On 31 March 1711, in County Antrim, eight women were convicted of bewitching and orchestrating the demonic possession of teenager Mary Dunbar. A few months later a local man, husband to one and father to another, was convicted and likely executed for using witchcraft to kill Dunbar. The ‘Islandmagee Witches’ were, by the standards of the time, believable witches – they smoked, they drank, they challenged authority, and some dabbled in magic. This is a story of murder, magic, the devil, and a community in crisis. It offers a unique glimpse into how the ‘witch hunts’ that claimed over 40,000 lives in Europe played out on Irish shores.
Check out the promotional video from the YouTube channel here:
© Copyright Victoria McCollum and Andrew Sneddon 2022
Witches of Islandmagee 