The owners of Borris House in Co Carlow have appealed for the return a banner resembling the Star of David which has been in the family more than 200 years.
The banner was taken during the Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas last month – one of the most popular and prestigious festivals of its kind in Ireland or Britain.
The Kavanagh family believe a festivalgoer removed the banner from the chapel area because he or she believed it was a Star of David.
In fact, it is a Masonic symbol known as the Seal of Solomon or the hexagram. It is supposed to symbolise how the physical and spiritual realms mirror each other.
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It can be observed in tandem with the other prominent Masonic symbol visible in the chapel, namely the All Seeing Eye at the top of the arch over the altar.
The Seal of Solomon has been in the building since it was built in 1816. The Star of David as a symbol of Jewishness was not widely known until the end of the 19th century and was adopted as the Israeli flag in 1948.
The banner was removed from the chapel between the evening of Friday, June 6th, and the following afternoon. A social media post showed its disappearance from where it had hung in front of the pulpit for more than two centuries.
The chapel was used throughout the festival for events.
Mr Kavanagh said he was perplexed that anybody would want to take the banner as it had no intrinsic value.
“It’s quite a genteel, middle-class festival. You wouldn’t imagine such a thing happening,” he said.
“I feel someone has misread the situation and has taken offence to it. They obviously thought there was an Israeli connection with our family, which there isn’t.”
The festival had about 5,000 attendees over the three days from June 6th to 8th.
The matter has been reported to gardaí, but the family is not looking for a prosecution.
“If somebody quietly slips it into a package and returns it, we would be really grateful,” Mr Kavanagh said.
