The Maggie Wall - by Martin McCormick

There is a more appropriate academic, playwright or storyteller than me out there who will write about the persecution of women – and men, but overwhelmingly women – tried and executed as witches in Scotland. That person will write from their own shared-experience of being marginalised, victimised or othered and often the perpetrator of their trauma will be male, or is protected by an institution which is inherently male (I don’t need to cite the recent investigations of the London Metropolitan Police to make my point heard).

Perhaps, this storyteller will have a direct connection to a community of people pardoned by the Scottish Government in by the former First Minister (the campaign to seek justice for women murdered as Witches in Scotland was successful led by many including Claire Mitchell KC in 2022). All this being said, I really don’t feel qualified to talk about the history witches in Scotland. All I did was write The Maggie Wall.

And it’s only since I discovered the existence of the actual Maggie Wall monument near the town of Dunning (and thought about the possibilities of drama or narrative within this) that I ask myself a question. Is writing about female persecution my story to tell? As far as we can tell the most prominent monument to witches in Scotland laments a woman that never even existed. There is no trace of a person called ‘Maggie Wall’. Even in the very thorough historical records of the scores of people tried and executed in Perthshire. But there is a monument to Maggie Wall which states she was “Burnt Here 1657 as a Witch”. Why would someone do this? You see, both the Maggie Wall monument and the notion of writing a play on this subject are riddled with contradictions, missteps and ambiguity.

And there’s the clue, or should I say cue, for the storyteller in me to step in and be curious of the meaning in this and its relevance. And I genuinely believe there is a relevance and power in giving her a voice and confronting the question of “is this my story to tell?”. Because the Maggie Wall represents something more than just a whimsical tale of a fictional character; by confronting this question we are taught a lesson. The misogyny and violence towards women by a predominantly male establishment has never really dissipated. I saw there was vein, a throughline, from then to now and, probably, beyond. Of course, we don’t try women as witches but what we do have in our society is an establishment and a culture of violence towards women that shows no signs of abating.

The final line in The Maggie Wall is a call to arms when in the throes of executions she proclaims, “When will it ever stop?” and I feel there is a prescience in this notion that permeates through history. The production might be a quasi-allegory, but the themes are still tragically universal. Yes, we cannot stop individual acts of arbitrary violence towards the marginalised or, seemingly, weak but we can do something to change a mindset that protects the perpetrator. This production is not about getting the story of Maggie ‘right’ because we will never, sadly, know her story. But it can be about reminding us that we all have duty to ensure that today is the day that we respond to her call to arms.

by Martin McCormick

Writer