Delve into the trial of the ‘Islandmagee Witches’ at Carrickfergus Museum this Autumn (2023). The spellbinding story of the last witch trial in Ireland comes alive through a series of bewitching exhibitions, projects, events and workshops including an immersive virtual reality experience. The exhibition blends new technology with more traditional information panels, objects, maps, manuscripts, books, and images.
Visitors to the exhibition can also learn about the trial using various digital technologies and creative outputs summarised on this site, such as the digitised original trial documents, video game, and virtual reality app, where a VR headset plunges into Islandmagee in 1711 so that you can experience what it is like to be bewitched and be accused of witchcraft.
At ‘Reimagining the Islandmagee Witches: An Interactive Exhibition,’ visitors are invited to step back in time and experience the history of Ireland’s last witch trial, to the year 1711 when the last witch trial anywhere on the island of Ireland took place. Eight women and one man were put on trial and found guilty of exercising witchcraft on a young woman named Mary Dunbar. Interpretative panels, a range of objects and material culture, animation, a graphic novel and choice-driven video game showcase the story of the trial.
The exhibition also features a range of objects from Carrickfergus Museum’s collection plus loaned items from National Museums Northern Ireland, National Library of Ireland and Belfast Central Library.
An art installation reflects the importance of stained and ruined cloth in identifying and socially placing the Islandmagee ‘witches’ during their prosecution and trial.
Free creative writing workshops are led by Kentuckian playwright and professor, Georgia Rhoades (Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, Appalachian State University). These fascinating workshops explore the lives of people whose experiences and viewpoints are often left out of historical accounts – beginning with the accused at Islandmagee. Participants view the exhibition and discuss their responses to it before being invited to write about unexplored or forgotten people they’re interested in.
Lino print workshops, designed to allow a deeper engagement with the exhibition, allow participants to explore the exhibition themes in more detail before getting hands-on with lino printing – recreating the woodblock prints of the early 18th century. Participants have the opportunity to learn the techniques and create their own piece of art.
You can read more about the project, and the exhibition, in Andrew Sneddon’s fascinating cover story in Life magazine for the Sunday Independent (Halloween 2023), which explains the witch trials of Europe & Ireland, while finding new ways to understand and commemorate them.
RTE recently covered the exhibition’s blend of new technology with more traditional information panels, objects, maps, manuscripts, books, and images. You can read the article here.
“We knew it already, but we really know it now by working on this exhibition and the wider project: academics don’t have all the answers and historical knowledge about hidden histories can and should be co-produced in diverse and innovative ways by many hands.“
Andrew Sneddon in RTE Article, 2023
In 2011, the 300-year anniversary of the Islandmagee trial went by almost unnoticed: no academic conferences, exhibitions or commemorative events were held. In April 2023, the Mid and East Antrim Council erected a plaque to all nine convicted Islandmagee ‘witches’.
Witches of Islandmagee 