THE WITCH OF KILKENNY

Before she married Sir John le Poer, Lady Alice had had three previous husbands. They had one thing in common. They all died young-and they all died mysteriously.

Lady Alice lived in Kilkenny, Ireland, during the early part of the fourteen century. She and the family were not popular in the area, partly because they were wealthy and partly because of their cruelty to the serfs who were bound to them. Two of Lady Alice's husbands had been widowers with children, and it was these step children who were to be her downfall. The trouble began in 1824, when Sir John began to suffer from a wasting disease that caused his hair to come out in great tuffs and the nails to drop from his toes and fingers. Seeing what was happening to him, the step children began whispering that it was a strange illness exactly like this one that had killed their fathers.

There were other whispers too,-rumours that Lady Alice practised witchcraft-whispers that finally reached Sir John. He demanded the keys to his wife's room, but when she refused to give them to him, he took them from her by force. Unlocking the door, he discovered a number of chests that contained vials of evil-smelling liquids and what looked like powdered bones. For Sir John, the discovery was proof enough that his wife was dabbling in the Black Art. He sent the vials to the Bishop of Ossary together with a letter written by Lady Alice's stepchildren accusing her of consorting with the devil.

The Pope at that time believed that evil spirits could be imprisoned in rings or mirrors for the purpose of obtaining information about events in either the past or the future. To stamp out these practises, he ordered the formation of what was ultimately to become a far greater evil- The Inquisition. The Bishop of Oxssary, eager to please the Pope, duly had Lady Alice arrested, together with 11 others. These were her son by her first marriage, William Outlawe, Robert of Bristol, Alice Faber, John,Helen and Syoh Galrussyn, William Payne de Boly, Eva de Brounestoun, Annota Lange, Petronella de Meath, Alice's maid and Petronella's daughter Sarah.

The indictment stated that sacrifices were made to the demon in various ways; in one of them, the eyes of nine peacocks and nine red cocks were placed on a stone bridge at a crossroads. Ointment was then rubbed on a long beam of wood, mounting the beam, lady Alice and her companions could be carried magically wherever they wished. She was also alleged to have attracted money to the house of her son,William Outlawe, by taking a broom and sweeping the streets of Kilkenny in the afternoon, raking all the filth towards the door of her son and murmuring secretly the words "To the house of William, my son, hie all the wealth of Kilkenny town".

This allegation actually appears in a much later account of the trial and since it is extremely hard to visualise a woman of Lady Alice's calibre sweeping the streets in front of a crowd of interested onlookers, muttering to herself into the bargain- it is very probable that this is a fabrication. The Bishop of Ossary did eventually manage to bring the sorcerers to trial. But Lady Alice was not one of them; she was taken secretly to England together with Sarah de Meath, and although the true facts are not known , she is said to have ended her days there in peace. Her accomplices were all found guilty on lesser charges and sentenced to be publicly whipped, after which they were released.

There were two exceptions, William Outlawe and Petronella de Meath. Poor Petronella was made the scapegoat for the absent Lady Alice. She was horribly tortured, and between her screams of agony, a confession was extracted from her. She was whipped six times through the streets of Kilkenny, then burned at the stake in front of a large crowd. Her confession, it was alleged, included a statement to the effect that she herself had considerable powers as a witch but compared to Lady Alice , she was a novice. Her mitress had taught her evrything she knew, and she believed that there was no more powerful witch in the world.