As I read this week, I continued to think of Ireland in conversation with our texts. I had never had the opportunity to read Mary Douglas’ monograph, Purity and Danger, in the past. In the chapter “Power and Danger” I noted a number of similarities between Douglas’ discussion of witch and sorcerer-like figures to be akin to those I know from Irish folklore. As much as these roles are designated by power and status within the communities of which Douglas spoke, they are also gendered. Douglas remarks that “where the social system explicitly recognizes positions of authority, those holding such positions are endowed with explicit spiritual power, controlled, conscious, external, and approved—powers to bless or curse. Where the social system requires people to hold dangerously ambiguous roles, these persons are credited with uncontrolled, unconscious, dangerous, disapproved powers—such as witchcraft and evil eye” (99). I couldn’t help but to make the distinction in this space between the church in Ireland and the fringe folklore enacted by bean feasa (wise woman in English). Men in the Catholic church indeed possessed a certain amount of power in Ireland due to their roles as men of God. These roles were abused, but the narratives that were passed about for public consumption were those that denoted the ways in which the church would help to build the burgeoning nation-state of the 20th century.
In opposition are the fringe figures found in feminist folklore in Ireland. I mentioned the bean feasa in passing. Biddy Early, one of the most well-known healers/wise women in Ireland, earned a reputation as both amenable and dangerous. Her cures were sought from the North to the South and the West to the East of the island. However, she was not to be trifled with. She was known to curse those who disrespected her and her position within the community. In times of disruption, her existence on the edge of society drew curiosity and pernicious chatter to her work. Another similar fringe figure in Ireland was the Cailleach (hag or witch in English). She was known for her direct disrespect of the early Christian tradition in Ireland having disturbed the sleep of Saint Kevin in West Cork by snatching his bible from beneath his head. He cursed her ever after to look out over the sea rather than upon her beloved homeland. The hag is seen as an ancient figure as old as the island herself.
There is a narrative that I think finds itself most applicable here and that is the story of the burning of Bridget Cleary in 1895. This young woman of talent and skill became ill and was condemned as a changeling by a distant male relative. This relative convinced her husband of her state and with time as her health worsened she was forced to consume a libation from a local fear feasa (wise man/healer). After a failed doctor’s visit and sleepless nights, her husband became convinced that she was a changeling (síofra in Irish). Eventually he poured oil on her body and held her over the fire in their home. The power dynamics here are influenced by the independence that Bridget possessed in her marriage; she was a dress-maker and kept hens while her husband lived in the city and worked as a cooper. Here the men in her life hold more sway over her fate. The fear feasa who prescribed the newmilk concoction, the male relative who first accused her of being a síofra, and her husband who burned her all played roles of power and ultimately engaged in actions that resulted in her death.
Word Witch 