Irish Folklore
The Changling
About ten years ago I was fortunate to get a slot in the Summer study program at the National University of Ireland in Galway. Our history professor loved to tell stories and at one lunch hour he asked if I knew what a changling was and I said that I did and defined it as a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. A changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being on kidnapping a human being usually a child. He said that he knew of a real case and told this story which is true.
There are few Irish crimes in the nineteenth century that captured more attention than the murder of Bridget Cleary in Ballyvadlea, near Clonmel, County Tipperary in March 1895.
Bridget Cleary was twenty six years old in 1895. A talented dressmaker and egg seller, she was married for eight years to Michael Cleary and without children. Her cousin Johanna Burke would later say in court that the couple were on good terms, she “never saw them quarrel or dispute.”
Bridget’s husband Michael Cleary, who was 35 years old at the time, was a cooper from Killenaule, County Tipperary.
Bridget had become ill with a cold in the days prior to her death. She had been delivering eggs in Kylenagranagh, the site of a fairy ring, according to local folklore. Over the coming days her house would be occupied by a number of relatives and neighbors amid a growing concern that there was a supernatural element to her illness.
There were several attempts to have the doctor and the priest visit the house, as well as an herbal doctor. As the days passed Bridget’s fever did not improve. By Friday 15th March 1895 tensions were running high in the small cottage with Michael repeatedly asking his wife who she was. She angered him by asserting that his mother had gone off with the faeries. She also stated that she could see the police at the window in an effort to be left alone.
Michael repeatedly attempted to get her to say her name while getting her to eat three slices of bread. When she did not reply to the third time of questioning, he stripped her, doused her in oil and set her alight. He shouted that it was not his wife but a witch he was burning.
Later that night he got help from Patrick Kennedy in removing the body from the house. Bridget Cleary’s remains were to be found in the days that followed in a shallow grave close to the house. Court records show Michael Cleary was sentenced to twenty years for his part in the murder and on his release went to Liverpool and then onto Canada.
