Story of Cork ‘witch’ features in new TG4 series

A famous Cork woman who was accused of being a witch is one of the figures covered in a new series on TG4 which begins on International Women's Day.

‘An Diabhal Inti’ or ‘The Devil's in Her’ explores how and why thousands and thousands of people, mostly women, were accused of being in league with the devil and executed as ‘witches’.

Among the stories covered are that of Florence Newton known as the ‘witch of Youghal’ who was long thought to have been executed after a trial in 1661 although it’s unclear whether she died after her trial before execution could take place. She was accused of causing fits in one woman and the death of a prison guard.

Witch hunts became common across Europe for two centuries and reached across the Atlantic as far as America, and this six-part series offers a look at the social, political and religious conditions that resulted in one of the greatest ‘otherings’ in human history.

Featuring the renowned actor Olwen Fouéré, dancer and choreographer Aoife McAtamney and introducing the young Ailbhe Drimbarean, this visually arresting series offers a dramatic and mesmerizing re-examination of the idea of woman as ‘witch’.

By exposing patriarchal views of women which combined with religious beliefs in the devil walking the earth, the series shows how accusations of witchcraft mostly targeted women with deadly consequences for the accused.

Set in Ireland, this six-part, half hour series, tells the individual stories of the women who did not escape the horror of witch hunts in Ireland.

Those who perished include Goody Glover, an Irish woman in Puritan Boston, hung on Boston commons; an unnamed woman in County Antrim who met the same fate as the thousands who were executed as witches in neighbouring Scotland and the infamous mass trial of Islandmagee, where eight women and one man were accused of witchcraft and paid a high price.

The series also explores the reasons why the witch hunts did not affect Ireland in the same way as other European countries, and how paganism, goddess worship and beliefs in popular magic survived longer as a result.

The story of Mary Butters, the Carnmoney Witch in the North and Biddy Early, the wise woman of Clare, in later episodes offer other insights into how powerful women survived beyond the witch hunts in a patriarchal world.

Contributors such as Dr Andrew Sneddon, the leading expert on the Irish witch trials, Dr Mary McAuliffe, Claire Mitchell QC, Professor Julian Goodare all offer insights into the religious mindset that created the narrative and the conditions for the witch hunts.

‘An Diabhal Inti’ begins on 8 March on TG4.