Biddy Early

Biddy Early (* 1798 as Bridget Ellen Connors in Faha Montain ; † 1874 ) was a traditional Irish healer who was accused of witchcraft .

childhood

Biddy Early spoke Irish and English. She learned recipes for medicines from her mother. When she was just 16 years old, her mother died, and six months later her father too, whereupon she had to leave her parents' home. Little is known about this time in her life.

Adult life

In the poor house she met her first husband, Pat Malley. He already had a son and she gave birth to another son, whom they named Paddy. Early began to receive recognition for her healing powers. She is said to have received no money for her remedies, but whiskey, which was a generally accepted means of payment at this time. Pat Malley died five years after the wedding due to the side effects of the poor quality whiskey and illegally distilled poitin. She married her stepson John Malley shortly afterwards, but he too died of liver disease. Early married a third time - a younger man named Tom Flannery.

In 1865 she was charged with witchcraft under the 1586 Act and brought before a court in Ennis. The few who had previously agreed to testify against her withdrew, and she was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Tom died in 1869. In 1869 she married Thomas Meaney in exchange for a cure. She was around 70 and he was around 30, but she still survived him. They lived together in their cottage in Kilbarron, where he died of alcohol consumption within a year of the wedding. She also died in April 1874.

The last people to have personal contact with Early died in the 1950s. The stories were passed down through the strong oral tradition of narration on the west coast of Ireland. Lady Gregory amassed a great deal of collected stories 20 years after Early's death. Meda Ryan and Edmund Lenihan spoke to many people whose parents or grandparents had contact with Early.

swell

• Gregory, Lady Augusta. Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland. Putnam's Sons, New York; 1920.
• Lenihan, Edmund. In Search Of Biddy Early. The Mercier Press. Cork. 1987.
• Ryan, Meda. Biddy Early: The Wise Woman of Clare. Mercier Press, Dublin; 1978.
• Yeats, William Butler. Witches and Wizards and Irish Folk-Lore. Printed in Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, collected and arranged by Lady Gregory (1920; rpt. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1970).
• Korte and Weigold, Magisch Reisen - Irland, Goldmann-Verlag