- Published: 1 January 2011
- ISBN: 9781446412329
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 272
The Burning Of Bridget Cleary
A True Story
- Published: 1 January 2011
- ISBN: 9781446412329
- Imprint: Vintage Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 272
'The story of the killing of Bridget Cleary is so brilliantly researched and narrated that it becomes a parable of the cultural and political relationship between Ireland and Britain at the end of the last century. A modern world of newspapers, courts and railways, and an old world of folklore and fairy-belief tradition are brought together with such force that we can feel the antagonisms and the incomprehensions of the 1890s still reverberant within our own disputes about modernity and colonialism, cultural memory and patriarchal assumptions, high politics and the world of the people. It is a classic account.'
Seamus Deane
'From the feathers on her hat, to Dotey the cat who climbed on her shoulders, to her pitiable last words as her husband closed in for the kill - every detail of Bridget Cleary's world and life is re-presented here with passionate empathy, disciplined by a wealth of scholarship and enlivened by subtle intelligence. A wonderful, wonderful book.'
Nuala O'Faolain
The story of Bridget Cleary's death is a parable for a changing world, a well-researched and horrifying account of what could happen in the region where myth and modernity collide...As dramatic a murder mystery as any devotee of the genre could long for...And it is the rich abundance of ideas that makes this a uniquely important historical work
Irish News
'A sad but spellbinding story, told with artistic tact and a humane concern for all caught up in the terrible event. The Burning of Bridget Cleary draws on oral tradition, reportage, popular culture and high literature to show how the past may persist in the present. Angela Bourke writes with an interpretative audacity which is tempered only by sound scholarly scruple. The century-old tale becomes in her telling as troubling and mysterious as the news of the last half-hour.'
Declan Kiberd
Much of her material is startlingly raw, and the narrative retains its horrible fascination
Times Literary Supplement
Angela Bourke's fascinating, disturbing and powerful book tells a compelling and tragic story
Financial Times