Film historical research

Witch Trials In Ireland

The island Magee Witch Trials are reported as the last witch trials in Ireland. They began with reports of poltergeists and possession in the house of a Mrs Haltridge in 1710. 

                                                                                                  
A woman named Dunbar was also tormented by the poltergeists, an apron with "witches' knots" was found, and Dunbar claimed to be attacked by women in her bed. 

She named the women, and eight women were arrested and put on trial for having caused the phenomena with witchcraft, they were eventually found guilty and sentenced to one years imprisonment.

Although we are not basing our character on the exact Island Magee witch trials it is important to have this knowledge of a similar case. The underwater submersion of our character is a key element to our plot and this did not occur with the Island Magee Trials, therefore we have based our back story in a more general way. 

Dunking

A method of attempting to prove or disprove if someone was a witch. The accused who sank was considered innocent, while floating indicated witchcraft. It was thought that witches floated because they had renounced baptism when entering the Devil's service.                                                                                                             The ordeal would normally be carried out with a rope holding the subject connected to assistants sitting in a boat or the like, so that the person being tested could be pulled up if he/she did not float; the notion that the ordeal was flatly devised as a situation without any possibility of live acquittal, even if the outcome was 'innocent', is a modern elaboration. This is the process in which are protagonist has previously suffered from and been left after.

18th Century Dress/Night Wear

To compliment the background story of our opening we plan to dress our protagonist in night wear to give the impression she was taken in the night in a struggle. 

After researching typical night wear of the 18th century, the first striking thing is that it was almost always white or cream and took the form of a long flowing dress. Some more detailed than others, depending on the status of the owner. 

Too add authenticity to our character we are going to recreate an 18th century night dress as accurately as possible. All examples of the night wear I have seen so far have been mostly ankle length however in our character we made the choice to have her in a slightly shorter gown to help portray our character as more exposed and vulnerable but to also suggest that she was part of a poor family that could not always afford new clothing. People with low social status were the most often accused of witch craft than those placed high on the social ladder.