Witch trials - forgotten women of a bewitched Ireland

Martina Devlin

Martina Devlin

Novelist Martina Devlin on the shocking witch trials of 1711 that tore a small community apart.

Witch fever was in the air in 1711, when Ireland's only mass witchcraft trial was held. On one side - eight terrified women protesting their innocence. On the other - a pretty and pious young newcomer, from a higher social class, insisting she was bewitched.