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RTÉ’s Dr Marie Cassidy Investigates Ireland’s Last Witch Trial examines the 1711 Islandmagee witch trial in County Antrim, when 18-year-old Mary Dunbar accused eight local women of witchcraft. The women were convicted at Carrickfergus and sentenced to a year in prison plus four appearances in the pillory. The programme is scheduled for RTÉ One at 10:15 p.m. on Thursday, 29 October 2026, with catch-up on RTÉ Player. It has not yet aired as of 26 October 2026, so its investigative suggestions should not be treated as established explanations of the historical events.
What happened in Ireland’s last witch trial?
The case began in a Scots Presbyterian community on Islandmagee in 1711. Mary Dunbar, aged 18, was reported to display behaviour that neighbours interpreted as demonic possession. She named eight local women as witches. The accused women were prosecuted at Carrickfergus, found guilty and given a punishment designed to be both physical and public.
Each woman received one year in prison and four appearances in the pillory on market day. In the pillory, a person was locked into a wooden frame in a public place and could be pelted by members of the crowd. The surviving sources cited for the programme do not establish what happened to the women after those sentences, so a later fate cannot responsibly be supplied.
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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →The case is often called Ireland’s last witch trial. More precisely, researchers describe it as the last Irish trial conducted under the dedicated Witchcraft Act of 1586. That legal qualification matters: a later proceeding in 1711 convicted William Sellor, and the surviving records concern two separate proceedings rather than one trial of nine people together.
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When and where will the documentary be broadcast?
Dr Marie Cassidy Investigates Ireland’s Last Witch Trial is scheduled to premiere on RTÉ One on Thursday, 29 October 2026, at 10:15 p.m. RTÉ says the episode will then be available for catch-up on RTÉ Player. Because the broadcast is still in the future, descriptions of its experiments and conclusions are programme previews, not independent viewing reports.
Who made the programme?
Edel O’Mahony is identified as director and Andrea McCartney as scriptwriter. The filmmakers say: “We hope that our film challenges the established narrative of the times surrounding witches and witchcraft.” RTÉ presents that as a collective statement from the makers, not as a quotation attributable to one named individual.
How does the programme investigate the 1711 accusations?
The documentary is framed through modern scientific and historical perspectives rather than simply retelling the verdict. Its preview mentions a possible connection between reported sulphur exposure and symptoms such as nausea or visual effects. It also refers to an experiment exploring the possible physical effects of punishment in the pillory.
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Those ideas are investigative hypotheses. A possible toxic exposure does not prove what caused Dunbar’s reported behaviour, and an experiment about pillory conditions cannot demonstrate exactly what the eight women experienced. The historical record contains accusations and testimony from the period, not a modern clinical assessment of Dunbar or a controlled reconstruction of the punishment.
What do the surviving records show?
A digital trial-document collection assembled by researchers Andrew Sneddon and Shannon Devlin brings together a contemporary pamphlet, pre-trial depositions, letters and newspaper reports. The editors state that the transcriptions retain original spelling, pagination and page layout; transcription and annotation were completed in 2022. These materials offer unusually direct access to the case, while still reflecting the assumptions, language and evidentiary limits of the early eighteenth century.
The existence of those documents does not settle every argument about the accusations. Records preserve what people reported and recorded, not an objective medical explanation of possession claims. They also require care when distinguishing the March proceeding involving the eight women from the later case in which William Sellor was convicted.
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Why is Mary Dunbar’s story still disputed?
Historian Andrew Sneddon has argued, in RTÉ’s earlier coverage, that Dunbar fabricated possession. He also proposed social and political reasons for the accusations. That is Sneddon’s interpretation as reported by RTÉ, not an uncontested historical fact. Other readings must account for the same depositions, community pressures and religious context without turning a surviving allegation into proof.
The Islandmagee case took place in a local Scots Presbyterian community, where religious belief, reputation and neighbourhood relationships shaped how unusual behaviour was understood. The legal process converted those interpretations into criminal convictions, making the women’s punishment a public spectacle as well as a prison sentence.
How does this case fit the wider history of witch trials?
Useful comparisons should begin with jurisdiction and law, then examine the accusations and evidence recorded, the verdict and punishment, the religious and local setting, and the primary documents that survive. Islandmagee should not be confused with Salem: it occurred in County Antrim under Irish law and involved a different community, court process and documentary record.
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The central figures are case details rather than population statistics:
| Detail | What the record reports |
|---|---|
| March 1711 proceeding | Eight women accused and convicted |
| Sentence | One year in prison and four market-day pillory appearances |
| Later 1711 proceeding | William Sellor convicted in a separate case |
| Legal framework | Dedicated Witchcraft Act of 1586 |
Where can viewers read more about Islandmagee?
RTÉ identifies Andrew Sneddon’s book Possessed by the Devil: The Real History of the Islandmagee Witches as an important source of inspiration for the documentary. The digitised trial-document collection edited by Sneddon and Devlin is useful for readers who want to inspect the surviving pamphlet, depositions, letters and reports directly. Neither resource should be read as eliminating the uncertainty surrounding Dunbar’s symptoms or the women’s later lives.
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Was anyone executed in the Islandmagee witch trial?
The cited accounts describe convictions, imprisonment and pillory appearances, not executions. They also do not establish the eight women’s later fate after completing or serving those sentences.
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Was William Sellor tried with the eight Islandmagee women?
No. Researchers describe his conviction as a further 1711 proceeding held a few months later. The surviving records therefore cover separate March and September proceedings rather than a single nine-person trial.
What does “Ireland’s last witch trial” mean legally?
The phrase is commonly used by RTÉ for the Islandmagee case. The more precise description from the trial-document project is that it was the last Irish witch trial held under the dedicated Witchcraft Act of 1586.
Can sulphur exposure explain Mary Dunbar’s reported possession?
The documentary preview raises sulphur exposure as a possible explanation for nausea or visual effects. That remains an investigative hypothesis; the surviving historical record does not provide conclusive medical proof of the cause.
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