Fairy Struck Son and Mad Mother (Co. Offaly)

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boiling water

An event has lately occurred at Birr which has created great consternation. Some short time since, a boy, fifteen years old, took a pain in his hip, which extended thence to his knee and ancle [sic]. Some superstitious old crone told his mother that the child was ‘fairy stricken’ and urged upon her to have recourse to a ‘charm setter’, but was told by him that they must submit to the will of Providence. The woman went away heavy at heart, but had scarcely reached her habitation when she lost her senses: and, entering her house, she went to the fire, over which a large pot of boiling water was suspended, and, succeeding in getting her feet into the boiling water, staid there as if it had been cold water. When her husband entered, he was horror-stricken; he made an attempt to remove her from such a position, but she had grasped the crook from which the pot was suspended so tightly, that all his efforts were fruitless. Her sister having heard of the matter, came from Donegal, and attended the wretched woman until Friday, when the madwoman bit her in many parts of the body, and the woman, who came from Donegal in her perfect reason and senses, has been sent back raging mad. The other woman, still lives in Birr, still continues insane, nor are there any hopes of her recovery. Anon, ‘Awful Occurrence’, 1846 

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