March 31st , 1711
The Islandmagee witch trials were two criminal trials in Carrickfergus in 1711 for alleged witchcraft at Islandmagee. It is believed to have been the last witch trial to take place in Ireland.
The events took place in and around Knowehead House in the townland of Kilcoan More in Islandmagee, a peninsula and civil parish in southeast County Antrim with a large Presbyterian population of Ulster Scots origin. The trial was the result of a claim by Mrs. James Haltridge of Knowehead House that 18-year-old Mary Dunbar exhibited signs of demonic possession such as “shouting, swearing, blaspheming, throwing Bibles, going into fits every time a clergyman came near her and vomiting household items such as pins, buttons, nails, glass and wool”. Assisted by local authorities, Dunbar picked out eight women she claimed were witches that had attacked her in spectral form.[1][2] During the arrest of the eight, they were set upon by a frenzied mob and one of the accused lost an eye. After the March 1711 trial and conviction of these eight, Dunbar had further attacks and blamed William Sellor. Dunbar died in April and Sellor was tried and convicted in September 1711.
