THE COOPER’S WIFE IS MISSING

Witches, fairies, murder, political mayhem, and courtroom theatrics: this seemingly unassuming case history from late 19th-century Ireland contains enough drama to compete with the biggest Hollywood blockbuster (cf. The Burning of Bridget Cleary, p. 926).

What should have been a rather ordinary tragedy—young Bridget Cleary, village seamstress and wife of the local cooper, contracts a serious illness (likely tuberculosis) and looks to die an early death—became a litmus test in the highest political circles for the possibility of Irish Home Rule. That is because Bridget Cleary's tubercular condition was believed by several relatives and neighbors to be a case of fairy possession—and her ritualistic treatment for fairy possession began as a series of herbal remedies, escalated to physical threats and violence, and, finally and fatally, resulted in the intentional burning of her body. In a time when Ireland was already torn between Catholic and Protestant sentiments, the case of Bridget Cleary made it painfully clear that the Old Religion—fairy craft—had not been abandoned by many of its rural dwellers. The endurance of this superstitious religion was taken up by English and Irish politicians antagonistic to the notion of an Irish nation independent of English governance. How, it was argued, could a backward country that still practices witchcraft and believes in fairies possibly be granted sovereignty? Hoff (History/Ohio Univ.) and Yeates (History/Indiana Univ.) recount the subsequent murder trial of those who tortured and killed Bridget Cleary, and the resulting political and religious implications this case held for a struggling Ireland.

A riveting story of individual tragedy and national disharmony: Hoff and Yeates burden the tale with far too much detail (it takes almost 100 pages of dense, Irish history before Bridget's story even begins, and unnecessary footnotes make for confusing reading), but it has all the ingredients of the best murder mystery.