In 1895, a 26-year-old woman named Bridget Cleary from County Tipperary, Ireland, was burned to death by her husband after he became convinced that she was abducted by evil fairies.
The murder made front-page news all over the world. It was an instance of Ireland’s superstitious beliefs gone wrong, as well as an example of how women are treated when they don’t follow society’s expectations.
Bridget was born Bridget Boland in 1869. She was smart, beautiful, and able to support herself. She was a dressmaker, milliner, and also sold eggs.
Bridget was 18 when she met 27-year-old Michael Cleary. At the time, Bridget was a dressmaker’s apprentice, while Michael constructed barrels and other goods.
They got married in a small Catholic church in August 1887. They lived in a stone cottage with a slate roof and glass windows. They were much better off than most people, who lived in windowless houses made of mud with thatched roofs.
They were also married for eight years and never had children. Everything about this couple stood out from their neighbors.
After they moved in together, Bridget continued making home deliveries on her own, which was something her husband disapproved of.
On March 4, 1895, she went to deliver some eggs to her father’s cousin. It was a three-mile walk that took her past the medieval earthen ring fort on Kylenagranagh Hill.
The earthen ring fort was known as a “fairy fort,” which meant it was frequented by fairies. According to Irish folklore, the mythical beings live in a hidden world.
They can be kind and generous or malicious and evil. If something ever went wrong in 19th-century Ireland, fairies were to blame.
The locals believed that if you walked too close to a fairy ring, you might get snatched by a fairy. They were said to take children or pretty women. They would leave behind a changeling, which is a fairy that resembles the abducted person.
Changelings were often identified by peculiar actions, falling ill, or looking slightly different from the person they had replaced. Many people accused of being changelings were educated or empowered women who did not follow the social norm.
When Bridget returned home, she was unable to get warm. She spent the following day shivering under the covers and complained of a bad headache.
Her condition grew worse over the next few days. Bridget’s father walked four miles in the rain to get the doctor, but he couldn’t come. Bridget’s husband, Michael, tried to fetch him twice more.
Finally, the doctor arrived nine days after Bridget became sick. He prescribed her some medicine for “nervous excitement and slight bronchitis.” Michael became more concerned than ever about his wife’s health.
He started looking into supernatural causes. He claimed that Bridget was two inches taller than usual and was “too fine” to be his wife.
Michael went to the local fairy doctor to seek an herbal cure. On March 14, 1895, five men, including Bridget’s own father, held Bridget down while Michael forced her to consume a bitter concoction of fresh milk and herbs. He kept asking if she was his wife, and she replied each time that she was, but he was unconvinced.
Furthermore, the men threw urine on her and threatened her with a hot poker. At the end of the night, all was quiet, and Michael felt that the exorcism had worked.
But the next day, when Bridget asked for milk, his paranoia returned, as fairies were known to crave fresh milk. Several relatives were over for afternoon tea at the time.
Michael started questioning Bridget again. He lost it when she told him, “Your mother used to go with the fairies, and that is why you think I am going with them.”
He forced Bridget to eat a few pieces of bread, shoved her to the ground, grabbed a hot stick from the fire, and lit her clothes on fire, burning her to death.
Later that night, he buried her in a shallow grave about a quarter mile from their home. He spent the next three nights waiting on Kylenagranagh Hill for the real Bridget to return.
On March 20, the police arrested him. Overall, eight people were arrested for their involvement in Bridget’s death. In July 1895, a two-day trial took place. Michael was charged with manslaughter, and four of Bridget’s cousins and two other men were also found guilty.
To this day, it is unclear whether Michael really believed that fairies had abducted Bridget or if he was punishing her for being independent.
It’s possible that he may also have been suffering from a mental health condition known as Capgras syndrome, a disorder of delusion and misidentification.
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By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
