Maeve Brigid Callan

Maeve Callan's evocatively titled book looks at the rash of heresy and witchcraft trials which occurred between the 1320s and 1350s in Ireland. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, these appear to have been the only such trials which occurred on the island before the Reformation. The written evidence is sparse—as it is with pretty much every aspect of medieval Irish history—but Callan marshals what has survived to demonstrate that those heresy trials which were held owed more to ethnic tensions and a desire to one-up political opponents than to a genuine wish to root out religious heterodoxy. Parts of it turn into a bit of a slog through the opaque internecine petty wars which it often seems were a full-time job for the petty nobles of Gaelic Ireland during this period. Still, an interesting book and one which is an excellent example of the kind of work that can be done with even fragmentary evidence.… (altro)