Clothed by the Devil

Andrew Sneddon

doi:10.5040/9781350445734

Clothed by the Devil

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Abstract

Editor’s note: Andrew’s chapter starts with the torture dress worn by a young woman
accused of witchcraft and condemned to death by beheading and burning in
seventeenth-century Germany to introduce Irish witchcraft, specifically that of the
Islandmagee witches of County Antrim. While ‘Catholic Irish witches’ were an
annoyance, ‘Ulster Protestant witches’ were more existentially threatening, intrinsically linked to Satan and his demonic magic, and ostensibly a grave danger to social control, morality and gendered propriety, normative appearance and capacity, and the ‘one true religion’ of Scottish-influenced Presbyterianism. Fearfulness and misogyny positioned dirtied, unkempt and ruined cloth, and scarred, impaired, deformed or imperfect bodies as sure signifiers of Sin, manifesting as licentious, immoral, deviant, diabolical corruption and therefore as near proven as not.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	The Stained and Bloodied Cloths of Ireland
Subtitle of host publication	A Material Culture View of Irish Shame, Oppression, Morality and Repression
Editors	Catherine Harper
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing
Chapter	6
Pages	51-63
Number of pages	13
Edition	1st
ISBN (Electronic)	9781350445727
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350445734
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - Jan 2025

Keywords

Witchcraft
Ireland
Material culture
clothing
eighteenth century
Antrim
Demonic possession

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.5040/9781350445734

Cite this

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AB - Editor’s note: Andrew’s chapter starts with the torture dress worn by a young woman accused of witchcraft and condemned to death by beheading and burning in seventeenth-century Germany to introduce Irish witchcraft, specifically that of the Islandmagee witches of County Antrim. While ‘Catholic Irish witches’ were an annoyance, ‘Ulster Protestant witches’ were more existentially threatening, intrinsically linked to Satan and his demonic magic, and ostensibly a grave danger to social control, morality and gendered propriety, normative appearance and capacity, and the ‘one true religion’ of Scottish-influenced Presbyterianism. Fearfulness and misogyny positioned dirtied, unkempt and ruined cloth, and scarred, impaired, deformed or imperfect bodies as sure signifiers of Sin, manifesting as licentious, immoral, deviant, diabolical corruption and therefore as near proven as not.

KW - Witchcraft

KW - Ireland

KW - Material culture

KW - clothing

KW - eighteenth century

KW - Antrim

KW - Demonic possession

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BT - The Stained and Bloodied Cloths of Ireland

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PB - Bloomsbury Publishing

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Clothed by the Devil

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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