The Story of British Pathé

Questions, speculations & updates on the techniques and nature of media fakery
pdgalles
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The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by pdgalles »

The BBC are currently broadcasting a series on BBC Four entitled "The Story of British Pathé."

Having watched the first two episodes (and putting my tinfoil hat on), I wanted to share some thoughts and suppositions. The easiest way to do this is to add my comments to the Wikipedia article on Pathé News, plus those of an anti-conspiracy theory "devil's advocate." :P

*

Note: The point, IMO, of both this BBC Pathé series and general British high school history education regarding the two World Wars, is that the War generations - your parents/grandparents/great grandparents - were obviously propagandised. We can all see that now and in high school we are taught this unequivocally. Why? So that there is a clear distinction made between then and now, i.e. if they were being propagandised then, in order to fight the war, it must mean that we are not being propagandised now. After all, do you see anything like this on your streets these days?

Image

*

Source (unless otherwise stated): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path%C3%A9_News
British Pathé is one of the oldest names in the motion picture industry. Its roots lie in 1890s Paris when the company was founded as Société Pathé Frères (Pathé Brothers Company) by Charles Pathé who pioneered the development of the moving image. Charles Pathé was a dynamic personality who was directly responsible for the rapid growth of the young motion picture industry and the discovery of many of its major artists.
pdgalles: So who was Charles Pathé?
The son of a butcher shop owner, Charles Pathé was born at Chevry-Cossigny, in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. In 1894, together with his brother Émile, he formed Pathé Records. Two years later they created the Société Pathé Frères to enter the motion picture production and distribution business. Both companies would become a dominant international force in their respective industries.

In 1929, Charles Pathé sold out his interest in the businesses and retired to Monaco where he died in 1957.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Path%C3%A9

Devil's advocate: Société Pathé Frères was founded by entrepreneurs, individuals, and therefore was not founded by a government agency. After all, Charles Pathé's father was just a butcher shop owner! Comprendre?
[Pathé] first expanded to London in 1902 where they set up production facilities and a chain of movie theaters.

[...]

In 1908, Pathé invented the newsreel that was shown in theaters prior to the feature film.

[...]

By 1909, Pathé had built more than 200 movie theaters in France and Belgium and by the following year they had facilities in Madrid, Moscow, Rome and New York City plus Australia and Japan.

[...]

Prior to the outbreak of World War I, Pathé dominated Europe's market in motion picture cameras and projectors. It has been estimated that at one time, 60 percent of all films were shot with Pathé equipment.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path%C3%A9

Devil's advocate: So Pathé began to broadcast their newsreels in the UK (and across Europe) just years prior to the outbreak of WWI. So what? They were successful in France and chose to expand - pure coincidence of timing and certainly no reason to imagine the newsreels began in 1910 with the goal of broadcasting propaganda in order to ready the British public for war.
Even though during the early days the camera shots were taken from a stationary position, the Pathé newsreels captured events such as the suffragette Emily Davison being killed when she threw herself under the King’s Horse at the 1913 Derby.
Devil's advocate: So they got lucky occasionally, who doesn't? ;) The cameraman just happened to be at the perfect location to capture the tragic death of suffragette Emily Davison and the featuring of this footage in the newsreels just happened to give promotion to the campaign for women's suffrage, a struggle which had by that time occupied over 40 years of public discourse*. Just like the civil rights movement, these things naturally take time. A lot of time.

*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_ ... ed_Kingdom

Devil's advocate: It's not as if she was a well-known, media-created "terrorist" anyway!
Emily Davison (11 October 1872 – 8 June 1913) was a militant women's suffrage activist.

She was arrested and imprisoned for various offences nine times, including a violent attack on a man she mistook for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George. She went on hunger strike in Strangeways Prison and was force-fed. She attempted suicide twice while in Strangeways by throwing herself down an iron staircase. As a result she suffered severe head and spinal damage, causing discomfort for the rest of her life.

On 2 April 1911, the night of the 1911 census, Davison hid in a cupboard in the Palace of Westminster overnight so that on the census form she could legitimately give her place of residence that night as the "House of Commons". The 1911 census documents that were uncovered state that Emily Davison was found 'hiding in the crypt' in the Houses of Parliament. In 1999 a plaque to commemorate the event was set in place by Tony Benn MP.

In 1913, she planted a bomb at Lloyd George's newly built house in Surrey, damaging it severely.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Davison

Devil's advocate: {speechless}...
Davison's purpose in attending the Derby of 4 June 1913 is unclear. Much has been made of the fact that she purchased a return rail ticket and a ticket to a suffragette dance later that day, suggesting that martyrdom was not her intention.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Davison

Devil's advocate: Wait, you mean Emily Davison was just like the London 7/7 bombers?
The London bombers may have been duped into killing themselves so their secrets stayed hidden.

Police and MI5 are probing if the four men were told by their al-Qaeda controller they had time to escape after setting off timers. Instead, the devices exploded immediately.

A security source said: "If the bombers lived and were caught they'd probably have cracked. Would their masters have allowed that to happen? We think not."

The evidence is compelling: The terrorists bought return rail tickets, and pay and display car park tickets, before boarding _ a train at Luton for London. None of the men was heard to cry "Allah Akhbar!" - "God is great" - usually screamed by suicide bombers as they detonate their bomb.
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ex ... ide-550351
Last edited by pdgalles on Wed May 16, 2012 9:56 pm, edited 5 times in total.
pdgalles
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by pdgalles »

pdgalles: Can we focus on Pathé for a moment?
During the First World War, the cinema newsreels were called the Pathé Animated Gazettes and for the first time this provided newspapers with competition.
Devil's advocate: Sure, it was a momentous time in human history - the first time a war was being fought in the battlefield and the action appearing on the cinema screen almost simultaneously. This is what the public wanted - regular updates from the Western Front so they could follow the fortunes of their boys! All Pathé were doing was documenting the action.

pdgalles: Actually, in the BBC Pathé documentary it was admitted that faked footage of the War was broadcast on the Pathé newsreels but the viewing public were never told that they were watching a, how shall we say... a dramatic reconstruction of events. A reimagining, if you will.

Devil's advocate: So are you suggesting that not everything we have been told about the War is the truth? How shocking!
After 1918, British Pathé started producing a series of Cinemazines where the Newsreels were much longer and more comprehensive. After 1928, sound was introduced and by 1930, British Pathé were covering news, entertainment, sport, culture and women’s issues through programmes including the Pathétone Weekly, the Pathé Pictorial, the Gazette and Eve’s Film Review.
pdgalles: The narrative angle of the BBC Pathé documentary was that during the 1930s the British public were ravenous for information on life in Germany.

A search of the Pathé archives reveals that between 1930 and 1938 Adolf Hitler was featured in 194 seperate Pathé news clips.

Devil's advocate: All Pathé were doing was giving the people what they wanted...

pdgalles: You can choose to believe this if you want, in the same way as the British people have been ravenous for updates from the Middle East for the past 20 years. :rolleyes:

Devil's advocate: Just let bygones be bygones - Pathé is no longer involved in news. Look:
In 1947, the film assets of the successor companies of Pathé News, Inc. were purchased by Warner Brothers from RKO Radio Pictures, which had acquired them in 1931.

[...]

In 1956, Warner Bros. discontinued the production of the theatrical newsreel and sold the Pathé News film library.
pdgalles: Remember this? Image
The Descent is a 2005 British horror film written and directed by Neil Marshall. The film follows six women who, having entered an unmapped cave system, become trapped, and are hunted by subterranean flesh-eating humanoids.

The Descent opened commercially 8 July 2005 in the United Kingdom.

[...]

The film's marketing campaign in the United Kingdom was disrupted by the London bombings in July 2005. Advertisements on London's public transport system (including the bus that had exploded) had included posters that carried the quote, "Outright terror... bold and brilliant", and depicted a terrified woman screaming in a tunnel.

The film's theatrical distributor in the UK, Pathé, recalled the posters from their placement in the London Underground and reworked the campaign to exclude the word "terror" from advertised reviews of The Descent. Pathé also distributed the new versions to TV and radio stations.

The distributor's marketing chief, Anna Butler, said of the new approach, "We changed tack to concentrate on the women involved all standing together and fighting back. That seemed to chime with the prevailing mood of defiance that set in the weekend after the bombs."

Neil Marshall stated in a review "Shauna was pretty upset about it; it was on newspapers all across the county" and cites the attacks as harming the film's box office, as "people were still trapped underground in reality, so no one really wanted to go see a film about people trapped underground...".

Many commentators, including writers for Variety and The Times, remarked on the rather unfortunate coincidence.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent

Devil's advocate: Image
reichstag fireman
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by reichstag fireman »

Interesting slant on the so-called suffragette movement.

A parallel from the same era could be the Irish republican movement. Today, Irish bars across the land sing proud songs of their republican heros who delivered freedom from the English oppressor, or so they like to think. In truth, the nation is completely enslaved in debt to the City of London. Any victory over the English was entirely Pyrric.

The Irish heros, the founding fathers of the Irish Republic, were covert agents of the English Crown. The legend of "Irish revolutionary" Constance Georgine Gore-Booth, the Countess Markovicz, on closer examination, is a good example of unmitigated nonsense.

According to Wonkypedia: Countess Markovicz was "the eldest daughter of Arctic explorer and adventurer Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet, an Anglo-Irish landlord who administered a 100 sq km (39 sq mi) estate.."

Hmm.. scarcely Irish revolutionary material!

As for 7/7, since most credible researchers agree that the 7/7 victims were created, it stands to reason that there were no 7/7 perpetrators either. The infamous "Mohammad Sidique Khan", lead 7/7 bomber, and his band of evil henchmen, just didn't exist. They were no more than perpsims.

We were subjected to that very unconvincing "suicide video" of Khan. Recall Khan's threatening gestures at the camera. Yet studied closely and Khan's hand, which waves menacingly at the viewer, doesn't seem connected to the rest of his body.

His script is frankly pathetic, too. "I.... am a warrior for Islam!", he warns his audience.

From applying the insight acquired through Simon's expertise, that 7/7 "suicide video" looks very CGI'ed as well.
pdgalles
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by pdgalles »

reichstag fireman wrote:As for 7/7, since most credible researchers agree that the 7/7 victims were created, it stands to reason that there were no 7/7 perpetrators either. The infamous "Mohammad Sidique Khan", lead 7/7 bomber, and his band of evil henchmen, just didn't exist. They were no more than perpsims.
The devil's advocate cannot countenance this viewpoint, unfortunately.

If you want to discuss the theory that Mohammad Sidique Khan was some sort of computer simulation we can do that in the 7/7 thread but I think you are wrong. He was an actor, not a sim, just like Captain Francesco Schettino.
Terence.drew
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by Terence.drew »

reichstag fireman wrote: The Irish heros, the founding fathers of the Irish Republic, were covert agents of the English Crown. The legend of "Irish revolutionary" Constance Georgine Gore-Booth, the Countess Markovicz, on closer examination, is a good example of unmitigated nonsense.

According to Wonkypedia: Countess Markovicz was "the eldest daughter of Arctic explorer and adventurer Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet, an Anglo-Irish landlord who administered a 100 sq km (39 sq mi) estate.."

Hmm.. scarcely Irish revolutionary material!
Interesting take fireman ;)

I love your logic.

The story of the Buddha.

The Buddha who is the founder of the Buddhist religion is called Buddha Shakyamuni “Shakya” is the name of the royal family into which he was born, and “Muni” means “Able One.” Buddha Shakyamuni was born as a royal prince in 624 BC in a place called Lumbini, in what is now Nepal. His mother’s name was Queen Mayadevi and his father’s name was King Shuddhodana.

http://www.aboutbuddha.org/english/life-of-buddha.htm/

Family background = what exactly?

(Many MI5 and M16 agents are not necessarily from upper crusted toffee backgrounds.)
;)

Many posh looking women walking around Dublin were not expected to have machine guns tucked into their garters either..Like the veritable Countess..
reichstag fireman
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by reichstag fireman »

Who really are those people dressed up in balaclavas and Provo fatigues, releasing half-witted "IRA" statements and admitting responsibility for staged terror attacks under the phony nom-de-plume of "P. O'Neill"?
Terence.drew
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by Terence.drew »

reichstag fireman wrote:Who really are those people dressed up in balaclavas and Provo fatigues, releasing half-witted "IRA" statements and admitting responsibility for staged terror attacks under the phony nom-de-plume of "P. O'Neill"?
??? why ask of others a question you yourself have already answered? You stated you knew who these people were in this very post prior to you deleting most of it ..? ( I remember your post nearly word for word ... 'the grunts')
reichstag fireman
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by reichstag fireman »

If calling MI6 "the grunts" caused personal offence, Terence then my apologies. It certainly was not my intention. :) But if the post was in any way helpful or interesting, please feel free to resurrect it :)

You have an interesting slant on Buddhism, whatever its true origins. Its apparent benevolence and pacifistic teachings surely warrant discussion in itself.

Doubtless, you've studied the flip-side to the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist leader in exile. It has been reported for decades that the saintly Dalai is an agent of Western intelligence, used as a weapon of destabilisation of China, in common with the Falun Gong cult penetration.

Like the bejewelled "IRA" leader, Countess Constance Markievicz, it is often more about perception than reality.
Terence.drew
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by Terence.drew »

reichstag fireman wrote:If calling MI6 "the grunts" caused personal offence, Terence then my apologies. It certainly was not my intention. :) But if the post was in any way helpful or interesting, please feel free to resurrect it :)

You have an interesting slant on Buddhism, whatever its true origins. Its apparent benevolence and pacifistic teachings surely warrant discussion in itself.

Doubtless, you've studied the flip-side to the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist leader in exile. It has been reported for decades that the saintly Dalai is an agent of Western intelligence, used as a weapon of destabilisation of China, in common with the Falun Gong cult penetration.

Like the bejewelled "IRA" leader, Countess Constance Markievicz, it is often more about perception than reality.
You seem very sure on the Dalai Lama being a 'paid'(and not a 'desperate person in a desperate situation)vehicle for western intelligence agencies against the 5000 year wall of Chinese culture and imperialism....

You seem equally sure about the Countess Markievicz being a 'paid' up agent of the British.

Please post evidence of your latter suppostion (and not some tabloidesqe tittle tattle)

Your posts thus far have never answered directly any question put. Your posts introduce new elements to a discussion which presumably are designed to avoid the question in hand and obfuscate the argument?

Please post evidence of the Countess being a spy.

If you have evidence great - you can write a book about...

No bullshit please.
You claim the Countess is a spy.
Lets hear your evidence.


P.s.

http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/Daily_ ... r_Star.php This is surely dynamite.
Terence.drew
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by Terence.drew »

Please remember Fireman that your only previous justifications for your convictions about the Countess Markievicz were based on class fascism ...


I quote you...

According to Wonkypedia: Countess Markovicz was "the eldest daughter of Arctic explorer and adventurer Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet, an Anglo-Irish landlord who administered a 100 sq km (39 sq mi) estate.."

Hmm.. scarcely Irish revolutionary material!


If you have some new exciting information to hand about the lady please share it)

Or Maybe she is the only person ever to go against the grain of her family expectations?

Lets hear you fireman?
reichstag fireman
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by reichstag fireman »

A lot of energy is invested in defence of someone who's apparently been dead for nearly a century. A shame and a waste of effort, because there's not a shred of credibility to the romantic legend of Countess Constance Markievicz, the IRA leader.

Constance Gore-Booth, to acknowledge her family name, was almost certainly an undercover British agent. Personal intuition and a good dose of cynicism should always trump the airbrushed official history.

Almost no part of this story rings true. The inquisitive among us should question whether Constance Gore-Booth was ever, in reality, married to a Polish count called Markievicz. Was the union a phony? Just another part of her intelligence cover? A ruse to disguise, at least on paper, her English aristocratic background?

Burke's Peerage hasn't got a single reference to this Polish Count:
Burke's Peerage wrote:She [Lady Constance Gore-Booth] married Count unknown Markievicz on 29 September 1900 at London, England.1
No record of a Christian name for the Count nor any reference to his all-important lineage?

You would think that for such a pivotal figure in British and Irish history, Burke's would at least have the Count's name. After all, Burke's does claim to be "the leading authoritative, in-depth historical guide to titled families in the United Kingdom."

Aaaanyway, here, courtesy of Wikipedia, is a very fetching picture of Lady Constance, the IRA leader (left) with her sister Lady Eva, the Suffragette leader (right).

Wouldn't Constance look fine in a balaclava-oh.

Image
Lady Constance ("IRA Leader") with her sister, Lady Eva ("Suffragette Leader")

Is there a whiff of (19th century?) photoshopping to that impossibly dainty waistline? And why not? Everything else about Lady Constance is fake!
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by Terence.drew »

reichstag fireman wrote:A lot of energy is invested in defence of someone who's apparently been dead for nearly a century. A shame and a waste of effort, because there's not a shred of credibility to the romantic legend of Countess Constance Markievicz, the IRA leader.

Constance Gore-Booth, to acknowledge her family name, was almost certainly an undercover British agent. Personal intuition and a good dose of cynicism should always trump the airbrushed official history.

Almost no part of this story rings true. The inquisitive among us should question whether Constance Gore-Booth was ever, in reality, married to a Polish count called Markievicz. Was the union a phony? Just another part of her intelligence cover? A ruse to disguise, at least on paper, her English aristocratic background?

Burke's Peerage hasn't got a single reference to this Polish Count:
Burke's Peerage wrote:She [Lady Constance Gore-Booth] married Count unknown Markievicz on 29 September 1900 at London, England.1
No record of a Christian name for the Count nor any reference to his all-important lineage?

You would think that for such a pivotal figure in British and Irish history, Burke's would at least have the Count's name. After all, Burke's does claim to be "the leading authoritative, in-depth historical guide to titled families in the United Kingdom."

Aaaanyway, here, courtesy of Wikipedia, is a very fetching picture of Lady Constance, the IRA leader (left) with her sister Lady Eva, the Suffragette leader (right).

Wouldn't Constance look fine in a balaclava-oh.

Image
Lady Constance ("IRA Leader") with her sister, Lady Eva ("Suffragette Leader")

Is there a whiff of (19th century?) photoshopping to that impossibly dainty waistline? And why not? Everything else about Lady Constance is fake!



There is no big energy or emotion being put into this. You made a claim and I asked you to back it up. People come here all the time pal with different agendas. They make claims and when asked to back them up with something tangible they cannot. You have dug a hole for yourself here and jumped into it.
I dont care about your instincts to be honest.

By your own simple logic, someone needs to always look the part:

I.e here is the terrorist...

Image

The non terrorist...

Image

You ask us to imagine Markievicz in a balaclava. Why? The struggles of 1916 and campaign of the IRA are a million miles away from each other and yet you place them together like co joined twins. You might as well ask us to imagine her in a burqa. Your understanding is ultra simplistic (or deliberately propagandistic).

Some of the most influential and brilliant people associated with the struggle of Ireland to escape enslavement by Britain were Protestant and had wealthy backgrounds. The most exceptional of these was Charles Stuart Parnell. His parents were John Henry Parnell (1811–1859), a wealthy Anglo-Irish landowner. His mother was an American - Delia Tudor Stewart (1816–1898) of Bordentown, New Jersey, daughter of the American naval hero, Admiral Charles Stewart (1778-1869) (the stepson of one of George Washington's bodyguards).

Your snobbery betrays you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stewart_Parnell

Parnell was destroyed by the same sneering tabloid mentality you display here.

1916 was a pivotal point for Ireland. A small group of capable and brave men and Women took a stand against a world empire. They knew they would killed for their actions. Countess Markievicz was among these. She was the wrong sex to get executed but was thrown in jail then and after and died fairly young.

The 1916 Proclamation was a brilliant document for it's time, and it is shame the open ideals it championed were set upon by the Catholic Church/stasi-like Politicians when the Republic came into existence.
Image

Text is here. http://homepages.iol.ie/~dluby/proclaim.htm

Here is another 'IRA leader" reichstag fireman. (please check up on the history of the IRA and when they actually came into existence please)
James Connolly. (His 'balaclava' has been photoshopped out)
Image
brianv
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by brianv »

Image

1916 Sovereign Republic

We declare the right of the People of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible.

1922 Irish Free State of Great Britain

The oath to be taken by members of the Oireachtas shall be in the following form:—

I ................ do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established, and that I will be faithful to H. M. King George V., his heirs and successors by law in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations.

http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Ireland_const1922.htm
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by Maat »

reichstag fireman wrote: Image
Lady Constance ("IRA Leader") with her sister, Lady Eva ("Suffragette Leader")

Is there a whiff of (19th century?) photoshopping to that impossibly dainty waistline? And why not? Everything else about Lady Constance is fake!
I don't wish to butt in here, since I don't know enough about Irish history, but I would like to dispel some misconceptions you seem to have regarding women of that period, if I may, Reichstag.

That photo you posted is captioned at the source as, "Eva Gore-Booth (right) with her sister Constance at the opening of Drumcliffe Creamery in 1895."
I can assure you, and a little research would confirm, that the corsets worn by ladies of that time did indeed effect an "impossibly dainty waistline", which is why fainting spells were so 'fashionable' and smelling salts an essential in every woman's purse :rolleyes:

It really doesn't seem so strange that older sister Eva (poet & playwright), was a "committed suffragist, social worker and labour activist" either, particularly in context and her 30 year partnership with suffragist/activist Esther Roper.

Although there is no way to be absolutely certain of Constance's motives, I just can't see how anyone could assume that she would not have been influenced by her older sister's evident ideals and social activism.

That's my 2 cents for the feminine facts, anyway :P
reichstag fireman
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Re: The Story of British Pathé

Unread post by reichstag fireman »

With all due respect, we're not talking about women in general, and it was a joke about the waistline, although see below..

We're taking about the supposed daughter(s) of Sir Henry Gore-Booth, High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant of Co Sligo.

"Lady Constance" and "Lady Eva Gore-Booth" were allegedly born into a Baronetcy with a 400 year history of homage to the English Crown. And the offices of High Sheriff and Lord Lieutenant, held at various times by their alleged father, Sir Henry, were (and still are) the two most important appointments that the Crown makes in a County.

In times of insurrection, not least in Ireland at the turn of the century, the High Sheriff could (and did) administer summary justice on behalf of the Crown.

What makes this romantic legend altogether implausible is that "Lady Constance Gore-Booth" should apparently forego her English aristocratic privilege. Choosing instead to risk her life by becoming a militant communist. Setting aside nationalistic pride which serves only to cloud our better judgment, the notion of "Lady Constance" as an IRA leader, really does stretch credulity.

It is interesting, on a side note, that "Lady Constance" purportedly married this mysterious "Count Markievicz" only after her father, Sir Henry, had died. Is that significant? What do we know of 'Lady Constance's political activities before his death?

Yet soon after tying the knot, "the Count" and "Lady Constance" apparently went their own ways. This is another sign that it was perhaps a paper marriage, serving as an intelligence cover. However, the ever chivalrous "Count" did reportedly visit his estranged wife as she lay on her deathbed "on the pauper's ward" of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital in Dublin.

From an official tribute website for "Lady Constance Gore-Booth", we find an oil painting purportedly of her husband, "Count Markiewicz" (which could be a portrait of anyone). There's also a pencil drawing allegedly of the "Count" which was allegedly sketched by "Lady Constance" herself. And then we have this impossibly blurred photo, apparently showing "Gore-Booth" and "Markievicz" on their wedding day. Again, it could be a photo of anyone.

Other than that, there's no compelling proof of the "Count"'s existence, not in Ireland, not in London, nor even in his apparent homeland of Poland, or was it the Russian Ukraine?? (records unclear..) Over the last 112 years, Burke's Peerage still hasn't discovered 'Count Markiewicz's true family lineage. How so? Maybe because as a fantasy creation, there is no family heritage to "the Count".

Image
The only tangible record of the mysterious "Count Markiewicz": an oil painting, a pencil sketch, and a photo (which could be of anyone)

In the official narrative, "the Count" and "Lady Constance" had issue. A daughter, "Maeve Alys Markievicz", b. Lissadell, 13 November 1901. Despite having a legendary mother, "Maeve" mysteriously vanished for the next sixty years, surfacing it seems only once, shortly before her own death to correspond with the press and to present her trite poem about Co. Sligo.

Shortly thereafter, in June 1962, it was apparently announced (in an unnamed newspaper) that “The death has occurred at her home in Parliament Hill, London of "Miss Maeve de Markievicz”. By this stage, it seems that "Maeve Alyz" has acquired a 'de' prefix to her name! From a brief study of the narrative for "Maeve Alys", it too has glaring holes in it. See for yourself: http://www.sligoheritage.com/ArchMaeveMarkievicz.htm Here's betting that "Maeve Alys Markievicz" was never anything more than a dusty and little-read file at British intelligence, opened only on anniversaries.

As for that photograph of the "Gore-Booth daughters", do we know anything of its provenance? It was uploaded to wonkypedia in 2008 by "ANB" who offers no background to it, other than describing himself/herself as "a Dubliner exiled to East Anglia". :rolleyes:

Image

The image could well be a modern fake. When and where did it first surface? It looks like a composition, contemporary or otherwise. If so, it isn't strictly a genuine photographic record of "the Gore-Booth daughters" "at the opening of the Drumcliffe Creamery in 1895" as is claimed. In fact, it appears to be a pair of studio-posed portraits placed together in composition, whether in a traditional darkroom lab or on a photoshop desktop. Does the image genuinely depict "the Gore-Booth daughters"? Who knows? "Lady Constance" looks vaguely like other photos purportedly of her, whoever she is, if anyone.

But those other photos of "Lady Constance" look equally dubious. Come on.. Do these look credible?! Poor old Constance! So desperate to shed her aristocratic roots and play the part of insurgent! How quaint!

"Papa! Papa! Look at me, Papa! I'm an IRA tewwowist!"
"Now now, Connie, dear! Calm down, dear! It's only make-pwetend! Your job is to flush out the REAL tewwowists for His Majesty!"


Image
"Lady Constance, the Countess Markievicz": "Stick 'em up!"
Last edited by reichstag fireman on Fri Dec 07, 2012 8:18 pm, edited 24 times in total.
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