The prisoner [Anne McAvine] in this case was indicted for obtaining money under false pretences. The indictment set forth that the prisoner, being an evil-disposed person, and fraudently intending to cheat and defraud certain persons on the 14th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1860, at Brookboro’, in the County of Fermanagh, did unlawfully, knowingly, and designedly, falsely pretend that the said Anne McAvine had influence with certain beings called fairies and that through the agency of the said fairies she would obtain a large sum of money – to wit, £11,000 – by means of false pretences, etc. Dawson, Jane of Brookboro’, deposed that the prisoner was in the habit of offering to obtain money for her from the fairies; she at last consented, and gave her £2 11s. 6d., for which sum the prisoner was to have obtained for her £11,000, at the same time swearing her to secrecy on the Bible. She subsequently gave her at different times £2 11s. 6d., £1 11s. 6d., £1 1 s. 5d., and at four different times 7s. 6d., and again at four different times 5s., besides shop goods, furniture, and wearing apparel to the amount of £2 or £3. For all this money she received a bottle of oil to rub on her eyes when she should arrive in Scotland, where she was going; that when she would do so she would see a gentleman who would bring her to a house where she would get the money from the fairies but she never got any.’ ‘The performances commenced in Spring last, and continued for some months, till Dawson began to get anxious for the fulfilment of the contract. Mrs McAvinea consulted her favourite fairy, ‘Little Mick’ as she called him, and he said Dawson must go to Scotland when, without fail, the money would be got. On landing she must rub some oil on her eyes, which he (the fairy) supplied, and on opening them a person would meet her and take her to a furnished house and give her the cash. The poor woman fulfilled her part  to the very letter, but without effect. After remaining for a few months, during which time she kept up a correspondence with McAvinea, complaining very much, of course, of her want of success, she told her to return to Ireland, as all was in a fair way of being accomplished; she came back hoping that luck would turn on this side of the water. But she must make further sacrifices, or the charm could not be completed. A portion of her own and her husband’s clothing and bed clothes must be given, and more money. Want now began to stare the family in the face, and, though sworn to secrecy, Dawson made information before a magistrate, had McAvinea arrested, and she has been fully committed from the Petty Sessions to jail to stand her trial at the next Assizes. The Court-house was densely crowded, as such a case had not occurred in this part of the country in the memory of any person living. Strange to say, Dawson’s husband was kept in the dark all through, as and cash they had among them was the wife’s, which she got by a legacy. At all events, they were fleeced to the tune of about £20, between cash, value, and expenses, and left without a shilling. All this was sworn to, and much more, to the great amusement of the crowded court. So much for fairies in Fermanagh.’ The prisoner was eventually sentenced to twelve months. ‘Extraordinary Credulity in the Nineteenth Century’*, Belfast News-Letter (11 Feb 1861) no. 13895, p. 4