Bridget Cleary the Fairy Changeling Phenomná

We're starting Season Two with a bang as we tell the story of Bridget Cleary who was burned as a fairy changeling in 1895. Turns out we weren't too fond of fairies back in the day. Listen in to hear what led to Bridget's unfortunate demise.

Guest co-presenter: Mairead Kiernan

Music: 

Maija Sofia:  The wife of Michael Cleary

Notes/ References/ Further Reading:

Amazon Lore: Black Stockings, 2017; 

Dictionary of Irish Biography: Cleary, Bridget, Angela Bourke.; 

Angela Bourke, The burning of Bridget Cleary: a true story (1999); 

Reading a Woman's Death: Colonial Text and Oral Tradition in Nineteenth-Century Ireland · Angela Bourke · Feminist Studies 21 (3):553 (1995); 

Library Ireland: Bridget Cleary burned to death, Michael J. McCarthy. Five Years in Ireland. 1901; 

Magnus Course (2017) Changelings: alterity beyond difference, Folk Life, 55:1, 12-21; 

McGrath, Thomas. “Fairy Faith and Changelings: The Burning of Bridget Cleary in 1895.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, vol. 71, no. 282, 1982, pp. 178–184; 

RTE Brainstorm: "Darkest Ireland" and the burning of Bridget Cleary, 22 October 2020; 

RTE Doc on One: The Burning of Bridget Cleary, 1995; 

RTE Hidden History: Fairy Wife – The Burning of Bridget Cleary, 2005.