Banshees

"The Banshee Appears"

The Irish people have a colorful folklore, rich with stories of creatures from the Otherworld. In spite of the obviously pagan origins, many legends have endured to modern times. One legend is that of the banshee (bean-sidhe), a spirit which is supposed to haunt certain Irish families when a member is about to die. According to Ireland's Eye:

The bean-sidhe (woman of the fairy) may be an ancestral spirit appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death. According to tradition, the banshee can only cry for five major Irish families: the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, the O'Gradys and the Kavanaughs. Intermarriage has since extended this select list.

Here is a more detailed description from Irish Culture and Customs:

The Bean Sidhe or Banshee makes her appearance when someone in the household is about to die. She haunts only the families of the "high Milesian race" - those whose names have an "O", "Mac" or other prefix. One exception to this rule has been granted by virtue of the Irish poets who have given her to some of the Norman-Irish families - the FitzGerald's for example. In any event, she heralds the demise of only those who are of authentic noble stock and it is with great dread when her piercing "caoine" or keening is heard. In many respects, this mysterious creature resembles traditional Irish keeners or mourners of old; as with her mortal counterparts, those who have seen her describe her as drawing a comb through her hair, similar to tearing the hair out in anguish, which the ancient mourners used to do. Incidentally, or maybe not, while the Banshee is considered benign, she supposedly has a sister force who isn't; this force is called the Lianhan Sidhe and her sole purpose is to seek the love of mortal men. Their desire for her ultimately destroys them.

The banshee, according to legend, is usually heard at night, but sometimes in the morning, and at noon. An old Irish poem refers to the appearance of the Banshee in the morning:

Hast thou heard the Banshee at morn,
Passing by the silent lake,
Or walking the fields by the orchard?
Alas! that I do not rather behold
White garlands in the hall of my fathers.

There were a few banshee stories among some of my older relatives. (I suppose being descended from the Kavanaughs and the O'Neills as well as the O'Connors made them especially worthy of hauntings!) Irish lore is full of tales of the preternatural; the banshee is definitely one of the most interesting.

My Irish novel is HERE.
Share

"I Came to the West Because I Wanted the West"

 From The European Conservative:

I am finishing a book titled The Triumph of the Normal. In it, I explain that the word “normal” is not ancient, like “justice” or “virtue.” It is a 19th-century term, born in the age of statistics, modern medicine, and scientific positivism.

The idea was to replace the old Western conception—inherited from the classical world and taken up by Christianity—according to which “is” and “ought” were united. In that tradition, stating that a house is on fire and stating that one should not commit arson are, fundamentally, objective statements about reality and the human good.

With modernity, that unity is broken. “Normal” sought to provide a moral framework without resorting to metaphysics or to Aristotle; it was enough to observe statistical patterns of human behavior to determine what is good for the human being.

However, when ordinary people speak of “a normal life,” they are intuitively recovering older moral categories: being able to practice a religion, form a family, live in community, participate in civic life, and carry out meaningful work. (Read more.)

Share

The infamous Lady Rochford

From History...the Interesting Bits:

Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford is generally regarded as one of the key witnesses if not the key witness in the court case against Anne Boleyn. Jane was married to Anne’s brother George Boleyn. As Anne’s sister-in-law and with her own husband, George Boleyn accused of having had an affair with his sister Anne, Jane’s betrayal is seen as a particular heinous crime. Jane is also accused to have been the source of this accusation of incest against her husband and her sister-in-law.

In an article on Jane’s father for example, James P. Carley declares ‘Morley’s daughter Jane, was principal witness against her husband, George Boleyn, Lord Rochford, at the time of his trial in 1536.’

However, most historians agree that the charges against Anne Boleyn, her brother, and the others accused were trumped up to rid Henry VIII of his wife. Eric Ives for example states, ‘Under analysis, the case presented by the Crown in May 1536 collapses’. If the outcome of the trial and the guilty verdicts were a forgone conclusion, surely it made absolutely no difference who had said or may have said what during or before the trials?

Why then did Jane Boleyn become the ‘infamous Lady Rochford‘?

Let me first introduce you to Jane Boleyn, née Parker.

Jane was the daughter of Henry Parker, Lord Morley, and his wife Alice St John. Alice was the daughter of Margaret Beaufort’s half-brother John St John. The match was almost certainly arranged by Margaret Beaufort in whose household Henry Parker had served from a young age. During this time Margaret Beaufort became his patroness. She supported him financially and looked after his wife Alice and their children when Henry was away. Margaret Beaufort was also a major influence on his religious beliefs. (Read more.)

Share

Chivalry as a Way of Life

From Crisis:

Chivalry, as we said, wasn’t only a martial code. It was a way of life. It was, as one scholar put it, the “framework for lay society” in the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages, meanwhile, were nothing more or less than the application of Christianity to the whole of society. The so-called Dark Ages nearly severed the former Roman Empire from its pagan roots. Every aspect of religious, political, economic, military, and cultural life was reorganized by the Church along Christian grounds; that was their only point of reference.

The Church was unfettered from control by emperors and dictators. Slavery was abolished. Every aspect of public and private life was ordered to the salvation of souls through the Faith.

I have written here before that the West is on its way to another Dark Age. Ours is no longer a Christian society, but a pagan one. Our liberal democracies are now succumbing to the same twin errors—decadence and gnosticism—that destroyed the Roman Empire. Within a few centuries, nothing of the old order will remain. We Christians will have to rebuild civilization from its ruins. It’s only natural, then, that we should look to the Middle Ages for guidance.

Rod Dreher has been thinking along these lines for years. His book The Benedict Option urged us to look to the example of another great Medieval saint, Benedict of Norcia, for inspiration on how to build strong “intentional communities”: bastions of Christendom, safe-havens for the faithful, which can withstand the terror that will inevitably follow when our own Empire collapses. I agree with him wholeheartedly.

Yet it won’t be enough to build intentional Christian communities. We must also build intentional Christian men. Those men must be capable of building those communities and, when the time comes, defending them against the barbarian hordes—winning new souls for God all the while. To this end, I propose that we also follow the example of Saint Francis of Assisi. Call it the Francis Option. (Read more.)

SS. Michael, Margaret and Catherine appear to St. Joan

Jeanne d'Arc

Share

Iran's Golden Age

 From Alexander Muse:

The story of Iran is a story of civilizational brilliance undone. Persia, the land of Cyrus and Darius, stood for centuries as one of the great pillars of human advancement. Its engineers carved rivers through deserts. Its kings issued the first known declaration of human rights. Its physicians established the world’s first university hospital. And its philosophers gathered knowledge from Greece, India, and Babylon into an intellectual engine of progress. By the sixth century, Persia was not only a rival to Rome; it was in many respects its superior. Then came the year 651. Arab armies swept in. Islam took root. And the gears of this astonishing civilization began, slowly and then all at once, to grind to a halt.

Now, let us be clear. The Islamic conquest did not immediately obliterate Persia’s brilliance. For a few generations, Persian scholars thrived within the new Islamic order. But the transformation of Iran from a Zoroastrian, pluralistic, and innovative society into a rigidly Islamic theocracy laid the groundwork for long-term stagnation. Today, nearly 1,400 years later, that stagnation is measurable in everything from economic output to scientific discovery. And the men who just died in those airstrikes were its most ardent custodians.

Begin with the economic case. In 1977, on the eve of the Islamic Revolution, Iran’s per capita GDP stood at approximately $10,980 (in 2025-adjusted dollars). It was a modernizing economy. The Shah’s Iran, for all its flaws, was investing heavily in infrastructure, science, and education. Then, in 1979, came the Ayatollahs. The theocrats promised a return to purity, justice, and dignity. What followed was none of these. By 1990, per capita GDP had collapsed to $6,175. A decade later, it dropped further to $3,196. By 2025, after decades of sanctions and mismanagement, it had clawed back to roughly $5,000. In plain terms, the Iranian economy was cut nearly in half since the mullahs took power, and it has never returned to the heights it reached under secular governance. That is not a failure of the Persian people. It is a failure of a governing theology.

But the problem is not merely economic. It is civilizational. Ancient Persia gave the world qanats, yakhchals, algebraic precursors, windmills, and postal systems. It was a society that respected knowledge and rewarded inquiry. Under the Achaemenids, engineers invented subterranean aqueducts that could irrigate the desert. Under the Sasanians, physicians trained in Gundeshapur, the first known teaching hospital. Kings like Khosrow I welcomed Greek and Indian scholars fleeing persecution, building an empire that fused cultures rather than purged them. This was not incidental to Persian greatness. It was its engine. (Read more.)

Share

The Unsettling Brain Impact of Screen Time in Kids

 From The Vigilant Fox:

Researchers scanned the brains of 60 preschool-aged children—and what they discovered about screens was “truly shocking.”

“Interactive screen time causes a LOSS of white matter in the brain.”

In simple terms, Prof. Mike Nagel calls it a measure of “BRAIN DAMAGE.”

What is white matter?

White matter is the part of the brain made up of insulated nerve fibers that help different areas of the brain communicate quickly and efficiently.

It acts like the brain’s wiring system, carrying signals from one region to another so thinking, movement, emotion, and learning can work smoothly.

“So if we’re seeing deficits in myelin production early in life, we’re probably seeing deficits in neural connectivity,” Prof. Nagel warns.

“The study shows the more screen time a child is exposed to, the greater the loss of white matter.”

But it’s not just loss of white matter we have to worry about. When you understand how screens rewire dopamine in developing brains, the story gets even darker. (Read more.)

 

Outsourcing our children. From Claremont Review of Books:

The culture quickly changed, however, with the arrival of a career-oriented feminist movement. Feminists successfully propagated the message that homemaking and childrearing were second-class endeavors, which prevented women from achieving the personal fulfillment and social status secured by participation in the paid work force. Our society, in particular the media and academia, wholeheartedly endorsed this feminist ideology, and homemakers were consistently disparaged and their social and economic security were fatally undermined by the enactment in all 50 states of no-fault divorce laws that warned mothers it was unsafe to devote themselves to raising children. The result was an unprecedented influx of mothers into the workplace so that, by 1985, the majority of mothers with children under six were working outside the home.

In her wonderfully insightful and eminently sensible book, Mary Eberstadt, a mother of four children who works from home for the Hoover Institution, sets forth evidence of the harm done to children by the maternal exodus responsible for the “Home-Alone America” she rightly deplores. Discussing many facets of children’s lives, she may tell us what we already know, but she analyzes the subject with a fresh insight. She recognizes that her book violates a major taboo today about any discussion of “whether and just how much children need their parents—especially their mothers.” This taboo seeks to protect working mothers from feeling guilty, and Eberstadt sensibly concludes her book by observing that those who “cannot choose otherwise,” such as single parents, “have nothing to feel guilty about.” As for those who do have a choice, perhaps the “continuing complaints about the guilt felt by absent mothers” may be “further proof of a social experiment run amok.”

This social experiment is, of course, the mother-child separation required by the feminist notion that a woman’s personal fulfillment requires her energetic participation in the workplace. Eberstadt calls defenders of this conceit “separationists”: those who believe that women’s freedom to work in the paid marketplace justifies separation from their children, and who refuse to consider whether the children and adolescents left behind by the adult exodus have suffered. She challenges a society, which only seems concerned with making it easier and cheaper for women to “combine work and family,” to consider how small children actually experience being in daycare all day. She makes the very sensible point that the daycare debate is never about what it feels like for the infant and children in day care, but always about what the outcomes are in terms of personality development and cognitive ability. “The daycare proof,” separationists believe, “is in the achievement pudding.” Separationists, however, are often not around children, who, in their lives, have been made “someone else’s problem.” (Read more.)

Share

The Many Marriages of Bess of Hardwick

  

From History...the Interesting Bits:

Bess was born around 1527, one of four daughters and a son born to John Hardwick of Hardwick, Derbyshire. It was a moderately prosperous gentry family. When her father died in 1528, When her father died in 1528, most of the family lands were taken into royal wardship until her brother James came of age. Bess’s mother, Elizabeth Leeke, remarried around 1529, to Ralph Leche of nearby Chatsworth, and had three more children, stretching the family finances even tighter. Leche’s constant problems with money meant that Leche spent the years from 1538 to 1544 in the Fleet Prison for debt and in 1545 he was committed to the debtors’ prison in Derby

With no dowry to attract a husband, 11-year-old Bess was sent into service in the household of Sir George and Lady Anne Zouche of Codnor Castle, a neighbouring family. Lady Zouche was a distant cousin of both of Bess’s parents and a friend and lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne Boleyn; following the queen’s downfall, she served her successor, Jane Seymour. Sir George was a gentleman pensioner to the king. It was in this household that Bess would have learned the ways of the aristocracy, whilst acting as a lady-in-waiting. Bess would have also made connections with various families through the other young people of the household.

It was while she was living in the Zouche’s household that Bess met her first husband, Robert Barlow. The Barlows were acquainted with Bess’s stepfather, who was owed money on a land deal by Robert’s father, Arthur Barlow. It may well be that Arthur offered his oldest son and heir in marriage to Bess, with the amount owing from the court case written off in lieu of Bess’s dowry. Bess and Robert were married in the spring of 1543, with Bess being about fifteen and Robert a couple of months short of his fourteenth birthday.

The marriage was short-lived and possibly unconsummated, given their ages. Robert fell ill and died within eighteen months of their wedding day, on Christmas Eve 1544. When Bess applied to the Barlows for her widow’s dower, one-third of the income in rents and revenues from her husband’s estates, she was refused and a lengthy court battle ensued. A settlement was finally in 1546. It did not make her rich, but the annual income of £30 gave Bess a measure of independence when she was only 17 years of age. (Read more.)

Share

Hegseth Delivers Operation Epic Fury Briefing

 From Overton:

That’s when Secretary Hegseth pivoted to the issue at the heart of global concern — Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

He said President Trump drew a line in the sand: radical Islamic regimes cannot have nuclear weapons.

Hegseth was not afraid to call out President Obama by name for his disastrous deal, which nearly allowed Iran to get one.

HEGSETH: “President Trump has also been very consistent, crazy regimes like Iran, hell-bent on prophetic Islamist delusions, cannot have nuclear weapons.”

“It’s common sense. Many have said it, it takes guts to enforce it, and our president has guts.”

“Iran’s stubborn and self-evident nuclear pursuits, their targeting of global shipping lanes, and their swelling arsenal of ballistic missiles and killer drones were no longer tolerable risks.”

“Iran was building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambition.”

“Let me say that again, conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions.”

Their missiles and drones were pointed directly at U.S. bases, personnel, and allies.

“Our bases, our people, our allies, in their crosshairs. Iran had a conventional gun to their head, trying to lie their way to a nuclear bomb.”

“It almost worked, under Obama and his terrible deal, but not under this president.”

(Read more.)

Share

The Magnetic Pull of Wonder

 From C.S. Lewis Substack:

For myself, the medium of wonder has often been poetry. As I recently confessed to my friend Miroslav Volf, “I wouldn’t even be a religious person were it not for poetry, which has not only repeatedly brought me into contact with an other, but has seemed to demand something of me in its wake . . . But poetry remains perpetually open. God moves through art but doesn’t get stuck there. I sometimes think he gets stuck in theology—fixed, frozen, and therefore inevitably falsified.”2

Lewis had a way of letting the transcendent move through his art. And for all his reasoned approaches, he left room for awe. He referred to the spiritual dimension as the distinct feeling of “numinosity,” echoing the term coined by German theologian Rudolf Otto. For Lewis, numinosity meant the singular “Other” quality of the divine. In the face of the divine Other, astonishment is the natural human response.

And Christianity is certainly astonishing. In my letters with Miroslav, published in Glimmerings, I reflected, “I often hear secular people marveling at the sheer preposterousness of Christianity—God walking around the world, zapping water into wine, modern people cheerfully eating his flesh and drinking his blood—but, for me, no small part of Christianity’s appeal is that very preposterousness.”3

It is, as I said earlier, an insult to common sense, which I cherish because I am quite sure that what we call common sense is uncommonly wrong. (Read more.)

Share

St. Joseph: The Model of Manhood

March is the month of St. Joseph. From The Catholic Gentleman:

Why did God choose St. Joseph? Of all the thousands of Jewish men, many of whom no doubt were righteous, why was a humble carpenter chosen for the task of being the earthly father of the Savior? The answer is simple: God knew St. Joseph would immediately do anything that was asked of him, no matter how difficult.

The saints agree that conformity to the will of God through prompt obedience is one of the surest paths to holiness. St. Joseph exemplified this virtue, and a perfect example is the flight into Egypt. The angel of the Lord appeared to St. Joseph in a dream, warning him of the danger that was coming. Scripture then tells us that, “When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt.” Did you catch that? The minute he woke up, he obeyed. He didn’t let fear of uncertainty paralyze him, he didn’t spend weeks planning, and he didn’t save up some money first. He took Jesus and Mary and left for Egypt, entrusting his family to the providence of God. That is prompt obedience, and that is why  St. Joseph was entrusted with the greatest responsibility ever given to a man. (Read more.)

Share

"Khamenei is dead! My Iran is free!"

 From Tierney's Real News:

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, was killed on February 28, 2026, in a joint military airstrike operation conducted by the United States and Israel. They allegedly dropped over 30 bombs on Khamenei’s compound/office in Tehran early in the morning - when he least expected it - while he was meeting with his administration.

Intelligence from the CIA reportedly helped Israel locate targets, including Khamenei.

Multiple other family members and senior figures in the Iranian regime were killed in the same or coordinated strikes:

• The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

• Iran’s Defense Minister.

• A top security adviser / secretary of the Iranian Security Council (a close adviser to Khamenei).

• Some 48 other senior regime members.

• His daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law, and son-in-law were also allegedly killed in the strikes.

• There are also unconfirmed reports suggesting Mojtaba Khamenei (a prominent son and potential successor) may have been killed, along with his wife.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.

He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do. This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.

To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere.

When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations. For many years, you have asked for America’s help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond.

America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass.”

To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons, and have complete immunity, or, in the alternative, face certain death. So lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.

We are hearing that many of their IRGC, Military, and other Security and Police Forces, no longer want to fight, and are looking for Immunity from us. As I said last night, “Now they can have Immunity, later they only get Death!”

Hopefully, the IRGC and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves.

That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei but the Country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated. The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” (Read more.)

Share

The Two Swords of Christ

I loved Ibrahim's Defenders of the West. From The Chivalry Guild:

If I had to pick the best way to describe the recent works of Raymond Ibrahim—Sword and Scimitar (2018) and Defenders of the West (2022)—I’d call them no-going-back books. The equally chilling and invigorating experience of his histories cannot be undone and you cannot see the world the same way afterwards—especially since it’s not just history, but a forgotten prelude to what we’re living with today. Reality looks different post-Ibrahim.

Sword and Scimitar takes the reader through fourteen centuries of warfare between Islam and the West, with emphasis on eight great battles within that conflict. Better than any book I know, it dynamites the old public school narrative about the Crusades as a brutal act of Christian aggression against those poor, peaceful, tolerant Muslims. Ibrahim tells a much darker story about our ancient adversaries, documenting the scale of their conquests and the horrors that followed pretty much everywhere the armies of the prophet went. What we call “the West,” he writes, is but “the last and most redoubtable bastion of Christendom not to be conquered by Islam. Simply put, the West is actually the westernmost remnant of what was a much more extensive civilizational block that Islam permanently severed.” Three-quarters of the formerly Christian world was conquered by these people. It is both chilling and invigorating, like I noted, to think about how much danger we were in—and what kind of virtue was required to meet that danger and triumph over it, at least for a time.

Defenders of the West is an even more important book. It’s personal and compelling, and it reverses a long trend of hiding Christian heroes from those of us who need to learn about them. Thanks to Enlightenment propagandists, a vague narrative persists that heroism basically died out after the assassination of Julius Caesar and wasn’t revived again until Napoleon and George Washington walked the earth. The intent is a broadside against the Faith, leaving you with the vague impression that the teachings of Christ and his Church effectively snuff out all martial virtue, as though heroics cannot co-exist with the Gospel. Ibrahim shows this to be absolute nonsense. With his chronicles of Godfrey of Bouillon, El Cid, Richard the Lionheart, Fernando III, Louis IX, John Hunyadi, Scanderbeg, and Vlad Dracula, he brings to life eight legends whose deeds rival or exceed those of any heroes of any age.

These works are, in my humble opinion, on the shortlist for books of the century. So it was with special interest that I anticipated his follow-up effort. The Two Swords of Christ (published November ’25) continues with his major theme but looks at a different aspect of the conflict: the crucial work done by the Templars and the Hospitallers, basically the special forces of Christendom.

Ibrahim’s title comes from Luke 22, in which Jesus tells his disciples to buy a sword. When they reply, “Look, there are two swords here,” Jesus says, “It is enough!” What’s fascinating is his use of the singular pronoun it rather than the plural they. It suggests not the swords, but a way of life that employs “a spiritual sword against spiritual enemies, and a physical sword against physical enemies.” If your religious education was anything like mine, your teachers blithely passed over this and similar passages in favor of all the nicer-sounding directives about loving everybody and just being nice, along with never fighting—because fighting is unchristian. For those looking for simplistic formulas for life, it’s far easier to reduce the character of the Lord to that of a harmless meditation instructor, rather than wrestling with the much more challenging and dynamic truth.

The two swords also work as a metonymy for the knightly orders, filled with men whose particular way of serving God and their neighbors was with weapons. (Read more.)

Share

The Restoration of the Monarchy in England and France

Charles II and his brother James Duke of York (James II) in 1660 upon their return to England after years of exile

 I have written a novel about the Bourbon Restoration and am working on one about the Stuart Restoration. From Charles Coulombe:

Despite enormous amounts of internal plotting and occasional violent opposition – often centred in either country’s “Celtic Fringe” – neither revolutionary regime was ended by internal action on the part of the exiled Monarch’s supporters.  Rather, in the case of the British Isles, Restoration was imposed by General Monck and the army; in France, it was the victorious Allies of 1814 and 1815.  Nevertheless, in both countries, once the deed was done, the returning Kings were greeted rapturously by their once-estranged and now chastened subjects.

Both Restorations saw an explosion in literature and the other arts.  The London stage, freed from Puritan suppression, turned out and performed endless numbers of plays, while the surviving Cavalier poets happily turned out masterpieces.  Romanticism, in full swing upon the return of the King to Paris, was dizzying in effect upon all of the arts.  Both Restorations were heavily equipped with dandies and wits of all sorts, enjoying the revival of intellectual freedom the respective restored Monarchies brought in their wake.

Another happy benefit of the Restorations in both countries was the revival of Catholicism.  In the British Isles, it was partial, but still very much in the air.  St. Claude de La Colombiere was the confessor for some time to Charles II’s Catholic Queen, Catherine of Braganza, and the King would enter the Church on his deathbed.  In France, the Church began a rapid programme of revival that would outlast the Restoration and encompass most of the 19^th century; but its roots were definitely laid down during this era.

Both Restorations had a particular drawback, which was a rise in public immorality of all sorts.  In part this was because the revolutionary regimes had been so very oppressive.  Liberation did not just mean the freedom to do the right thing – it also meant that fallen nature would have its way.  Nor did it help that neither restored  King – Charles II nor Louis XVIII – had a tremendous reputation for morality – and both would die without any legitimate children.  But they both did have enormous charm. (Read more.)

Share

USA and Israeli Forces Attack Iran

 From CDM:

The attack on Iran is large-scale and is expected to continue for at least several days, reports NYT. First wave of Iranian ballistic missiles launched toward Israel. 30 missiles reportedly fired. Yemen's Houthis will resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea corridor. IRGC: In response to the aggression of the hostile and criminal enemy against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the first wave of large-scale missile and drone attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran toward the occupied territories has begun.

Israel's Defence Minister says Israel has launched a preemptive strike against Iran to remove threats to the state. A missile and drone attack on Israel is expected in the immediate timeframe. Defense Minister Israel Katz has declared a nationwide special state of emergency and urged the public to follow Home Front Command instructions and remain in protected areas.

IDF spokesperson says that starting Saturday at 8:00 a.m., the country will shift from full activity to essential activity only. Schools, gatherings, and most workplaces are suspended, except for essential services. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on airstrikes in Iran: There is no coalition and opposition — there is one people and one army, and we all stand behind it, reported Clash Report.

About 30 targets across Iran have been struck so far, including the Iranian President’s residence and an intelligence headquarters, Israeli reports claim. Iran closes its entire airspace as strikes hit Qom, Khorramabad, Isfahan, and Tehran. (Read more.)

Share

The Merlin Mound

 From the BBC:

Demolition work will start in April at the site of a neolithic monument where – legend has it – the bones of King Arthur's magician Merlin are buried. In November, Wiltshire Council gave Marlborough College permission to knock down 20th-century buildings cut into the side of the 4,000-year-old man-made hill. A carpentry workshop, toilets, plant room, water meter and pump will all be demolished. The works will enable archaeologists to investigate a cross-section of the Marlborough Mound, which sits in the grounds of Marlborough College.

According to legend, Merlin's connection to the town gave Marlborough its motto – "'ubi nunc sapientis ossa Merlini" or "where now are the bones of the wise Merlin". Following the Norman conquest, William the Conqueror ordered a castle to be built on the site. The 62ft (19m) tall hill is the second tallest of its kind, with nearby Silbury Hill taking the top spot. The buildings will be "taken down slowly, with an archaeologist present", according to the Marlborough Mound Trust, which is working with the college on the project.

Although it is unlikely anything significant will be found under the buildings, traces of medieval waterways could be uncovered which could give a more "visually pleasing" setting for the monument, according to an archaeological assessment. The mound is not open to the public, although an annual open day is held each summer, for which tickets are issued. (Read more.)

Share

The Leopard (2025)

 

 

If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. ~The Leopard

The 1963 Visconti film The Leopard (Il Gattapardo), based upon the novel by Giuseppe de Lampedusa about his great grandfather, is an undoubted masterpiece. Both the novel and 1963 film depict the struggles of a princely Sicilian family, under the leadership of their patriarch Don Fabrizio, to navigate the Revolution, called in Italy Il Risorgimento. Il Risorgimento (1848-1870) also labelled the unification of Italy, involved the dominance of the House of Savoy over the other principalities of the Italian peninsula, including the ancient Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, likewise known as the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily. The unification was a violent process led by the masonic revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi and his Red Shirts. Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, peer of the Sicilian Kingdom, must make some hard decisions in order to protect his wife and children, while salvaging his patrimony and preserving his honor. This is no small task in an era of war and of swiftly changing loyalties amid political upheaval. Luchino Visconti, in spite of being a Communist, crafted an authentic yet transcendent portrayal of a family in crisis, set to a magnificent score by Nino Rota. The 1963 film has become for many the defining depiction of Il Risorgimento. It certainly has been for me, until I recently decided to watch the Netflix series based on Il Gattapardo. The 2025 version is a masterpiece in its own right.

 

From The National Review:

The new series is in the grand tradition, with all the cinematic bells and whistles (no matter that I watched it on my laptop). Wikipedia says this:

Principal photography began in April 2023. Filming took place over 105 days and required the use of 5,000 extras; 130 carriages, carts and boats; 100 animals; and 12 animal trainers.

A friend of mine (Italian) said, “The real star of the show is Sicily.” She makes a good point. I’m not sure that Sicily has ever been more beautiful or alluring than in this show. The Netflix Leopard is a feast for the eyes. Almost indecently sumptuous. The flowers, the lemon groves, the palazzos — the food! And, of course, the people: the principal actors and actresses. Gorgeous people, on a gorgeous island, gorgeously shot. That is a commendation already.

The title character — the prince, the Leopard, also known as Don Fabrizio — is portrayed by Kim Rossi Stuart. (One of his grandparents was Scottish. He was named for Kipling’s title character.) Stuart’s prince is suave, worldly, world-weary, charismatic — every inch a prince, really.

Tancredi, that Garibaldian rascal, is played by Saul Nanni, born in 1999. I came to detest the character — not because the actor does anything wrong but because I wanted Tancredi to do right by Concetta and Angelica (and he does right by neither). Do you ever try to “edit” a movie, so as to make it come out right, by your lights? Life can be frustrating, onscreen as off . . .

Concetta is Benedetta Porcaroli, who reminds me of Lady Di, as we knew her, before she became a princess. Angelica is Deva Cassel, born in 2004. Signorina, or Mademoiselle, Cassel is the daughter of Vincent Cassel (the French actor) and Monica Bellucci (the Italian model and actress). How ugly can she be, I ask you? Angelica in this series is sex on wheels — a danger to young men, old men, and, you could say, herself.

 Don Calogero is portrayed by Francesco Colella. The character is supposed to be a villain of the piece, and in a way he is: he behaves badly. But many do. And he is a man born poor who is trying to rise in the world: trying to have some of the money, influence, and power that the likes of Don Fabrizio have dropped into their laps at birth. (Read more.)

One would think that a film about Sicilian aristocrats would have nothing to say to American audiences. Yet the story is essentially about family cohesion in a rapidly changing world, to which just about anyone alive today can relate. Dysfunctional dynamics can haunt palaces as well as cottages, with petty jealousies, spousal disagreements, infidelities. But devotion and sacrifice are also there, as well as shared jokes and effervescent joy. Most of all the roles of the father and the mother in keeping the family together, in spite of their personal issues, are inspiring.

At the core of the story is Don Fabrizio's daughter Concetta, a devout and disciplined principessa, convent-bred, who is in love with her cousin Tancredi. In the course of the series, Concetta is faced with painful choices, but in spite of being as passionate and headstrong as the men in the family, chooses the most noble courses of action. Both her suffering and contentment are projected in her jewel-like eyes, even while her modest and dignified bearing attempt to hide her emotions.

Fabrizio himself tries to follow the traditional code of chivalry. His patriarchal duties, especially the duty to protect his family, are second nature to him. When the mayor's daughter, the magnificent Angelica, hints that being his mistress would not be distasteful to her, the Prince lightly dismisses the idea, ignoring his own desire for the girl. He encourages her to marry his nephew, knowing that will be the best thing for everyone. He comes as close as he can to her in a single waltz, in which he maintains a gentlemanly reserve. Meanwhile, the new order has triumphed, as the characters dance in resplendent, frescoed rooms built by the old order.

There is one glimpse of boudoir activity which renders the series unsuitable for children. It would be odd to make a series about Sicily without scenes of religious faith. The Leopard is full of displays of piety, such as when the family prays the rosary together, although in the old film they were kneeling, not sitting. But there is certainly more Catholic imagery than there is sex. The family chaplain is in practically every scene, along with discussions of heaven and hell. The visuals are stunning on a life-changing level; the costumes prove that authenticity and artistry can work side-by-side. It shows what beauty Netflix can produce when willing to do so.

 

 

Share

Sanity Returning to ‘Boy Scouts’ of America

 From American Wire:

Common sense may be making a comeback. At least, sanity appears to be returning to what was once an American institution, the Boy Scouts of America — which is now called Scouting America. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that Scouting America will alter some of its woke policies to maintain support from the U.S. military, including overturning DEI policies that “crept in.” Among the changes, the organization will go back to separating males and females in showers, tents, and intimate spaces.

“Scouting America will modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity,” Hegseth said.

“Scouting will also make clear that biological boys and girls will not be allowed to occupy or share intimate spaces together. Toilets, showers, tents, anywhere like that,” he added. “Scouting America will honor those who serve by waiving the registration fees for children of active duty, guard, and reserve families. Should have happened a long time ago.”

Hegseth said Scouting America will also introduce a “new military service merit badge,” while discontinuing its Citizenship in Society merit badge.

“Scouting America’s leadership committed to, in that room right over there, will hopefully result in a rededication to the foundational ideals that have defined Scouting for generations. Duty to God and country, leadership, character, and service,” the Trump official said. (Read more.)

Share

A Review of 'The Heft of Promise' by Frederick Wilbur

 From poetess Maggie Quesenberry Smith:

Frederick Wilbur’s The Heft of Promise explores faith, doubt, and reason by recounting one man’s losses and setbacks, which he tries to endure throughout the labors of farm work, woodworking, and poesy. Many of these poems are meditations on submitting to the discipline of woodworking even though the art’s labor makes unruly clutter no one else understands—a host of tools, profuse wood shavings, deep scars marring his worn work bench. In the end, the poet experiences a watershed moment. He realizes that he will have to let go of his faith in the “dignity of labor” in the end. In “Asylum: Way of Being,” the poet says,

---

...My hand tools
become mantle shelf antiques,
valuable to collectors in pristine uselessness:
my making made me.

---

As the poems progress here, the poet’s “latch-bolt / snugs to its keeper.” The poet realizes that a man’s faith solely rooted in Earth cannot sustain him, even though the real world is sometimes all he believes in. In this collection, one man’s story unfolds as he learns from his labor that parables exist there, waiting to emerge as the natural world reveals them through his making.

This collection of poems also explores the pitfalls today in pursuing truth and beauty through poetry rooted in rural, place-based romanticism. This is an age where expeditious consumerism and complex technologies threaten neo-romantic perspectives, well-divorced from Virginia’s rural landscapes, so Wilbur realizes it has become difficult to convince newcomers that homeplaces have enough value for one to invest the work in their husbandry and upkeep. Throughout life’s joys and lamentations, the speaker weighs his worldly blessings and eternal hopes dependent on his earthly possessions and discovers even homeplaces will be too heavy to remember until death. These poems unveil the poet’s slow embrace of simple poverty and the freedom it brings once the poet’s hope and faith are authentic and unfettered by all the substitute “blessings” the materially poor seek in coincidental “finds” throughout the world’s auction houses and salvage yards.

Even the poet’s promises become too heavy to bear, even “empty promises.” While hopeful, people plan and promise, but they are ignorant of their flaws, fragilities, and blind sides. Often, they do not understand the long-term endurance and sacrifices their promises make. Also, the poet shows that the world can “befuddle” our hopes. Sometimes, the world exposes the well-meaning messiness our shortsighted labor and industries engender, much like Wilbur’s hapless cardinal in “Dustwings,” which hits a storm-window and leaves traces from its wings’ prints in the window’s dust. Likewise, Wilbur explores the fact that real world interferences, distractions, and redirections ever thwart our promises, and the guilt of falling short of one’s promises to finish well-laid plans grows too heavy for the poet to bear, driving him to winnow what to keep from what to get rid of—what to get out of his dwellings, out of his memories. What will that engender, though? (Read more.)

Share

Gone for a Soldier

 
If you don a scarlet coat at the price of your conscience, the color will only remind you of the wound in your own soul! If you sign away the faith of your fathers, all lesser goods will be forfeited too! ~from Gone for a Soldier by Avellina Balestri

From Amazon:

Young Edmund Southworth could not have foreseen the path his life would take upon befriending Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne, British military veteran and parliamentarian. As Catholic recusants from the north of England, Edmund’s once noble family has struggled to survive for centuries in the shadow of the Anglican ascendancy. But General Burgoyne offers him the chance to put past humiliations behind him by joining the Church of England and donning a scarlet coat as an officer of King George III. Although his conscience is uneasy, Edmund embarks upon Burgoyne’s March to subdue the American revolutionaries by splitting the colonies in two. He finds unexpected love in the arms of Abby Vanderkamp, a supporter of American independence, who will do anything to free her father from a British prison hulk or, failing that, strike a blow for the hard-pressed rebel cause. As the British advance through the New York wilderness devolves into increasing brutality and instability, Edmund will have his already divided loyalties tested to the breaking point under the influence of this hostile land which presents him with new challenges and opportunities alike.

 

Gone for a Soldier is the first volume of a trilogy called All Ye That Pass By about the War for American Independence from the point of view of the young British soldier, Edmund Southworth. Edmund is from a devout Catholic recusant family in England, "recusant" being the name given to those who paid the exorbitant fines levied on all who refused participation in the Church of England. His father having died, Edmund is the head of his household, comprised of his bitter mother, his saintly sister and a few servants. Forbidden because of his Faith from any profession but that of country gentleman, Edmund's family struggles with poverty, while valiantly determined to fulfill their duties to their tenants and to the poor. Miss Balestri quite authentically depicts the hardships Catholics faced in eighteenth-century England, weaving into the narrative stories of saints, martyrs, Jacobites and highwaymen, so that the reader receives a glimpse of the larger picture.

Then the vibrant, unforgettable character of "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne sweeps into the story, taking Edmund under his wing. A womanizer and bon vivant, Burgoyne is nevertheless a loyal friend and a brave general. With a dollop of bullying and an ocean of charm, Burgoyne convinces Edmund that he needs to join Burgoyne in North America in the fight against the colonists by becoming a soldier. The problem is that military careers are only available to Protestants, so Burgoyne talks Edmund into renouncing his Catholic Faith and receiving the bread and wine in a midnight act of apostasy. Burgoyne dismisses it is as a small matter but Edmund is tormented by his betrayal of the Faith of his fathers, The author explores the anguish of violating one's conscience, making the reader pray and hope  never to be in Edmund's circumstances. It is, however, but the beginning of his adventures in America, where he and Burgoyne are joined by quite the colorful cast of characters. Miss Balestri once again proves her mastery of history, and her ability to bring it alive in intriguing storytelling.

About the author:

Avellina Balestri is a Catholic author and editor based in the historic borderlands of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Her stories, poems, and essays have been featured in over thirty print and online publications. She has published two books: "Saplings of Sherwood", the first book in a Robin Hood retelling series, and "Pendragon's Shield", a collection of poetry. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Fellowship & Fairydust, a magazine inspiring faith & creativity and exploring the arts through a spiritual lens. Under its auspices, she hosted a literary conference at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford, England, commemorating the legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien. She also has the honor of representing the state of Maryland at The Sons of the American Revolution National Orations Contest. Avellina believes that the Trinitarian divine dance and Incarnational indwelling mystery are reflected in all things good, true, and beautiful, and that the image of God is wondrously woven into every human heart. These themes are at the forefront of the stories she chooses to tell.

For more information about the author and her various projects, please visit the following websites:

www.fellowshipandfairydust.com 

www.avellinabalestri.com

Share

Illegal Aliens Commit More Crime Than Citizens, The Data Democrats Are Hiding

 From Amuse on X:

Public debate over immigration and crime often proceeds as if one empirical claim has been decisively settled. We are told, with confidence and repetition, that illegal immigrants commit crime at lower rates than American citizens. The claim is treated as a conversation stopper. Once uttered, it is meant to end inquiry. If the data show lower rates, then immigration enforcement is unnecessary, even unjust. Yet this posture assumes something that has not been demonstrated. It assumes that the data measure what they purport to measure. When all crimes committed by illegal aliens are counted, including immigration offenses, crimes obscured by deportation, and offenses suppressed by systematic underreporting, the rate of criminality attributable to illegal immigrants far exceeds that of citizens. The apparent lower rate is not a discovery about behavior. It is a byproduct of selective counting.

Policymakers are trained to ask a simple question before accepting any statistical claim. What exactly is being counted? Consider an analogy. Suppose a hospital wishes to know whether a new medication reduces heart attacks. It counts the number of patients currently in cardiac wards. If, however, a substantial number of patients who suffer heart attacks are immediately transferred to another facility and removed from the hospital’s census, then a snapshot of current ward occupancy will systematically undercount the true incidence. The hospital will report success, but the apparent success will be an artifact of removal, not a reduction in harm.

Almost all immigration and crime literature relies on an analogous snapshot. The most widely cited studies use incarceration data from the Census or the American Community Survey. They ask who is in prison at a given moment and then compare incarceration rates across native born citizens and noncitizens. But incarceration is a stock measure, not a flow measure. It tells us who is physically present in custody at the time of the survey. It does not tell us who committed crimes and was then removed from the country. (Read more.)

Share

Why Do Bagels Have Holes?

 From Mental Floss:

The toughest bagel question might seem like what cream cheese to choose, but there’s a bigger mystery baked right in: Why the hole? It can feel like wasted real estate; prime carb territory that could easily hold more dough—or at least stop your toppings from falling through. As it turns out, that empty center isn’t an accident, and it’s not just a stylistic flourish. The bagel hole has been linked to medieval monarchs, religious restrictions, and some surprisingly practical kitchen science. In other words, there’s a lot more to that little circle than meets the eye.

Marie Antoinette may not have actually said “Let them eat cake,” but Queen Jadwiga, a powerful Polish monarch, might well have said something like “Let them eat bagels.” Jadwiga, whose reign shifted the balance of power in 14th-century Europe, is credited with popularizing obwarzanek—a traditional Polish ring-shaped bread and the precursor to today’s bagel. The story goes that she chose this simple bread over decadent pastries during Lent, and her people followed suit.

Another possible origin story takes place in 17th-century Poland, but with different key players. The country was a cultural melting pot, and Jewish immigrants faced restrictions, including bans on making bread, a holy Christian food. Once legally allowed to bake again, Jewish bakers had to find a way to distinguish their loaves from Christian bread. Their solution? Boil the dough and put a hole in the middle. (Read more.)

Share

Mary Henrietta of England

The daughter of Charles I and mother of William III.

Wishing to imitate the French tradition of the firstborn daughter of the King being known as Madame Royale, the French-born Queen consort wanted to do something similar for her own daughter. So, in 1642 King Charles I gave Princess Mary the title of Princess Royal, establishing a new tradition in the British Royal Family. Even as a tiny child, the new Princess Royal was immediately the center of marriage negotiations. Originally, King Charles had wished his daughter to marry into the Spanish Royal Family to secure a long-lasting alliance between Britain and Spain. His own father had tried to see him married to a Spanish princess as King James had hoped that Britain could act as the great peace-maker between the Catholic and Protestant powers as the wars between the two sides were tearing Europe apart. This was a long-standing ambition of the House of Stuart, to emerge as the monarchy that restored peace, if not unity, to Christendom. (Read entire post.)

Share

President Trump Brilliant in Fourth State of the Union Address

 From AMAC:

President Donald Trump delivered his fourth State of the Union Address and the first of his second term Tuesday night before a packed House chamber, minus several dozen Democrats who chose to boycott the speech. In just under two hours, the longest State of the Union in modern history, Trump laid out a sweeping case that America is not simply recovering from the chaos of the Biden years, but entering what he repeatedly described as a “Golden Age.”

From his opening line, the tone was unmistakable. “Our Nation is back – bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before,” Trump declared, setting the stage for a speech that was equal parts report card, policy blueprint, and patriotic revival.

With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence just months away, Trump framed the moment in historic terms. “This July 4th, we will mark two and a half centuries of liberty and triumph, progress and freedom in the most incredible and exceptional nation ever to exist on the face of this earth,” he said. “And you’ve seen nothing yet, because we are entering the Golden Age of America.”

That sense of momentum carried through the first half of the address as Trump ran through what could fairly be called his second-term “greatest hits.”

One year ago, he reminded the country, he inherited “a nation in crisis—with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide-open border, horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home, and wars and chaos all over the world.” Today, he argued, the turnaround is undeniable.

“Today, our border is secure, our spirit is restored, inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising fast, the economy is roaring, our enemies are scared, our military and police are stacked, and America is respected again,” Trump said. (Read more.)

Share

The Madrid Codices

 From Euro News:

Every year Spain celebrates one of the most significant discoveries of the 20th century for studies on Leonardo da Vinci. On 13 February in 1967 the National Library of Spain conserved among its collections two original manuscripts of the Renaissance artist and engineer that had remained unnoticed for more than a century. The so-called Madrid I and II codices (source in Spanish),identified as Mss. 8937 and Mss. 8936, are part of a set of scientific notebooks written by da Vinci between the end of the 15th and the start of the 16th century. They were rediscovered when the American researcher Jules Piccus, who was working on the revision of the inventories of the institution's manuscripts, identified the relevance of some volumes that had not been correctly attributed.

According to official information from the National Library, the codices contain hundreds of pages of annotations and drawings devoted to statics, applied mechanics, gear systems, hydraulic machines, geometry and fortification studies. Unlike his paintings, these manuscripts allow us to observe Leonardo's intellectual process:calculations, diagrams, hypotheses and corrections that show his experimental method. Codex Madrid I, dated mainly in the 1490s, is considered one of the most important treatises on mechanics by Leonardo, with detailed studies on the transmission of motion and the functioning of mechanisms. Codex Madrid II, dated slightly later, brings together research related to civil and military engineering, as well as topographical studies and hydraulic projects. (Read more.)

Share

A Primer on Georgian Fashion

 

How did people really dress in the Wuthering Heights era? From InStyle:

Another year, another classic literature adaptation on the big screen. The latest book getting the Hollywood treatment? Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë’s gothic novel about the unbridled passions of free-spirited Catherine Earnshaw and her tortured soulmate, Heathcliff. Emerald Fennell directs the ultra-stylized interpretation of the story, which stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

When the first trailer dropped for the film, Robbie’s on-screen attire caught the Internet’s attention. A see-through bridal look even went viral. Wuthering Heights is set between 1771 and 1802, leading fans to wonder: was the real Georgian era that daring?  

 Not quite. The film’s costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, told British Vogue she and Fennell weren’t aiming for historical accuracy. “Our dates are all confused in the sense that we’re not representing a moment in time at all—we’re just picking images or styles that we like for each character,” she explained.

Wondering what the novel’s characters may have worn in real life? Here’s a breakdown of how people dressed in the late Georgian era, the historical period that backdrops Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

Before putting on their gowns and coats, Georgian women had to assemble their base layer of clothing. First came a shift or chemise, typically made of linen, according to the Victoria & Albert Museum. Then, they put on stays—boned undergarments for shaping and offering structural support.

“A pair of stays was a sort of early example of a corset,” curator Anna Reynolds explained in a video promoting the Royal Collection Trust exhibition Style & Society: Dressing the Georgians. “They shaped the body and they provided support, a bit like a modern bra. They fasten at the back with a single lace.” Next came the ever-important petticoat, an underskirt which was often purposely exposed when worn with a robe à la polonaise—more on that later. 

Finally, there was the matter of shaping the skirt to achieve a fashionable silhouette. By the late 18th-century (aka the Wuthering Heights era), wide panniers—side hoops extending from the hips to dramatically spread out a skirt—had fallen out of fashion everywhere but the court, per FIT’s Fashion History Timeline. Taking their place? Rumps, or bum pads filled with cork, which created the appearance of an exaggerated posterior. (Read more.)

 

There is a trend of anachronistic costumes in historical films, although Netflix's The Leopard has dazzling and relatively authentic costumes, to show it can be done. From The Guardian:

 For some, this current mood for anachronisms is being overstated. Helen Walter, costume and visual historian at the Arts University Bournemouth, isn’t “sure it’s as big or as unprecedented a shift as people are making it out to be”. Costume design, she says, “often says much more about the people who are making it than the original setting … it always says something about the time that it’s being made.”

True historical accuracy is also not actually possible. According to Waddington: “Every period thinks that they’re doing the period, but they never really are [there are] always telltale signs.”

When Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell did Shakespeare in Love, she says “all of the silhouettes were the correct period cuts for all the clothing, but you can’t necessarily find period-accurate fabrics because they’re just not made in the same way now”. Powell remembers upsetting somebody by using an art deco lace to make an Elizabethan collar. “I thought, ‘Well, I don’t care,” she says. “It looks good. And actually, this isn’t a documentary’.”

Costume, says Walter, “like any other art form is not immune to fashion and general cultural trends”. But designers will ultimately be led by the film in question. “I do whatever feels right for the piece,” says Powell. Her upcoming work on The Bride! starring Jessie Buckley, is true to period but takes an anachronistic mood to “how clothes are worn more than the actual items of clothing”.

“It’s almost as if the punk that we know from, let’s say, the 70s or 80s, existed in the 1930s. What would it look like?” Often working with a lot of artistic license, with The Bride! she “had free rein to have fun and go mad with it but all within the period.” (Read more.)

Where was Heathcliff from? From Down to Earth:

Today, Liverpool is celebrated globally as the birthplace of the Beatles. However, the city is much more than that. Located strategically at the estuary of the Mersey river as it ends into the Irish Sea along the northwest coast of England, Liverpool once ruled the seas.

“The city was a center of commerce, and its famous docks formed a continuous line of sea wall for six miles. It surpassed all other English ports in terms of foreign trade particularly in Asia, Africa, and the East in general.  In fact, by mid-century, by any criteria, Liverpool was England’s “first port of empire,” writes Diane Robinson-Dunn from the University of Detroit in Lascar Sailors and English Converts: The Imperial Port and Islam in late 19th-Century England.

In Racial Hybridity and Victorian Nationalism: 1850-1901, Alisha Renee Walters writes that, “Susan Meyer underlines that in 1769, “the year in which Mr. Earnshaw found Heathcliff in the Liverpool streets, the city was England’s largest slave-trading port.” She also suggests that Heathcliff may be “the child of one of the Indian seamen, termed lascars, recruited by the East India Company.”

The story of the Lascars begins with the establishment of trade links between Mughal India and Stuart England. The East India Company was established in 1600 AD after being given a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I. Later, Thomas Roe, Emperor James I’s envoy, led a mission to India and had an audience with Emperor Jehangir in Agra. This led to the opening of English (later British) ‘factories’ across the subcontinent.

British trade with the subcontinent meant that Indian goods like spices, cotton, silk, jute, indigo, tea, porcelain and opium, made their way to docks in London, Liverpool, Hull, Cardiff, Glasgow and other British port cities. By the 1720s, Bengal alone contributed over half of the East India Company’s imports from the Indian subcontinent.

This trade in goods opened passages to migration between India and Britain.

The term ‘Lascar’ is derived from the Urdu/Hindustani and ultimately Persian word ‘Lashkar’ meaning ‘army’. The Portuguese, great rivals of the British, first used it and it soon found its way into the British lexicon as well.

The Lascars really entered the picture after 1757. That year, the British under Robert Clive won the rich province of Bengal after defeating Siraj ud Daulah, its Nawab.

According to the portal South Asians in Britain, “South Asian seafarers, seamen and mariners, known as ‘lascars’, were first hired to work on ships by the East India Company in the seventeenth century. As the Company increased its control of territory in India and trade and merchant shipping expanded during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they were recruited in ever increasing numbers. Employed on so-called ‘Asiatic’ or ‘Lascar’ Articles, which determined their rates and condition of employment, lascars were a source of cheap labour for shipping companies, who paid them significantly less than their European counterparts.”

The heyday of the Lascars was from the 1850s to the 1950s. That was the time when steam ships replaced sail ships. European sailors were not willing to work in the gruelling conditions aboard steamers. The labour shortage thus created was largely filled by Lascars.

Once they arrived in British ports though, the Lascars were in for a tough time. They were often abandoned to fend for themselves and often ended up destitute on the streets.

This was the situation especially before the Revolt of 1857, when the East India Company employed Lascars. Post the Revolt, the Company was abolished and the British Crown took over.

Many Lascars settled in British port cities where they worked as crossing-sweepers, ran lodging-houses or set up cafes and restaurants.

South Asians in Britain notes that “Men from diverse religious, regional and cultural backgrounds signed up as mariners mainly in the large port cities of Bombay and Calcutta. Initially recruited from the coastal regions of East Bengal, Gujarat and the Malabar coast in south-west India, as demand for their labour grew, workers from more rural areas of India, such as Assam, Bengal, the North-West Frontier Province and Punjab also signed up.”

In East Bengal, the Lascars mainly came from the Sylhet region. In his book, Bengali Settlement in Britain, author Faruque Ahmed notes that it was mainly Bengali Muslims, rather than Bengali Hindus, who became Lascars as religious injunctions forbade Hindus from crossing the Kaalapani.

Sylhet today is located in the northeastern corner of Bangladesh. At the time of the Partition of the Subcontinent, it was a part of Assam. (Read more.)

Share