25th 1895, a doctor from Fethard, Dr.Creed, was called to the Cleary home it was there that he found Bridget Cleary suffering from slight Bronchial Catarrh and nervous excitement. Dr.Creen then prescribed medicine, but when her husband Michael Cleary feltthat the doctor's medicine was not working, he set about rectifying what he believed to be a supernatural remedy. Cleary (her husband) claimed that he believed Bridge to be a ‘Changeling’ and that his real wife had been spirited away by the fairies. Local superstition permitted her to be brutally burned to death. As the story goes during the days between mid and late March 1895, no-one had seen Bridget Cleary for several days. The police came looking for Bridget after they heard rumours that she had been burned alive having been found guilty of being a witch by her husband and his family. They eventually found a shallow grave with a badly burned body. The head was covered in a sack and an old sheet was robed round the rest of the body. All sorts of stories were rife as the locals formed their opinions of the discovery. Michael Cleary was found guilty of manslaughter, and spent 15 years in prison. Charges against some of his co-defendants were dropped, but four were convicted of "wounding'. The matter is not something one talks about even now when one is out around Ballyvadlea and one is definitely not going to find a monument to Bridget Cleary. The mountain I am circumnavigating (Slievenamon) is no ordinary mountain. It has a mythical aura about it which goes back to pre-history."
This is just down the road from me. I vaguely recall something someone said a few years ago about witch burning in Tipperary, but not hailing from here, I didn't connect with it. 1895 - while well over a century ago, it's uncomfortably close to modern times. I suspect fouler motives though.
)
