Fairy Wife - The Burning of Bridget Cleary - Adrian McCarthy

Fairy Wife – The Burning of Bridget Cleary

Making excellent use of newspaper reports and transcripts of the trial the documentary asked the right questions, shedding light on the social and cultural climate in which the murder took place.

Sunday Business Post

The story was evocatively told, making excellent use of locations, recreated testimonies and atmospheric camera work.

Sunday Tribune

An absorbing Hidden History documentary. Alternately chilling and blackly comic, the programme had the disorientating feel of a demented Oirish Horror movie.

Liam Fay

Sunday Times

2005, 52 Mins

A Wildfire production for RTÉ in association with Bord Scannán na hÉireann/Irish Film Board and The History Channel

On Friday 22nd of March 1895 in the small Tipperary village of Ballyvadlea, RIC constables discover a badly burned body in a shallow grave. It is the body of Bridget Cleary, a 26-year old woman who had met her death at the hands of her husband only days before. His motive? He believed she had been taken away by the Fairies. This film explores the events surrounding the horrific burning of Bridget Cleary, the massive impact it had on the country at the time and the local tensions that still exist today.

Credits

Cast: Catherine Walsh, Peg Power, Louise Lewis, Shane Gately.

Composer – Ray Harman
Production Designer – Anna Rackard
Sound: James Corcoran
Researcher: Sheila Ahern
Assoc Producer: Aisling Ahmed
Director of Photography – Rónán Fox
Editor – Úna Ní Dhonghaíle

Producer – Martha O’Neill
Director- Adrian McCarthy

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