Last Irish witch trial revisited

THE intriguing tale of Ireland’s last witch trial has been re-investigated ahead of the 300th anniversary of a case that saw eight Co Antrim women found guilty of possessing a teenage girl.

Eight Presbyterian women were jailed for a year and put in public stocks four times on market day.

In his upcoming book, Witchcraft and Magic in Ireland, 1586-1946, Andrew Sneddon — history lecturer at the University of Ulster — contends their alleged victim, 18-year-old Mary Dunbar, made the whole thing up: “My research is based on a wide variety of contemporary documentation, including witness statements, letters and eye-witness accounts.