Irish Witches: Folklore, Trials, Butter Witches and Legends
Witchcraft has fascinated and terrified societies for centuries. Across continental Europe, waves of hysteria between the 15th and 18th centuries led to tens of thousands of prosecutions and thousands of executions. Images of women flying on broomsticks, brewing potions, or whispering curses became central to European folklore and religious fear. But in Ireland, the story unfolded very differently.
Unlike Germany, Switzerland, or Scotland regions that endured ferocious witch-hunts Ireland experienced only a handful of trials. While accusations were certainly made, they rarely resulted in mass executions or large-scale panics. Instead, Ireland’s “witches” often existed at the crossroads of folklore, superstition, and community tension. From butter-stealing charms to changeling beliefs, the Irish witch was as much a figure of myth and rural imagination as of courtroom drama.
This article explores the unique character of Irish witchcraft. It sets Ireland in the broader European context, examines folklore such as the butter witches and Cailleach, recounts the earliest and most famous trials from Alice Kyteler to the Islandmagee witches, and considers why Ireland’s history diverged so sharply from the continental pattern. It also reflects on enduring figures like Biddy Early and the tragic fate of Bridget Cleary, whose story reminds us how powerful superstition remained even into modern times.
By weaving together history, folklore, and cultural memory, we gain a clearer picture of how Irish witches were not merely villains of superstition, but products of a society negotiating its relationship with fear, faith, and the supernatural.
- Irish Witches: Folklore, Trials, Butter Witches and Legends
- Witchcraft in Europe: The Broader Background
- Witchcraft in Irish Folklore
- Early Witchcraft Trials in Ireland
- Later Cases and Folk Healers
- Timeline of Witchcraft in Ireland
- Why Ireland Was Different
- Legacy and Commemoration
- Conclusion
- Books about Irish Witches and Irish Mythology
- Sources & Further Reading (Annotated)
- Explore More Irish Culture and Folklore
Witchcraft in Europe: The Broader Background
Between the 15th and 18th centuries, Europe experienced intense witch-hunts. Scholars estimate 100,000 prosecutions and around 40,000–60,000 executions. German-speaking lands and Switzerland were epicentres, while countries like Spain and Ireland saw far fewer executions.
Two key texts shaped European witchcraft discourse:
The Malleus Maleficarum (1486) by Heinrich Kramer, a demonology manual that defined witches as heretics and fuelled mass persecutions. It was widely circulated, though exaggerated claims of being “second only to the Bible” should be avoided.
The Yellow Book of Lecan (14th c.), an Irish manuscript, contained early references to magical practices in Ireland, showing how sorcery was part of medieval cultural imagination.
This European backdrop helps explain why isolated Irish trials stood out.
Witchcraft in Irish Folklore
The Cailleach and the Celtic Tradition
In Irish mythology, the Cailleach — a divine hag figure rooted in Celtic cosmology — controlled weather and the landscape. Folklore blurred witchcraft with fairy belief: changelings, curses, and charms were explanations for illness, death, or misfortune.
Butter Witches
One of the most enduring Irish folk-beliefs was the “butter witch.” These were often Irish women accused of magically stealing a neighbour’s butter or milk, sometimes by skimming dew from fields or chanting spells.[^4] The fear reflected how essential dairy was to survival. Protective charms included burning embers under churns or reciting prayers while churning.
The Hag of Beara
The Hag of Beara is an ancient figure from Irish myth, often depicted as a powerful sovereignty goddess who personifies the land and its seasonal cycle, growing old and barren in winter before being rejuvenated each spring.
While later folklore diminished her to a supernatural witch or cailleach credited with shaping the landscape and controlling the weather, she remains a central literary icon from the old Irish poem “The Lament of the Old Woman of Beare,” where she mourns her lost youth and royal past. Unlike the historical women accused in Ireland’s witch trials, the Hag is a divine, elemental symbol of nature’s power, time, and wisdom, whose legend endures in the stone bearing her profile on the Beara Peninsula, Cork on the Wild Atlantic Way.
The Wise Woman
Not every so-called witch was feared. In many rural parishes, the village wise woman was respected for her herbal cures and charms. She could be healer, midwife, or spiritual guide, standing on the boundary between superstition and folk medicine.
Early Witchcraft Trials in Ireland
Alice Kyteler and Petronilla de Meath (1324)
The first major Irish witch trial took place in Kilkenny. Alice Kyteler, a wealthy merchant’s wife, was accused of consorting with demons, using potions, and murdering husbands. When charged with heresy, she fled. Her servant, Petronilla de Meath, was tortured and burned alive on 3 November 1324 — the first recorded execution for witchcraft in Ireland.
Florence Newton (1661–1662)
The “Witch of Youghal: was accused of cursing a maid with a kiss and bewitching a servant girl. Records detail possessions and dramatic courtroom testimony, but her final fate is unknown — possibly death in prison.
The Islandmagee Trial (1711)
Eight women in Co. Antrim, Carrickfergus were accused of tormenting a young girl with apparitions and fits. This included testimony involving Mary Longdon, the girl at the heart of the case, who claimed to have been attacked by spirits. The women were convicted but only sentenced to one year in prison and time in the pillory. This was Ireland’s last major witch trial.
Later Cases and Folk Healers
Bridget Cleary (1895)
Bridget Cleary’s murder is sometimes misrepresented as “the last witch burning in Ireland.” In truth, she was killed by her husband, who believed she was a fairy changeling. This tragic case shows how fairy lore remained powerful even in Victorian Ireland.
Biddy Early (1798–1874)
A herbalist from Clare, Biddy Early was renowned for cures and divination using a mysterious blue bottle. Clergy denounced her, but locals sought her aid. She was a true wise woman in the folk tradition — healer to some, witch to others. She was never tried, illustrating how folk healers could flourish at the margins of suspicion.
Mary Butters — the “Carnmoney Witch” (legend & trial)
One of the best-known Irish butter-witch stories centres on Mary Butters (sometimes recorded as Buttles or Butlers), a reputed wise woman from the Carrickfergus/Carnmoney area of County Antrim. Born around c.1770, she worked as a healer who specialised in cures for livestock believed to be bewitched — particularly cows whose milk “would not turn” into butter.
The most famous episode occurred in August 1807 when the Montgomery family called Mary to cure a cow that allegedly produced milk from which no butter could be made. According to contemporary and later accounts, Butters performed several folk remedies: she attempted to churn the milk herself while whispering charms, drew protective circles, washed the churn with south-running water, and prepared a pungent concoction of pins, crooked nails and other ingredients over the fire as part of the cure.
During the night the house was sealed as part of the ritual. At dawn the house was forced open and two members of the household (Elizabeth Montgomery and her son David in most accounts) were discovered dead; an elderly assistant, Margaret Lee, died shortly after discovery. Butters survived and told witnesses she had been stunned by a “black man” (a common folk label for a diabolical figure) who had struck the victims.
A coroner’s inquest held on 19 August 1807 found that the deaths were likely due to suffocation from the sulphurous vapour of the concoction Butters had brewed, and she was committed to Carrickfergus gaol. She stood trial at the Spring Assizes in March 1808, but the charges were ultimately dismissed and she was freed by proclamation.
Later folklore and local ballads treated the episode with mixture of mockery, fear and dark humour; despite the notoriety, Butters continued to be sought for livestock cures in the region and her story became a standard example of the “white witch” whose rituals could be misread as dangerous.
Timeline of Witchcraft in Ireland
14th century — The Yellow Book of Lecan records early references to sorcery.
1324 — Trial of Alice Kyteler; Petronilla de Meath burned.
1661–1662 — Florence Newton’s trial in Youghal.
1711 — Islandmagee witches tried and convicted; Mary Longdon central witness.
1798–1874 — Biddy Early’s lifetime as a folk healer and wise woman.
1895 — Bridget Cleary murdered amid changeling belief.
Why Ireland Was Different
While Europe was executing tens of thousands, Ireland’s cases were scattered. Historians such as David Jones and others have argued that Ireland’s path reflected unique conditions:
Catholic influence — the Church often treated folk magic as superstition, not heresy.
Legal inconsistencies — witchcraft laws imported from England were unevenly enforced.
Folklore dominance — Irish communities explained misfortune through fairies and Celtic mythology rather than organized witchcraft.
Legacy and Commemoration
Recent scholarship and heritage work ensure these stories are remembered. In 2023, the Islandmagee Witches Memorial was unveiled in Co. Antrim, part of The Witches of Islandmagee Project at Queen’s University Belfast. Public lectures and university courses now regularly explore the connections between Irish witchcraft, folklore, and European history.
Conclusion
The story of witchcraft in Ireland is a reminder that history is never uniform. While Europe burned and hanged thousands, Ireland’s courts were quieter, its persecutions fewer. But that does not mean the Irish were free from fear. Instead, suspicion and anxiety were channelled into folklore and everyday beliefs: butter could be stolen by witchcraft, children swapped by fairies, or storms summoned by curses. These ideas shaped how communities understood illness, loss, or misfortune.
The famous trials of Alice Kyteler, Florence Newton, and the Islandmagee witches stand out precisely because they were rare. Yet, their records still reveal how fragile reputations could be, especially for women who were wealthy, outspoken, or simply different. Later figures like Biddy Early highlight another side of the story — how so-called “witches” could also be wise women, trusted for their cures even while feared for their powers.
Today, Irish witchcraft resonates far beyond the archives. Tourism brings visitors to Kilkenny, Youghal, and Islandmagee to trace the footsteps of the accused. Literature and popular culture continue to reimagine figures like Alice Kyteler and Bridget Cleary, weaving them into novels, plays, and folklore collections. Even modern Pagan and Wiccan communities draw inspiration from Ireland’s Celtic landscape and its seasonal festivals.
Memorials and public history projects — such as the Islandmagee plaque — ask us to remember not just the myths, but the real Irish women whose lives were destroyed by accusation. They encourage us to see witchcraft stories not only as curiosities of the past but as enduring cultural symbols of fear, resilience, and the human need to explain the unexplainable.
In the end, Irish witches — whether mythological hags, butter stealers, healers, or accused women — reflect a society grappling with faith, fear, and survival. Their stories remain woven into the fabric of Ireland’s heritage, reminding us that superstition and imagination often had as much influence on daily life as law or religion.
Books about Irish Witches and Irish Mythology
Irish Witches, Magicians and Faeries: It examines the history of Irish magic and sorcery, and their convergence with the era of witchcraft persecutions. Including historical personages and actual occult witchcraft practices over the centuries, the book also examines the relationship of faery lore to folk magical practice.
Irish Witchcraft from an Irish Witch: True to the Heart: Lora O’Brien is an Irish Draoí (user of magic) working closely with her heritage and her native land, providing a contemporary guide to genuine practice. Irish Witchcraft from an Irish Witch explores the past, present and future of Wicca in Ireland.
Possessed By the Devil: The Real History Of The Islandmagee Witches: In 1711, in County Antrim, eight women were put on trial accused of orchestrating the demonic possession of young Mary Dunbar, and the haunting and supernatural murder of a local clergyman’s wife. Mary Dunbar was the star witness in this trial, and the women were, by the standards of the time, believable witches – they smoked, they drank, they just did not look right.
Irish children grow up even now hearing the stories and legends of the little people and still follow ancient rituals such as leaving untasted food on the table for the fairies, and not falling asleep near a fairy mound. The supernatural and fairies in particular are blamed for everything that goes wrong. So it’s no surprise that a land soaked in the mystic would not be terribly worried by a few witches.
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Sources & Further Reading (Annotated)
- Levack, Brian. The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe. 4th ed. Routledge, 2016 — Standard survey of European prosecutions.
- Yellow Book of Lecan (14th c.), Royal Irish Academy MS 23 P 2 — Early Irish manuscript with magical references.
- Lysaght, Patricia. Milk and Butter in Irish Folk Tradition. Folklore Society, 1980 — Study of butter-witch beliefs.
- Seymour, St. John D. Irish Witchcraft and Demonology. Dublin: Hodges Figgis, 1913 — Key account of Alice Kyteler & Petronilla.
- Carty, Anthony. “The Trial of Florence Newton: Witchcraft in 17th-Century Youghal.” Irish Historical Studies. — On Newton’s trial.
- Sneddon, Andrew. Possessed by the Devil: The Real History of the Islandmagee Witches. Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2013.
- Bourke, Angela. The Burning of Bridget Cleary. New York: Viking, 1999 — Definitive study of the case.
- Westropp, Thomas Johnson. “Biddy Early and the Wise Women of Clare.” Folklore, 1890s.
- Witches of Islandmagee Project. Queen’s University Belfast (2022–23). Website
Just a quick note – Youghal is on the coast in East county Cork, not in Tipperary. Which is why Florence Newton died at the last assizes in County Cork.
Oh ye gods you would think I would get that right spending many months in both Cork and Tipperary LOL, thanks for the heads up on that mistake.