Author:Angela Bourke
In 1895 twenty-six-year-old Bridget Cleary disappeared from her house in rural Tipperary. At first, some said that the fairies had taken her into their stronghold in a nearby hill, from where she would emerge, riding a white horse. But then her badly burned body was found in a shallow grave. Her husband, father, aunt and four cousins were arrested and charged, while newspapers in nearby Clonmel, and then in Dublin, Cork, London and further afield attempted to make sense of what had happened.
In this lurid and fascinating episode, set in the last decade of the nineteenth century, we witness the collision of town and country, of storytelling and science, of old and new. The torture and burning of Bridget Cleary caused a sensation in 1895 which continues to reverberate more than a hundred years later.
Winner of the Irish Times Prize for Non-Fiction
Fascinating... passionate and thought-provoking... a creative, stimulating book that deserves to win many readers
—— Patrick French , Sunday TimesOne of those rare books that becomes an instantaneous classic
—— IndependentScrupulous, clear micro-history at its best
—— Marina Warner, Books of the Year , Times Literary SupplementAngela Bourke's fascinating, disturbing and powerful book tells a compelling and tragic story
—— Financial TimesThe story of Bridget Cleary's death is a parable for a changing world, a well-researched and horrifying account of what could happen in the region where myth and modernity collide...As dramatic a murder mystery as any devotee of the genre could long for...And it is the rich abundance of ideas that makes this a uniquely important historical work
—— Irish NewsExemplary in its restraint, scrupulousness and empathy, it is also beautifully written
—— Roy Foster, Books of the Year , Times Literary Supplement'A sad but spellbinding story, told with artistic tact and a humane concern for all caught up in the terrible event. The Burning of Bridget Cleary draws on oral tradition, reportage, popular culture and high literature to show how the past may persist in the present
—— Declan KiberdThe story of the killing of Bridget Cleary is so brilliantly researched and narrated that it becomes a parable of the cultural and political relationship between Ireland and Britain at the end of the last century... A classic account
—— Seamus DeaneA stimulating read, which provides valuable insights
—— Adam Fabry , Socialist ReviewHis conclusions neatly balance the equally pertinent questions of why Communist systems collapse, and why they lasted so long
—— Stephen Howe , IndependentOne of Britain's leading experts on communism provides a grimly humorous and richly anecdotal study
—— George Pendles , Financial Times, History books of the yearScholarly, well-paced and critical...few can match him for insider knowledge
—— Tristram Hunt , Sunday TimesBalanced, insightful, illuminated by intriguing detail and flashes of humour, this worldwide panorama is a miracle of compression
—— Christopher Hirst , IndependentThis superb book gives the history of the ideology and the reasons for its decline
—— Simon Heffer , TelegraphIt reads like Sovietology rendered by John le Carré
—— Timothy SnyderThe book is well written with flashes of mordant humour and sufficient records of personal foibles and institutional stupidity to keep the reader going through some dreadful moments of human history
—— Political Studies Review
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