A wonderful conspiracy?
QUESTION
Christmas film It’s A Wonderful Life subject to an FBIWas the
classic investigation? FRANK CAPRA’S 1946 movie It’s A Wonderful Life, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, is a classic shown on TV every year over Christmas.
However, amid the fevered atmosphere of the McCarthy witch hunts against communists, the FBI took a different view.
In a 1947 memo, the following was written about the film: ‘With regard to the picture It’s A Wonderful Life, [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore (playing Mr Henry F Potter) as a “Scrooge type” so he would be the most hated man in the picture.
‘This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by communists.’
The hero of the film, George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), and his father Peter (Samuel S Hinds) were also bankers, but they were beloved by the people of Bedford Falls, New York.
George’s actions ultimately save the Bailey Bros. Building & Loan from ruin. But these details escaped the FBI’s analysis, which concluded that the film ‘deliberately maligned the upper class’.
Keith Gower, Malvern, Worcs.
QUESTION
After a death in the family, it was once the practice to stop the clocks, close the curtains and cover mirrors. What was the significance of such customs? THERE are long-held customs and superstitions dealing with the connection between mirrors and death.
Sir James Frazer, writing in The Golden Bough, his wide-ranging 1890 study of mythology and religion, observed: ‘The Sunni Mohammedans of Bombay cover with a cloth the mirror in the room of a dying man and do not remove it until the corpse is carried out for burial.’ Frazer said covering mirrors or turning them to face the wall was a custom also found in England, Scotland, Madagascar and the Crimea. Similar traditions have been observed in Belgium and Germany.
According to William Coggeshall’s 1865 account, The Journeys Of Lincoln, when Abraham Linimpact coln’s body lay in state in the East Room of the White House on April 18, 1865, mourners found ‘the windows at either end of the room were draped with black barège [a silky fabric], the frames of the mirrors between the windows, as well as those over the marble mantles, being heavily draped with the same material’.
The account added: ‘The heavy gildings of the frames were entirely enshrouded, while the mirrors were covered with white crepe.’
There are various reasons why such practices came about. One superstition holds that if a person sees his or her image in a mirror after there has been a death, he or she will soon die, too.
It was also believed if the soul of the newly departed saw their reflection in the mirror, they would become trapped and not be able to leave to begin their afterlife. This might cause the spirit to remain in this world as a ghost.
In documenting the custom of covering mirrors in China in 1910, Reginald Fleming Johnston wrote: ‘If the dead man happens to notice a reflection of himself in the glass, he will be much horrified to find that he has become a ghost, and much disappointed with his own appearance as such.’
Closing the curtains affords mourners privacy and is also an indication to the outside world that there has been a death in the family. The custom of stopping the clocks is to allow people time to mourn without having to consider worldly affairs. It also records the time of death, which is seen as a mark of respect.
Liam Connell, Belfast.
QUESTION
When was Ballymagarvey in Co. Meath first built and who has lived there over the years? BALLYMAGARVEY, at Balrath, not far from Navan in Co. Meath, dates back to the 13th century, although the present manorial house there was built in 1854.
Its unusual name is said to have come from a medieval bishop called either Magarvey or McGarvey.
The original settlement was built during the early 1200s, not long after the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland. It was first home to Princess Gwenllian ap Iorwerth, daughter of King Llywelyn of Wales, who married William de Lacy of Trim Castle in Co. Meath.
The Anglo-Norman de Lacy family had built the enormous edifice of Trim Castle, which still stands today. William de Lacy inherited Ballymagarvey in 1233, on the death of his father, Hugh, who had started the construction of Trim Castle.
Over the succeeding centuries, many other notables, all with close connections with Co. Meath, such as Sir Christopher Bellew, whose family came from Bellewstown, lived at Ballymagarvey.
Also among the occupiers of Ballymagarvey were the De Verdun family, who had also arrived in Ireland with the Anglo-Norman invasion and had been granted vast swathes of neighbouring Co. Louth.
The great house at Ballymagarvey was rebuilt several times. The family who made the greatest on it in the 19th century were the Aylwards, who bought the estate in 1854.
They rebuilt the manor house, which is the great house, immaculately restored, that stands today. That house was later bought in 1928 by Anthony McCan, who farmed there until the 1940s.
After McCan’s ownership of the Ballymagarvey demesne, it went through a succession of owners until 2009. A company called Ballymagarvey Village Ltd was set up that year, with four directors, who remain in place today: Cezar Ciocan, Camelia Ciocan, Gerry Byrne and Vincent Callan.
Before this, in 2007, Vincent Callan had set up a charity in memory of his daughter, Lisa, who was killed along with four of her friends in the Navan school bus crash that shocked the nation in 2005.
Today, the manor house at Ballymargarvey is a luxurious, upmarket wedding venue in a meticulously restored manor house.
The manor house itself has nine guest bedrooms, all named after families who once lived at the estate, and the decor is all to fivestar standards.
Other facilities include the great banqueting hall, and the whole property is available, not just for weddings, but for all kinds of business and corporate events, for up to 250 people.
The whole estate includes over 40 hectares of parkland and 20 hectares of woodland. Thomas Murray, Kilkenny.