People believe in all sorts of things.
We have to. We are wee tiny humans living in the endless expanse of the multitudes, a far-reaching Universe, to time and spaces unimaginable by our teensy human brains. And so we try to imagine the unimaginable. And with that comes beliefs. `
Sometimes, other people “teach” us our beliefs.
On other occasions, we form beliefs of our own.
They come in every form. Physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. There are as many beliefs as there are people in the world.
Some people believe in a bearded man sitting on a golden throne somewhere above in the sky. Others believe carrots are good for your eyesight. Some people believe investing in bitcoin is a good idea. There are many more.
Regardless. We believe. I recently came across a story of a man who believed his wife had become an evil fairy. A changeling. And so he murdered her.
It happened on Thursday, March 14, 1895. A woman named Mary Kennedy went to call on her 26-year-old niece, Bridget Cleary, who had not been feeling well. This took place in the County Tipperary in Ireland.
But when Mary Kennedy walked up to her niece’s house that evening, she heard shouting. Upon entering the home, she found six men holding Bridget Cleary down on her bed.
Her husband, Michael Cleary, was the one doing all the yelling. He stood over Bridget’s yelling: “Are you Bridget Boland, the wife of Michael Cleary, in the name of God?” She thrashed on the bed as the others restrained her. The people holding her included three of Kennedy’s sons and Bridget’s own father.
This continued. Michael had a saucepan filled with fresh milk and herbs. He poured it into Bridget’s mouth and forced her to swallow the liquid. He asked again and again if she was his wife. And she said “yes” every time.
But here is the thing. Michael held a belief. He believed that the woman on the bed was not his wife Bridget. He was convinced that she was an evil fairy, a changeling, that had taken over his wife.
Sometime in the next 24 hours, he would kill her.
Michael’s murder of his wife made international front-page news in 1895.
Born in 1869, Bridget Boland grew up to be an intelligent, beautiful, and independent woman. She was uncommon in this way, as many women of those times were submissive. But not Bridget. She thought and did for herself. She was a dressmaker and milliner and also sold eggs. She supported herself. Also a rare thing for a woman back then.
When Michael met Bridget, he was 27, and she was 18. They married, and most people regarded them as a happy couple. But Bridget maintained her independent ways, earning money for herself. Both of them were literate, and with two incomes, they were well off.
Bridget went out on one of her home egg deliveries, ten days before her death, on March 4, 1895. It was a normal route. She had walked that way many times before. The journey always took her past a medieval earthen ring fort on Kylenagranagh Hill. It was known as a “fairy fort.”
Here is something about Ireland. There are an estimated 32,000 medieval ring forts, or fairy forts, just like the one Bridget passed.
A fairy fort is an earthen dwelling. As mentioned, they are old. Most of them are thought to have been constructed between the 6th and 10th centuries. They are basically the “earthen-ring remains” of what was once a combination of housing and defensive outposts in Ireland from the late Iron Age right through the Bronze Age. They were basically fortresses where the people inside could see all the way around. But the dwellings eventually wore down and were abandoned, just leaving the circular mounds of earth.
For whatever reason, these transformed into mystical places in the minds of the Irish. Traditionally, they’re not to be messed with. People have long believed that the locations contain the magic of ancient spirits and faeries. Just looking at them wrong, or interfering with them in any way, could be detrimental to a human. It could even result in death.
People in Ireland have long believed in faeries. Many still do.
Like humans, those faeries can be generous and bring good fortune. Or they can be evil and vindictive. So many times during the 19th century? If something went wrong, it was the fairies’ fault.
So back to Bridget. On her walk. She passed a faery fort like the ones I’ve described. As always.
When Bridget got home from delivering eggs on Monday, March 4, she couldn’t get warm. The next day she was ill, still shivering in bed with a raging headache. She got worse for the next few days, and Bridget’s father walked four miles in the rain to fetch the doctor. But he couldn’t come.
Michael tried to get the doctor two more times. Finally, nine days after Bridget got sick, the doctor came and diagnosed her with “nervous excitement and slight bronchitis,” and prescribed some medicine. Later that afternoon, a priest gave Bridget last rites, just in case.
But Michael thought an evil faerie had snatched his wife in that fort.
Michael said she looked different. Too fine to be his wife. He thought she’d become a changeling. And that night, he pinned her down and tortured her with the bitter milk and repeated burnings with a fire poker.
Finally, Michael was satisfied with his exorcism, but the next morning, she asked for some fresh milk. Well. Faeries are said to crave fresh milk. So Michael grabbed a hot stick from the fire and set her ablaze, killing her.
A few days later, the police arrested eight people involved in Bridget’s death. He was found guilty, along with the others.
A long story. But.
Sometimes our beliefs take us to the wrong places.
And other times, our beliefs are the most marvelous tBhings imaginable in the Universe.
And.
The trick of it is to know which is which.
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“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
― Oscar Wilde
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“If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”
― Gordon A. Eadie
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“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”
― Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost
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“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Believing in the things we do. And don’t.
