Context - The Lammas Hireling

• 'The Lammas Hireling' doesn't specify when it is set, but it certainly feels like a fairly distant past, a time in Britain and Ireland when belief in witches and the supernatural held greater control over the population
• The poet of 'The Lammas Hireling' is Ian Duhig
• Lammas Day is a festival which marks the annual wheat harvest and is celebrated on the 1st August every year
• Witchcraft was a dominant belief in England and was officially deemed as an offence in 1563
• From the late 15th century to the mid-1700's around 200,000 supposed witches were killed or tortured
• 'The Lammas Hireling' explores themes of Homosexuality (sin in the Catholic Church), Duhig could be attacking the Catholic Church as Pope Francis (2017) acknowledged that the Vatican had a backlog of 2000 sex abuse cases (inspired films such as 'Spotlight')