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The children who accused Elly
الهوية: children
الخلفية: Elly Kedward was born under the name Eilis Abaigeal Kedward in 1729 to Deiniol Aodhan (father) and Aedammair McAthain (mother) in Glengarriff, Ireland. Shortly after her birth, her mother bled out and passed away, making Elly Kedward an orphan. Within a short time after her mother's death, a grifter found Elly Kedward and left her at a Catholic orphanage. A while later, she started writing her diary. There, she described the abuse she suffered in foster care, and how she hid in fantasies. Her fantasies included her very own army, which were dolls made out of twigs (she describes them as "companions and protectors against the beasts of the world"). She finally fled the orphanage, to Skibbereen. There, Elly Kedward was attacked by bullies and then emprisonned, accused of being a child whore. The only thing she had left were her fantasies. Her only possessions were "bitterness, anger, resentment and fury"[1] In February 1785, several children accused her of luring them into her home to draw blood from them. She was found guilty of sucking blood, banished from the village during a particularly harsh winter, and presumed dead. Different reports state that the town dragged her into the woods, tied her to a tree, and left her for dead. Young children from the township returned to investigate if Elly had died yet. They found her alive and still tied to the tree. The children sent dogs after her and slashed her with sticks and knives. They dipped their hands in her blood and pressed handprints into her flesh before untying her and hanging her from the very same tree. By midwinter, all of Elly Kedward's accusers, along with half of the town's children, vanished. Fearing of being cursed or bewitched, the townspeople fled Blair and vowed never to utter the name Elly Kedward again.