Pitchcapping

Pitchcapping is a form of torture which involves pouring hot pitch or tar (mainly used at the time for water-proofing seams in the sides of ships and boats) into a conical paper cap and forcing it onto an individual's head, which is then allowed to cool before being rapidly removed.

Another form of pitchcapping involved smearing cloth or a piece of paper with pitch and pressing it onto the head of the victim.

[1] Early antecedents of pitchcapping were used in the period of classical antiquity, when hot liquids, including molten metals, were used as a form of execution.

During the Irish Rebellion of 1798 against British rule in Ireland, government forces, in particular the militia and yeomanry, frequently used pitchcapping against suspected rebels.

[citation needed] Society of United Irishmen member Myles Byrne described pitchcapping in his memoirs: Flogging, half hanging, picketing, were mild tortures in comparison of the pitch caps that were applied to the heads of those who happened to wear their hair short, called croppies; the head being completely singed, a cap made of strong linen well imbued with boiling pitch was so closely put on that it could not be taken off without bringing off a part of the skin and flesh from the head : in many instances the tortured victim had one of his ears cut off to satisfy the executioner that if he escaped he could readily be discovered, being so well marked.