Savage killing that has a message for our times

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

When it comes to its treatment of women, modern Ireland hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory.  It was while pondering over the current campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment, alongside the Catholic Church’s misogynistic attitude towards women that NUIG graduate Eve O’Mahony penned her one-woman show, The Bold Brigid Cleary, which she will perform in Galway’s Town Hall Studio on Monday, April 3.

It’s Eve’s take on the story of 26-year-old Bridget Cleary, who lived near Clonmel, and who, in 1895, was tortured and burnt alive by her husband Michael with the help of her relatives and neighbours, on the basis that she was a witch.

This crime against an innocent woman struck a chord with Eve and while it happened more than 100 years ago, there are similarities with events in modern Ireland, according to the playwright.

For starters, Bridget’s killing was never spoken about in South Tipperary, even decades after the event. For Eve, that had echoes of the silence that surrounded the Magdalen laundries and Mother and Baby homes such as the one in Tuam.

Eve, who is now 33 grew up near Clonmel and her mother’s maiden name was Cleary so when the writer and actor first heard of the story, she was intrigued.

But, as she points out, she didn’t hear about it until she was about 20 because people didn’t discuss it.

“Even then, it would have been something that people didn’t talk about.”

Eve read about Bridget’s killing and its background in the 1999 book, The Burning of Bridget Cleary, which had been written by UCD academic Angela Bourke about the incident.

“It gave the facts,” says Eve simply. Bridget and Michael Cleary had been married for almost eight years and seemed to get on very well together, right until the time he killed her, according to Eve. Bridget was a milliner and a seamstress and she also kept hens and sold eggs. The couple had no children, which may have made people suspicious about Bridget and it’s possible that Michael was subjected to a ‘whispering campaign’ by jealous relatives and friends, Eve feels.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.