Product Description

"A lurid yarn, especially because it's true."-Los Angeles Times.. In 1895 twenty-six-year-old Bridget Cleary disappeared from her cottage in rural County Tipperary and remained missing for several days. At last her body was discovered, bent, broken, and badly burned in a shallow grave. Within a few days, her unimaginable story came to light: for almost a week before her death she had been confined, starved, threatened, physically and verbally abused, exorcised, and finally burned to death by her husband, father, aunt, cousins, and neighbors, who had collectively confused a simple flu with possession by the fairies. In The Cooper's Wife Is Missing, Joan Hoff and Marian Yeates try to make sense of this outlandish, unfathomable, medieval "trial" and murder. Drawing on firsthand accounts, contemporary newspaper reports, police records, trial testimony, and a rich wealth of folklore, they weave a mesmerizing fireside tale of magic, madness, and mystery. This is narrative history at its evocative best.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #727394 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Customer Reviews

`Away with the Fairies`
A fascinating but horrific account of a true incident which resulted in a murder of a woman who it was believed to be `Away with the Fairies` when in fact she was delirious with influenza. In Ireland in Victorian times n country people still believed in old pagan beliefs and Leprechauns.

The investigation was by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)