The Cleary Changeling of Ireland

Sep 30

Have you ever received an eerie feeling about someone? That gut feeling that something is off about them. You can’t pinpoint it and you wouldn’t be able to describe it to someone else. But it’s there.

What if you lived in a time where you could describe this feeling, where tales of a monster impersonating children and loved ones were commonplace? Would you act on it? How far do you go to get your family back from a monster before realizing you may have become the monster?

PART 1 - The Last Days of Bridget Cleary

“Monsters are real, ghosts are real too. They live inside of us and sometimes, they win.”

Stephen King

Bridget Boland was born in 1869 in Ballyvadlea, Ireland, during a time when tales of fairies and other superstitious creatures were still in favor, yet fading. There were even ringforts called “fairy forts” as many believe fairies inhabited the prehistoric dwellings. Many were often warned to stay away in fear or they and their loved ones may be taken by the fairies.

But Bridget had no need to fear the “fairy forts” and by all accounts she was an independent woman, even attaining a job as a dressmaker’s apprentice. Despite being self-reliant, Bridget met Michael Cleary when she was 17, the two married but lived apart as Michael worked in a different town and Bridget moved in with her parents.

During this time Bridget’s independence grew, she began traveling around nearby towns selling eggs and also started making and selling hats.

At some point during the next 8 years, Bridget’s mother would pass away and Michael would come back to live with Bridget to watch over her father, Patrick.

Although the Clearys had yet to have children, which was considered odd at the time, there were no reports of troubles in their marriage. Johannah Burke, Bridget’s cousin, claimed the two were never seen fighting or arguing.

Something that would change drastically in March of 1895.

After a particularly tough winter, Bridget was out delivering eggs to a local town, either on her way to or back she passed by a “fairy fort”. The superstitious would believe she caught some kind of curse on this trip but it was most likely the winter that would cause Bridget to be bed stricken with an illness in early March.

Last Rites

Although Michael Cleary sent for a doctor, the doctor would not arrive until the 13th of March, it’s unknown whether Michael Cleary had already started torturing Bridget on this day. But it is known a Father Ryan had also made his way to the Cleary home to deliver last rites unto Bridget.

Father Ryan nor the doctor that arrived could see any reason to suspect Bridget Cleary was close to death’s door. She was thought to have a slight case of bronchitis and was prescribed medicine.

We later learned Michael Cleary decided not to give Bridget any of the medicine as he “had no faith in it.”

The following night Johannah Burke made her way to visit Bridget only to find Michael Cleary and four men, all cousins, and brothers of Bridget, holding Bridget down in her bed forcing her to consume medicine.

This medicine Michael Cleary was forcing his wife to take was not from the doctor, this medicine was made of herbs that were said to cast out changelings and fairies from a home. Another tactic, thought to cast out changelings, was also used on Bridget, the men would splash urine onto Bridget as she thrashed about the bed begging to be left alone.

The four men then carried Bridget holding her over a raging fire. Under threat of burning, she was forced to swear under God who she was as well as to identify all those in the room.

The Following Morning

It wasn’t until the following morning that Michael Cleary seemed content with the effectiveness of the torturous changeling exorcism. With Bridget bedridden from the onslaught, Michael sent for Father Ryan to perform mass in the home in order to banish evil spirits.

Father Ryan came and went never suspecting the pain Bridget Cleary had been put through and would be put through. For reasons unknown that night Michael Cleary began to suspect the banishment of the changeling had not taken. He had Johannah Burke fetch family and family friends back to the Cleary home.

Michael forced Bridget to drink holy water while once again swearing under God who she was. He then forced her to dress and brought her to the kitchen where the rest of the guests, including several of Bridget’s cousins and her father, were sitting.

According to Johannah and some of the others, they stayed for hours talking about fairies, witchcraft, and charms while Bridget sat tired and terrified. When Johannah showed Bridget what may have possibly been the only act of mercy by offering her a cup of tea, Michael took the opportunity for yet another test.

Michael Cleary demanded his wife eat three pieces of dry bread before she could take a sip of her tea. After two pieces Bridget Cleary displayed trouble swallowing the final piece. In the twisted mind of Michael Cleary, this was the evidence he needed.

In a violent display of anger, he tossed Bridget to the ground, his knee digging into her chest, one hand around her throat, the other forcing bread into her mouth. The eight others stood and watched.

They stood there as Michael Cleary demanded Bridget Cleary admit she was a monster. They watched as he ripped her clothes off. They did nothing as he poured lamp oil on his struggling wife.

And when he set her on fire, her cousins, her father, and all eight family members, allowed Michael Cleary to burn Bridget Cleary alive.

The Secret

The next day, forced to secrecy by Michael Cleary, the eight departed spreading the lie that Bridget Cleary had gone missing. Michael Cleary himself would attempt to go to confession before making his way to a nearby “fairy fort” where he believed Bridget would appear riding a grey horse now that the changeling had been killed.

One of the men who assisted with the torture on Thursday night but was not present during the burning of Bridget Cleary on Friday, John Dunne, crossed paths with Michael Cleary on his way to the church. At first, Michael Cleary kept to his story but it wasn’t long after that he confessed to Dunne the atrocities he had committed.

The confession to Dunne was the first domino to fall, eventually leading to all nine, including Michael Cleary being arrested. But without the body, the police feared they would have to let them all go as they stuck to the story of Bridget leaving on her own accord.

Six days later, the body of twenty-six-year-old Bridget Cleary was found. She was unceremoniously buried in a shallow grave just a mile from her home. She was almost completely burned, wearing only black stockings, and a bag over her head.

Following the discovery Johannah Burke was the first to crack, telling all that she knew to the police.

Seven of the nine who participated or had a hand in the torture and murder of Bridget Cleary were sentenced by Judge O’Brien to up to five years imprisonment. Mary Kennedy, the aunt of Bridget Cleary was not sentenced to imprisonment as the judge took pity on her old age. Michael Cleary was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to twenty years.

The original charge of murder was withdrawn. But why?

Could it be the town and judge found the possibility of Bridget Cleary being a changeling somewhat plausible? Had the deep-rooted beliefs of a fairy or monster called a changeling that replaces your loved ones permeated the town's justice system?

To even entertain that thought first we must ask, what is a changeling?

PART 2 - The Changeling Monster

“He who fights monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Incredibly the story of the Clearys wasn’t the only account of someone dying at the hands of another who believed them to be a changeling. The belief of fairies or trolls swapping out their offspring with those of human children had been around for hundreds of years in various parts of Europe.

In Poland, it is instead a swamp demon called a Mamuna often disguised as an old woman on the search for recently born children to kidnap. Myths say you could prevent the kidnappings by tying a red ribbon on the wrist of your baby or placing a red hat on their head and keeping the baby out of the moonlight.

In Spain, a type of nymph called the Xana would switch out their babies with human babies in an attempt to have them baptized. Wales, Germany, Scotland, and other locations had their own variations as well as various reasoning given to the creature’s motivation.

15th century, "The legend of St. Stephen" by Martino di Bartolomeo

A common reason I came across in research is a fairy owing a debt to the devil and each year instead of the fairy sacrificing one of its own it would switch out its offspring with a human baby and then offer up the baby to the devil.

This would leave the changeling in the care of the human family with the prospect of one day the changeling returning to the forest to rejoin the fairies. If the human family was suspicious that their child had been switched there were a number of tests that could be done to verify.

Myths say often times just by looking at the child you could gauge if a changeling was in its place as the troll or fairy offspring were said to have larger heads or necks, a sickly appearance, different size arms, and legs, or other deformities.

Other tests for those that didn’t outwardly show their fairy nature involved boiling eggshells in water or serving milk in eggshells. For some reason, this would cause the changeling to yell their true age and state they had never seen anything of the sort. Unfortunately, there were also more violent tests, including beating the child, placing the child over an open fire, and even throwing a baby into a fireplace.

The belief being changelings fear fire and placing one over a fire or into a fire would cause it to shoot up the chimney to escape with the real baby being brought back shortly after.

But what was really going on?

Behind the Myths

Today it’s widely accepted that the idea or belief of changelings centuries ago was a way to explain deformities in children. Birth defects and other diseases in children were not widely understood and our history has shown we tend to fear what we don’t know or understand. And when fear spreads we are more willing to accept an answer or solution even if it goes beyond our better judgment.

Many families centuries ago found it easier to believe their children had been taken and replaced by some kind of supernatural being instead of accepting their disabled children.

And it wasn't just physical disabilities. Children who, as they got older, were thought to begin acting strange or developing unusual habits were thought to have been changelings. When in reality the child may have been beginning to display autistic qualities.

Tragically centuries ago it was easier to believe their perfect child had been switched with a changeling and horribly this led to the deaths of many innocent children.

But Bridget Cleary wasn’t a baby or child, so what could drive her husband to believe she had been replaced with a changeling?

PART 3 - The Theories

“The danger is past, And the lingering illness Is over at last—And the fever called "Living" Is conquered at last.”

Edgar Allan Poe

Bridget Cleary was a twenty-six-year-old woman living in an area where the idea of changelings and monsters had once been rampant not just in the townsfolk but fully engrained in the justice system.

Just 70 years prior in 1826 a woman named Ann Roache was acquitted of murdering a 4-year-old boy. Her defense? She was trying to “drive the fairy out of him”. But records are sparse for that case and belief in fairies and changelings was dwindling in Europe so is it really possible Michael Cleary believed Bridget was a changeling or was he just using that as an excuse?

Before her death, two different rumors had spread about Bridget having an affair. One rumor said she was seeing a neighbor William Simpson while the other said she was seeing the man who supplied her with the eggs to sell.

It’s almost a guarantee if these rumors existed they would have reached the ears of her husband. And we know Bridget had contracted an illness whether it was pneumonia, tuberculosis, bronchitis, or something else, she was bedridden and suffering. But the medicine prescribed to her was withheld by Michael as he started to accuse her of being a changeling.

Maybe it was just an opportunity that he latched onto to exact demented retribution for the rumors of infidelity, or did Michael have a psychotic break seeing his wife in her state?

On the Thursday before Bridget’s death, Michael received word of his own father’s death. Could seeing his wife in a state close to death have been the last straw for his mental stability?

Capgras Delusion

A 2006 paper in the Irish Journal of Medicine examined this angle, they posited Michael Cleary suffered a temporary psychotic state of capgras delusion and infused a shared delusion with the rest of the family.

Capgras delusion is a rare psychiatric disorder in which the person suffering will start to believe that someone close to them has been replaced by an imposter. If Michael suffered from this, living in a place where monsters were thought to exist and replace humans, it could explain his actions.

But, while not fully understood, capgras delusion is thought to be an effect of some type of traumatic brain injury, late-stage dementia, or a rare symptom of schizophrenia. No records I could find pointed to Michael Cleary having or displaying any symptoms related to these disorders or detailing a brain injury. Of course, this was the 1800s when mental disorders weren’t widely known, thought of, or understood. Apart from this detailed medical records from that time are also hard to come by.

Whatever the reason may have been his actions struck fear into the rest of the family. It’s possible the group truly believed, at Michael’s insistence, that Bridget was a fairy. That same 2006 paper proposed the situation was ripe for a shared delusion spreading between the group well. In the end, the group on trial showed remorse for their inactions and it was widely believed Michael truly thought a fairy had inhabited his wife’s place.

Bridget Cleary still had her entire life ahead of her, the helplessness she must have felt as she saw her family standing idly by while her husband tortured her, is something I wish none of you will ever know.

The moment Michael Cleary set out to end Bridget Cleary’s life is the moment he became a monster bigger than the one he was hunting. Michael Cleary served 15 years in prison before moving to Canada upon release.

I could find no other records.