“The crowning achievement of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, the thing which is unparalleled elsewhere in the world, is the complete and awful (sic) chastity of the people. There is many a country district where that incident which in England and Scotland is regarded merely as a slight misfortune is unknown and unimagined by the people. I have seen a man, the father of a grown-up family, blanch19 and hold up his[73] hands at the very name of it, as though even to breath it were a blasphemy20. And this, in itself a good thing, has reached such a point that it has become a dreadful evil. It is no longer a virtue, it is a blight21.”
And the dear young gentleman goes on to assert that it is the chastity of the Irish people which fills Irish lunatic asylums22, and exclaims dithyrambically: “There may be no bastards23 in Ireland, but a hundred bastards would, in Ireland’s peculiar24 circumstances, be a more gracious and healthy sign than one lunatic.” Here surely is wisdom of the highest and most delightful25 type. We have already seen that the increase of lunacy in Ireland has been pronounced, by the committee which sat on the question in Dublin, to be mainly due to excessive drinking and the assimilation of adulterated spirits. The committee may not have been right; for my own part I believe it was decidedly wrong. But it delivered itself of no pronouncement which warrants either the scientific or the[74] ribald to associate Irish lunacy with chastity, rather than with drink or other predispositions. If chastity fills the lunatic asylums how come the Irish priesthood to be at large, or for that matter the women of the English middle classes, and honest women all the world over? And if bastardy27 be a preventative of lunacy, how comes it that in Scotland you have as many lunatics as you have in Ireland, and about ten times as many bastards? Can it be that of two evils Caledonia, with her customary shrewdness, has chosen both? The suggestion is as ridiculous as it is abominable29, and as scandalous as it is malicious30. Even in the sense which our Daily Mail young person may be presumed to have in mind, it is the direct opposite of chastity that helps to people lunatic asylums, and never chastity itself, “blight” or no blight. I mention this wholly unprecedented31 incursion into sophistry32 only by way of showing what the astute33 censors34 of Ireland really can do when they set themselves to the work;[75] and although I have no proof on the subject I should like to wager35 that the author of it is an Orangeman and of Scotch36 extraction. It is no compliment to Ireland to say that, in theory at any rate, her morals are entirely37 sound. In other words, Ireland believes in virtue and goodness, even though she may not always succeed in living up to her tenet, and though, for reasons which need not be discussed, she may be possessed38 of primal39 dispositions26 to the sorriest evil.
And it is the solemn and deplorable fact that there does exist in the Irish blood a tendency toward wickedness of the most ghastly and inhuman40 character. A case in point is afforded by the frightful41 doing to death of Mrs. Bridget Cleary at Ballyvadlea in 1895. The following account of this tragedy is abridged42 from Mr. M’Carthy’s Five Years in Ireland:
“Mrs. Cleary fell ill on Wednesday, the 13th of March, and sent for a doctor and a priest. The priest saw her in the afternoon.[76] She was in bed, and ‘she did not converse43 with him except as a priest, and her conversation was quite coherent and intelligible44.’ The doctor also saw her, thought her illness slight, prescribed for her and left.… On the morning of Thursday the 14th Father Ryan ‘was called to see Mrs. Cleary again, but he told the messenger that having administered the last rites45 of the Church on the previous day there was no need to see her again so soon.’… William Simpson, a near neighbor of the Clearys, living only 200 yards off, accompanied by his wife, left their own house between nine and ten o’clock on Thursday evening to visit Mrs. Cleary, having heard she was ill. When they arrived close to Cleary’s house they met Mrs. Johanna Burke, accompanied by her little daughter, Katie Burke, and inquired from her how Mrs. Cleary was. Mrs. Burke, herself a first cousin of Mrs. Cleary’s, said, ‘They are giving her herbs, got from Ganey,[77] over the mountain, and nobody will be let in for some time.’ These four people then remained outside the house for some time, waiting to be let in. Simpson heard cries inside, and a voice shouting, ‘Take it, you b?, you old faggot, or we will burn you!’ The shutters46 of the windows were closed and the door locked. After some time the door was opened and from within shouts were heard: ‘Away she go! Away she go!’ As Simpson afterward47 learned, the door had been opened to permit the fairies to leave the house, and the adjuration48 was addressed to those ‘supernatural’ beings.
“In the confusion Simpson, his wife, Mrs. Burke, and her little daughter, worked their way into the house.… Simpson saw four men—John Dunne, described as an old man, Patrick Kennedy, James Kennedy, and William Kennedy, all young men, ‘big black-haired Tipperary peasants,’ brothers of Mrs. Burke and first cousins of Mrs. Cleary, ‘holding Bridget Cleary down on the bed.[78] She was on her back, and had a night-dress on her. Her husband, Michael Cleary, was standing49 by the bedside.’
“Cleary called for a liquid, and said, ‘Throw it on her.’ Mary Kennedy, an old woman, mother of Mrs. Burke, and of all the other Kennedys present, brought the liquid. Michael Kennedy held the saucepan. The liquid was dashed over Bridget Cleary several times. Her father, Patrick Boland, was present. William Ahearne, described as a delicate youth of sixteen, was holding a candle. Bridget Cleary was struggling, vainly, alas50! on the bed, crying out, ‘Leave me alone.’ Simpson then saw her husband give her some liquid with a spoon; she was held down by force by the men for ten minutes afterward, and one of the men kept his hand on her mouth. The men at each side of the bed kept her body swinging about the whole time, and shouting, ‘Away with you! Come back, Bridget Boland, in the name of[79] God!’ She screamed horribly. They cried out, ‘Come home, Bridget Boland.’ From these proceedings51 Simpson gathered that ‘they thought Bridget Cleary was a witch,’ or had a witch in her, whom they ‘endeavored to hunt out of the house by torturing her body.’
“Some time afterward she was lifted out of the bed by the men, or rather demons53, and carried to the kitchen fire by John Dunne, Patrick, William, and James Kennedy. Simpson saw red marks on her forehead, and some one present said they had to ‘use the red poker54 on her to make her take the medicine.’ The four men named held poor Bridget Cleary, in her night-dress, over the fire; and Simpson ‘could see her body resting on the bars of the grate where the fire was burning.’ While this was being done, we learn that the Rosary was said. Her husband put her some questions at the fire. He said if she did not answer her name[80] three times they would burn her. She, poor thing, repeated her name three times after her father and her husband!
“‘Are you Bridget Boland, wife of Michael Cleary, in the name of God?’
“‘I am Bridget Boland, daughter of Patrick Boland, in the name of God.’
“Simpson said they showed feverish55 anxiety to get her answers before twelve o’clock.
“They were all speaking and saying, Do you think it is her that is there? And the answer would be ‘Yes,’ and they were all delighted.
“After she had answered the questions they put her back into bed, and ‘the women put a clean chemise on her,’ which Johanna Burke ‘aired for her.’ She was then asked to identify each person in the room, and did so successfully. The Kennedys left the house at one o’clock ‘to attend the wake of Cleary’s father,’ who was lying dead that night at Killenaule! Dunne and Ahearne left at two o’clock. It was six o’clock on[81] the morning of the 15th, ‘about daybreak,’ when the Simpsons and Johanna Burke left the house after those hellish orgies. There had been thirteen people present in Cleary’s house on that night, yet no one outside the circle of the perpetrators themselves seems to have known, or cared, if they knew, of the devilish goings-on in that laborer’s cottage.
“At one time during that horrible night the poor victim said, ‘The police are at the window. Let ye mind me now!’ But there were no police there.
“We now come to the third day, Friday, 15th of March. Six o’clock on that morning found Michael Cleary, the chief actor, Patrick Boland and Mary Kennedy in the house with the poor victim, when the two Simpsons and the two Burkes were leaving. Simpson says, ‘Cleary then went for the priest, as he wanted to have Mass said in the house to banish57 the evil spirits.’ This brings us back again to the Rev28. Father Ryan,[82] who says, ‘At seven o’clock on Friday morning I was next summoned. Michael Cleary asked me to come to his house and celebrate Mass: his wife had had a very bad night.’… Father Ryan arrived at the cottage at a quarter past eight, and said Mass in that awful front room where poor Bridget Cleary was lying in bed.…
“‘She seemed more nervous and excited than on Wednesday,’ he says, and adds, ‘her husband and father were present before Mass began, but I could not say who was there during its celebration.’ He had no conversation with Michael Cleary ‘as to any incident which had occurred,’ because he suspected nothing. ‘When leaving,’ he said, ‘I asked Cleary was he giving his wife the medicine the doctor ordered? Cleary answered that he had no faith in it. I told him that it should be administered. Cleary replied that people may have some remedy of their own that could do more good than doctor’s medicine.’ Yet, Father Ryan left the[83] house ‘suspecting nothing.’ ‘Had he any suspicion of foul58 play or witchcraft59,’ he says, ‘he should have at once absolutely refused to say Mass in the house, and have given information to the police.’…
“After Father Ryan had said his Mass and left, Mrs. Cleary remained in bed. Simpson saw her there at midday and never saw her afterward. His excuse for his presence and non-interference on Thursday night is that ‘the door was locked, and he could not get out.’ We find the names of still more people mentioned as having visited her this day. She seems, judging from the number of visitors, to have been extremely popular. Johanna Burke seems to have been in the house the greater part of this day. At one time she tells how Cleary came up to the bedside and handed his wife a canister, and said there was ￡20 in it. She, poor creature, took it, tied it up, ‘and told her husband to take care of it, that he would not know the difference till he was without[84] it.’ She was ‘in her right mind, only frightened at everything.’
“At length the night fell upon the scene; and, at eight o’clock, Cleary, who seems to have ordered all the other actors about as if they were hypnotized, sent Johanna Burke and her little daughter Katie for ‘Thomas Smith and David Hogan.’ Smith says, ‘We all went to Cleary’s, and found Michael Cleary, Mary Kennedy, Johanna Meara, Pat Leahy, and Pat Boland in the bedroom.’ The husband had a bottle in his hand, and said to the poor bewildered wife, ‘Will you take this now, as Tom Smith and David Hogan are here? In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!’ Tom Smith, a man who said ‘he had known her always since she was born,’ then inquired what was in the bottle, and Cleary told him it was holy water. Poor Bridget Cleary said ‘Yes,’ and she took it. She had to say, before taking it, ‘In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,’ which she did. Smith and[85] Hogan then left the bedside and ‘went and sat at the fire.’ Cleary told them that his wife, ‘as she had company, was going to get up.’ She actually left her bed, put on ‘a frock and shawl,’ and came to the kitchen fire. The talk turned upon bishogues, or witchcraft and charms. Smith remained there till twelve o’clock, and then left the house, leaving Michael Cleary (husband), Patrick Boland (father), Mary Kennedy (aunt), Patrick, James, and William Kennedy (cousins), Johanna Burke, and her little daughter Katie (also cousins), behind him in the house. Thomas Smith never saw Bridget Cleary after that. According to Johanna Burke, they continued ‘talking about fairies,’ and poor Bridget Cleary, sitting there by the fire in her frock and shawl, wan56 and terrified, had said to her husband, ‘Your mother used to go with the fairies; that is why you think I am going with them.’
“‘Did my mother tell you that?’ exclaimed Cleary.
[86]
“‘She did. That she gave two nights with them,’ replied she.…
“Johanna Burke then says that she made tea and ‘offered Bridget Cleary a cup.’ But Cleary jumped up, and getting ‘three bits of bread and jam,’ said she would ‘have to eat them before she could take a sup.’ He asked her as he gave her each bit, ‘Are you Bridget Cleary, wife of Michael Cleary, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?’ The poor, desolate60 young woman answered twice and swallowed two pieces. We all know how difficult it is, when wasted by suffering and excited by fear, to swallow a bit of dry bread without a drop of liquid to soften61 it. It, in fact, was the task set to those in the olden days who had to undergo the ‘ordeal by bread.’ How many of them, we are told, failed to accomplish it! Poor Bridget Cleary failed now at the third bit presented to her by the demon52 who confronted her. She could not answer the third time.
[87]
“He ‘forced her to eat the third bit.’ He threatened her, ‘If you won’t take it, down you go!’ He flung her to the ground, put his knee on her chest, and one hand on her throat, forcing the bit of bread and jam down her throat.
“‘Swallow it, swallow it. Is it down? Is it down?’ he cried.
“The woman Burke says she said to him, ‘Mike, let her alone; don’t you see it is Bridget that is in it?’ and explains, ‘He suspected it was a fairy and not his wife.’
“Let Burke now tell how the hellish murder was accomplished62: ‘Michael Cleary stripped his wife’s clothes off, except her chemise, and got a lighted stick out of the fire, and held it near her mouth. My mother (Mary Kennedy), brothers (Patrick, James, and William Kennedy), and myself wanted to leave, but Cleary said he had the key of the door, and the door would not be opened till he got his wife back.’
“They were crying in the room and wanting[88] to get out. This crowd in the room crying, while Cleary was killing63 their first cousin in the kitchen!
“‘I saw Cleary throw lamp-oil on her. When she was burning, she turned to me’ (imagine that face of woe64!) ‘and called out, “Oh, Han, Han!” I endeavored to get out for the peelers. My brother William went up into the other room and fell in a weakness, and my mother threw Easter water over him. Bridget Cleary was all this time burning on the hearth65, and the house was full of smoke and smell. I had to go up to the room, I could not stand it. Cleary then came up into the room where we were and took away a large sack bag. He said, “Hold your tongue, Hannah, it is not Bridget I am burning. You will soon see her go up into the chimney.” My brothers, James and William, said, “Burn her if you like, but give us the key and let us get out.” While she was burning, Cleary screamed out, “She is burned now. God knows I did not mean[89] to do it.” When I looked down into the other room again, I saw the remains66 of Bridget Cleary lying on the floor on a sheet. She was lying on her face and her legs turned upward, as if they had contracted in burning. She was dead and burned.’”
There is nothing which quite parallels the foregoing in the whole history of crime. At least a dozen persons, male and female, had knowledge of what was going on in that dreadful household over three days. Not one of them had bowels67 of compassion68, not one of them lifted a little finger in the victim’s behalf. The majority of them were her blood relations, all of them were Catholics, not one of them but could have informed the priest, the doctor or the police of what was taking place had he or she been so minded. But the devilish poison raging in the blood of the woman’s husband raged also in their veins69. They stood fascinated in the presence of superstitions70 which they had[90] drawn71 in with their mother’s milk. They believed in their hearts that Cleary and themselves were righteously, if terribly, occupied. They said the Rosary. And they did all things in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost!
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1
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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immoral
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| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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professes
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| 声称( profess的第三人称单数 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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euphonious
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| adj.好听的，悦耳的，和谐的 | |
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effrontery
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| n.厚颜无耻 | |
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cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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thrift
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| adj.节约，节俭；n.节俭，节约 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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bigotry
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| n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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materialism
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| n.［哲］唯物主义，唯物论；物质至上 | |
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pusillanimity
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| n.无气力，胆怯 | |
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apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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blanch
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| v.漂白；使变白；使(植物)不见日光而变白 | |
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blasphemy
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| n.亵渎，渎神 | |
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blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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asylums
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| n.避难所( asylum的名词复数 )；庇护；政治避难；精神病院 | |
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bastards
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| 私生子( bastard的名词复数 )； 坏蛋； 讨厌的事物； 麻烦事 （认为别人走运或不幸时说）家伙 | |
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peculiar
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delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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bastardy
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| 私生子，庶出； 非婚生 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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unprecedented
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| adj.无前例的，新奇的 | |
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sophistry
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| n.诡辩 | |
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astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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censors
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| 删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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wager
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| n.赌注；vt.押注，打赌 | |
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scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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primal
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| adj.原始的；最重要的 | |
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inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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abridged
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| 削减的，删节的 | |
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converse
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| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
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intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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adjuration
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| n.祈求，命令 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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51
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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52
demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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53
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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54
poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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55
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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56
wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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banish
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| vt.放逐，驱逐；消除，排除 | |
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58
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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64
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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66
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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67
bowels
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| n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处 | |
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compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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69
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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70
superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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71
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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