The Supernatural, Magic, and Religion

In nineteenth and early twentieth-century Ireland, many committed Christians continued to believe in supernatural cursing and witchcraft; divination; holy wells; fairies; magical healing; and protective magic. These beliefs and practices were present in both Protestant and Catholic communities and were dynamic, evolving, and nuanced, differing according to region, locality, and personal preference. They were dismissed by journalists and the legal profession as superstitious throwbacks to an irrational, immoderate age. Church hierarchies denounced popular magic from pulpits and in church courts, as well as in print and in person, but this did little to eradicate them. Magic survived this opposition, and the medical, structural, and intellectual changes associated with modernity, because of its secretive nature and its selective appropriation of Christian doctrine and forms of devotion. It also helped people to deal with hard lives and uncertain futures and afforded, especially women, agency and a means of resistance against authority.