Oh, it’s magic: The Irish witch contingent

Across the world, witchcraft is gaining momentum as pagan and Wiccan spirituality draws greater numbers of acolytes. But what of the Irish witch contingent? Sarah Taaffe-Maguire met four modern-day witches to find out more about life outside the broom closet

Barbara Lee at the Druid’s chair in Killiney: ‘We don’t go around casting spells’ Pic: Bryan Meade

Barbara Lee

“I’m just really, really busy and Mercury is in retrograde, so everything is kind of like ‘ah feck’ . . . you’re lucky to get me at all,” says Barbara Lee. Busy schedule aside, what is life like as a south Dublin-based witch?

“There’s not much great mystique about me,” Lee says, “though, apparently, I do frighten small children sometimes. We don’t go around casting spells. We don’t go around wearing ...