When we try to picture to ourselves the public life of 300 years ago, or even 100 years ago, we must not think of the individual receiving his daily paper, his weekly publications, or his online blog, or simply searching the internet were dozens of web sites deal with all sorts of specialties. The scanty material at disposal would have discouraged almost any collaborator but St. John D. Seymour, whose work on the subject of "Irish Witchcraft and Demonology" is so complete, so full of patient research, that the reader feels on conclusion that practically nothing has been disregarded to make the subject of absorbing interest, as well as of most material benefit to those whose desire it may be to study the conditions of life, the medical arts, the superstitious beliefs, and the state of the judicial courts existing in Ireland from 1400 onwards. Up to now the subject of Seymour's book may justly claim to have been a chapter unwritten in Irish history, and has never been fully treated of before. Scraps of information here and there have appeared, but theis author has been the first to gather together these stories from out-of-the-way sources, and to present them to the reader in a concise and palatable form. He draws attention to the plan of his work where he states:-"That the belief in fairies and such-like beings is hardly touched upon at all, except in those instances where fairy lore and witchcraft become inextricably blended." In this the author shows great tact, and clear reasoning.
By omitting fairy lore he has added to the value of the work, which is really a history of the state of society into which witchcraft and demonology as natural events entered, specifically in Ireland after the clash and turmoil of war had somewhat declined.At the same time Ireland remained tolerably exempt from the Continental, English, and Scottish epidemic of witch persecution. The author, among other reasons, rightly attributes this immunity in Ireland to the absence of literature on the subject. In England, from the 16th century, countless books appeared on evils of witchcraft, while in Ireland, with the exception of a pamphlet of 1699, there were no traces of any witchcraft literary productions, and Seymour had to consult two London printed books for the historic trial at Youghal of Florence Newton in 1661. Punishment of death by fire was not employed in Ireland to any great extent, while during the same period on the Continent it was in continual request, and persons to the number of millions were tortured and executed in various ways for witchcraft and sorcery. This makes the study of the notable cases in Ireland all the more interesting, enabling the reader to follow closely the author's account of the particular occurrences, and to fully understand and appreciate the facts and causes leading up to the trials and punishments meted out to those detected in guilt.It is curious to note that to read the author's account of the famous case of Dame Alice Kyteler, which occurred in the reign of King Edward II., about 500 years ago, in the town of Kilkenny.
How a high-born lady, with her accomplices, Petronella and others, assisted by an evil spirit, Robin Artisson. could undertake all the wicked acts imputed to her and her associates is veritably the story of a dark chapter in human nature, and especially attractive as showing the early ideas regarding the employment of an incubus or demon.