Bridget Cleary - The Last Woman Burned Alive in Ireland

Irish History Podcast

Fin Dwyer

Ireland, Irish History, Norman Invasion, Great Hunger, Vikings, Interviews, History, War Of Independence, Great Famine

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2016

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1895 Bridget Cleary made international news after she was burned to death in South Tipperary. Rumours circulated she had been accused of being a witch. Could this be true? On the eve of the 20th century a woman was burned as a witch in Ireland. This podcast tells the full story and looks at the horrific murder of Bridget Cleary - the last person who was burned to death in Ireland.

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Transcript

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0:48.2	service. Hello and this is Finn de Wirre and this is Bridget Cleary the last person burned alive in Ireland.
1:08.0	We're going to begin with a nursery rhyme from South Tipperary where Bridget Cleary lived and died. It goes like this, are you a witch or are you a fairy or are you the wife of Michael Cleary?
1:21.0	Now while this sounds harmless, behind this rhyme is the brutal story of the life
1:26.1	and death of Bridget Cleary, the wife of Michael Cleary.
1:30.9	This episode of the show looks at Bridget Cleary's life.
1:34.0	She was the last person burned alive in Ireland,
1:37.0	and hers is a story shrouded in superstition and mystery.
1:45.0	By the 1890s, Irish communities formed major populations across the English-speaking world.
1:53.4	In Australia, America and Canada, not to mention Britain, millions who couldn't afford to return home,
2:00.0	never forgot the country of their birth, and paid a keen interest to events back in Ireland.
2:05.6	In a world without the internet, television or radio, the only source of information was newspapers.
2:12.0	To soothe homesick feelings, emigrant trawled true columns, looking for stories and perhaps on the odd occasion
2:18.6	a mention of a familiar place in their home county or parish. However, in April 1895, these emigrants found a story
2:28.0	in newspapers across the world that was bewildering and disturbing. Papers from the Sydney Morning hurled in Australia to the
2:36.1	New York Times in the USA carry details of a strange and unsettling murder that had taken place in Ireland.
	...

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