The current pandemic has caused the greatest upheaval in civilian life since the Second World War. 

Given that there is much we still don’t know about coronavirus, not least of which is how to vaccinate against it, the hysteria has been understandable as an emotional response. However, heavy handed policing caused controversy at the beginning of lockdown. You might remember the case of Derbyshire Police who shamed a couple enjoying a very isolated walk through the Peak District, filming them by the use of a drone. That seems like a long time ago now.

Perhaps predictably, writers such as Peter Hitchens were incensed by what he referred to as Britain being placed “under house arrest,” a further example of the ‘Abolition of Liberty’ as he saw it. Yet Hitchens should take some small relief in the fact that the British government did not turn to the Dark Arts in order to enforce the new measures. 

Kepuh village, on Java island in Indonesia, was recently at the forefront of proactive measures of enforcing quarantine, and in a manner more creative than most. The village enlisted actors to dress as ghosts in order to ‘haunt’ residential areas and scare people into staying home. Specifically, the actors dressed as ‘pocong’, which in Indonesian mythology is the soul of a person who has become entangled in their shroud as they have made their ascent from their body, and thus has been prevented from leaving this realm. According to the tradition, the soul in question will be bound to the Earth for 46 days, in which time they will hop around, the shroud restricting their movements, in search of someone who can untie their garments and release them to their heavenly ascent.

This is not such an original idea, as it bears some resemblance to an initiative by the ‘Information Policy’ section of the British Army stationed in Lisburn during the Troubles, which saw them fabricate rumours of occult activity in primarily Republican areas, so as to create an atmosphere that would frighten people into staying home and obeying curfew. 

One mastermind of the plan was Colin Wallace, from Randalstown, Co. Antrim and therefore with a greater knowledge of local customs than the average squaddie. Wallace is probably best known for his investigation launched into a state cover up of child abuse by Loyalist extremist William McGrath at the Kincora Boys Home in Belfast, now an abandoned house and recently the target of an arson attack. 

The late journalist Paul Foot reported on this “imaginative exercise” in his 1989 book Who Framed Colin Wallace? Information Policy recognised that the populace was highly religious, and a very superstitious people. This was exacerbated of course by the fact they lived in such an emotionally volatile situation as the Troubles. Wallace and co. therefore set out to cultivate hysteria among the populace, with the aim of keeping them indoors during curfew hours, and with a secondary objective of smearing paramilitary organisations, especially on the Republican side, with “a bit of the anti-Christ.” 

Wallace went out and bought a supply of black candles, while he and his colleagues managed to get their hands on genuine chickens blood and feathers, which they used to set up a number of ‘magic circles’ in derelict houses. They made crosses which were hung upside down on paths leading to these “satanic sites,” and spread rumours of ‘covens’ which were operating in the area. Wallace read several books on the subject, becoming an expert on the Order of a Satanic Service. 

The culmination of their efforts was the front page headline of the Sunday World, on 28th October 1973,  ‘Black Magic Fear in Two Border Towns,’ reporting on a “witchcraft scare” which had been gathering momentum following “a British army raid on a black magic ceremony” in a ruined castle on Chapel Street, Newry which was land owned by a local Republican slumlord. The Sunday World reported that “Clergy of all denominations, RUC, and teachers in Newry” all entered into a pact of silence on the matter so as to avoid spreading the panic further. 

“The witchcraft craze” as Foot referred to it proved to be the most effective method the British Army had known of enforcing curfew and keeping people off the streets. The publicity of the Army initiative was instantaneous in its effectiveness, as parents became frightened of their children being seduced by Satanic forces. Watchtowers in these areas were trouble-free. It seems that where the British Army had been powerless, Irish mothers were more than capable of orchestrating control.