The Cooper's Wife Is Missing: The Trials Of Bridget Cleary [Paperback]

Joan Hoff (Author), Marian Yates (Author), Marian Yeates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0465030882 | ISBN-13: 978-0465030880

In 1895 twenty-six-year-old Bridget Cleary disappeared from her cottage in rural County Tipperary and remained missing for several days. At last her body was discovered, bent, broken, and badly burned in a shallow grave. Within a few days, her unimaginable story came to light: for almost a week before her death she had been confined, starved, threatened, physically and verbally abused, exorcised, and finally burned to death by her husband, father, aunt, cousins, and neighbors, who had collectively confused a simple flu with possession by the fairies. In The Cooper's Wife Is Missing, Joan Hoff and Marian Yeates try to make sense of this outlandish, unfathomable, medieval "trial" and murder. Drawing on firsthand accounts, contemporary newspaper reports, police records, trial testimony, and a rich wealth of folklore, they weave a mesmerizing fireside tale of magic, madness, and mystery. This is narrative history at its evocative best.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

One of two books this season on the legendary death in 1895 of an Irish country woman, this account illuminates more broadly "how Ireland suffered, how she struggled and what she faced in her fight to win her freedom." In contrast to linguist Angela Bourke's The Burning of Bridget Cleary (see below), historians Hoff (of the University of Toledo and author of Nixon Reconsidered) and Yeates (an independent scholar with a Ph.D. from Indiana University) use Cleary's death to reconstruct a primarily political history. They begin by describing the "rebellious South Tipperary" of 1895. Still reeling from the Great Famine and the bloody Land Wars of the 1880s, Tipperary was tightly structured, on one side, by the landlords and the British government and, on the other, by the Catholic Church and a poor, nationalistic and fairy-believing peasantry. Against this backdrop lived the cooper Michael Cleary and his wife, Bridget. A pretty and independent woman, Bridget was "a bit queer." She had her own income and, after almost eight years of marriage, she was childless. When she fell ill, her husband, convinced his real wife had been abducted by a fairy and that a changeling remained in her place, began a grueling ritual meant to exorcise the changelingAbut which, instead, led to Bridget's death by burning. Placing the testimony from Michael Cleary's murder trial at the center of their account, Hoff and Yeates meticulously dissect the days leading up to Bridget's deathAand present a subtle account of the interpersonal, economic, political and sociological tensions that surrounded it. Meanwhile, they deliver a series of wonderful profiles of "testy" nationalists like the archbishop of Cashel, Thomas William Croke, and the revolutionary politician Charles Stewart Parnell. (And their outstanding first chapter contains an excellent analysis of Irish history and the Catholic Church 1858-1895.) Heavily footnotedAbut livelyAthis volume brings new clarity and perspective to an important moment in Irish history. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

In spring 1895 in Ireland, some men reported to their local priest that young Bridget Cleary, who was known to have been ill, had been burned to death by family members, including her husband, in a case of fairy exorcism. The priest in turn went to the police, who found Bridget's charred body and then arrested nine family members, neighbors, and friends in connection with the incident. The subsequent trial became a weapon in the hands of Tories opposed to Home Rule for Ireland. After all, how could one grant political autonomy to a people still so in the grip of superstition? Of the two new books that examine this case, Bourke's is the more readable. Bourke, a lecturer in Irish at University College Dublin who has published journal articles on the Irish fairy tradition, exhibits a more balanced grasp of the story and a greater intimacy with the culture than Hoff, an American academic who has written books on Nixon and Hoover, and coauthor Yeates, a freelance writer of family histories. Frustratingly, Hoff and Yeates take almost 100 pages even to get to Bridget. Because Bridget's murder offers a window into the changing world of Irish peasantry in the late 19th century, her tragic but fascinating story will interest many. Bourke's book would suffice for public and most academic libraries, though Hoff and Yeates's would be a useful additional title for larger Irish collections.DCharlie Cowling, SUNY at Brockport Lib.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (August 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465030882
• ISBN-13: 978-0465030880
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,525,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This was written by two Ph.D's?????, December 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cooper's Wife Is Missing: The Trials of Bridget Cleary (Hardcover)

Marginalia(the study of notes people leave written in their books) is a growing area of academic study. Future readers of my personal copy of "The Cooper's Wife is Missing" will find that I have several notes relating to rambling, incoherent sentences and grammar errors that an editor should have found before the book went to press. The book wanders repeatedly away from its subject, the trials of Bridget Cleary, and dabbles into Celtic folklore and Irish History. I am a fan of both, but the authors of this book do a poor job of making clear the connections between Bridget and Irish History and Myth. I understand their point, but someone not as interested in Ireland would have put this book down long ago if they were looking for a story( which was why I actually picked it up myself.) If you stick with the story, the idea of Bridget's case being used as a reason for Britain to keep the Irish in subjugation is interesting, but it requires great patience and an ability to translate horrendous grammar to do so.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Molehill Becomes A Mountain, February 8, 2001

By 

Helen T. Watkins (Bowie, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cooper's Wife Is Missing: The Trials of Bridget Cleary (Hardcover)

In 1895 a relatively unimportant incident occurred in a rural part of Ireland that literally was used by the British to overstate the superstitions and backwardness of the the Irish nation thus depriving the Irish of any possibility of Home Rule at that time.

Bridgit Cleary, the wife of a barrel maker was suspected by her friends and relatives of "conversing" with the fairies. Many of the rural people somewhat believed in spirits and thought that the fairies convened in a wood near the Cleary "residence". When Bridgit returns one night and does not look herself, they suspect she has been possessed by the fairies and is a changeling. Various herbs are tried in an attempt to "exorcise" Bridgit. When these fail the last resort is fire and Bridgit is held into the fireplace. She expires and all those present at the "exorcism" are put on trial. Indirectly, the Catholic Church is also "on trial" being held responsible for the superstitious nature of the Irish population. The whole experience becomes somewhat of an international news item propagated by the British for the aforementioned purpose. The group is found guilty and given various sentences. The most severe, ten years in prision, is placed on her husband

This book is a wonderful review of the Irish struggle for independence. Irish patriots and sympathetic British statesman are depicted. The harshness of the British during famines is also underlined. On the lighter site, several fanciful tales regarding the faries are related.

At the back of the book there is a very complete set of notes for anyone wishing to pursue topics in greater detail

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cooper's Wife and the Whole of Ireland in 1895, October 20, 2000

By 

Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cooper's Wife Is Missing: The Trials of Bridget Cleary (Hardcover)

The essential story is the one about the cooper's wife, one Bridget Cleary to give the woman her due, and her murder at the hands of her husband and relatives. Her death occurred at a "fairy trial" when she was suspected of being a changeling and no longer the woman Bridget Cleary. It ended in her death by burning and charges being brought against all the (Catholic) peasants present.

The bigger story presented throughout this book is the story of Ireland at this point in time. The reader will learn much about Celtic folklore, the power of religion in people's lives, and, most importantly, the struggle for Irish nationalism that effected everyone's lives. Sometimes the side stories may seem forced onto Bridget Cleary's own narrative but it all still provides for an interesting hodgepodge of Irish history. A winding and long road of a read but always interesting.