Opposites attract: Can collecting fridge magnets lift our mood?
Crystal Picture: Magnets Her Swing's Chani Anderson Religious Mary With Pictured Of Collection Burke Fridge
Henry McKean collected his first magnet shortly before his family and he moved from Scotland to Ireland.
“It was the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1989,” recalls the broadcaster.
“I remember it was cloudy with the sun poking through. It was being held in an old shipyard and it had a rollercoaster. Princess Diana showed up with Charles. I won a raffle in school to meet them earlier in the day. Charles asked if we were working hard and we said we were. Diana just smiled and batted her eyelids. I was smitten. She was electric. There were three of us in that marriage and a fridge magnet.”
Since that unforgettable day on the dreamy banks of the River Clyde, Henry has accumulated well over 100 magnets from across the globe.
“I’ve got lots,” says the 46-year-old. “Every time I go away, I pick up a magnet. I’m just back from Scotland where I picked up a magnet of a beautiful cow. The label said it supports local artists, even though it was probably made in China, but I’m sure the design is local.”
As Newstalk’s roving reporter, Henry can find himself in Douglas one day and Delhi the next. Wherever he is, he’s always sure to pick up a magnet. Many of his favourites have been bought or gifted to him between interviews with the great and the good (ish) of international celebrity.
“I have one I love of John Wayne,” says Henry. “I met his daughter in Nashville a few years ago. She makes and sells cowboy hats there and she gave me a little John Wayne wearing a cowboy hat. My Las Vegas one is probably the tackiest one I have. It’s a copy of the sign you see on the way in saying Welcome to Las Vegas with a shooting star. It’s 3D and made out of a paper mache-type thing. There is another one I love from Bintan, Indonesia. I went there with my wife in 2016. It’s in the shape of a bottle and it’s a bottle opener, so it’s handy. It brings back memories and it opens beer.”
When it comes to the most coveted item of his collection, the link to British royalty continues - though he does admit the souvenir’s bewitching subjects are beginning to lose their magnetism for him.
“My favourite is probably the one I have of Harry and Meghan which I got in Windsor when I was covering the royal wedding,” says the reporter. “I’ve always supported them, though I have to say they are beginning to annoy me lately so it might have to come down.”
Fridge magnets are unusual among souvenirs in that they are produced for a single and specific place within the home: the fridge door.
Their location on a functional but much-frequented and important appliance puts them at the centre of domestic life. And it seems they do more for us than we might think.
A recent study published by the University of Liverpool Management School found that these sticky souvenirs can be unique in evoking a diverse range of memories and can boost our moods long after we have returned from holiday.
Many of the participants interviewed for the study said they were reminded of their trips abroad every time they opened the fridge door. Some magnets had become attached to more poignant memories over the years, serving as a reminder of friends or family members.
For some, fridge magnets can even evoke a feeling of spirituality.
Mary Burke picks up all sorts of souvenirs when she goes on pilgrimage. The Crystal Swing singer and keyboard player is a devoted follower of Jesus and is a regular visitor to the likes of Lourdes, Medjugorje and of course Knock.
“Every time I go I bring back statues, rosary beads, books, and of course, fridge magnets, and I have a nice little collection going,” she says.
“I used to have the fridge full of them but I took a lot of them down and gave them away because, well, let’s be honest, they can look a bit gaudy. But, I still have quite a few.”
“Medjugorje is my number one,” says the singer. “I have been there about six times. I got one the last time of Jesus walking on water and I like it because it reminds me that as we walk through the path of life he walks with us and we don’t walk alone. I see that anytime I open the fridge door and I feel that whatever trouble I have today I’m not on my own. It just gives me the strength to face anything.”
After 24 years working for others, professional globetrotter, Sarah Slattery, started her own travel company, The Travel Expert, in 2015.
She has visited well over 50 countries in her career and along the way, she has picked up quite a few attractive mementoes.
“I never travelled out of Ireland as a child for holidays,” says Sarah. “So I was always one of those children who was a little envious of people who did. When I finished school, I planned to go to university but I got a summer job at John Cassidy Travel and just got bitten by the bug.”
One of the smallest magnets in Sarah’s collection comes from one of those earlier trips in the trade.
“There’s one there from Portofino,” says the Dubliner.
“When I was starting in the industry, we went over to Tuscany and stayed in a cheap hotel. What we used to do in those days was check in for one night into a five-star hotel and live it up a bit. We booked ourselves into The Splendido in Portofino. It was an incredible place for someone in their twenties. Even now it’s still a beautiful place so it was a really big deal. While we were there, there was a film being shot with Josh Hartnett who was really famous at the time. There were a lot of celebrities knocking around. The magnet itself is bashed to bits here but the memory is crystal clear.”
“I have a red car from Monaco that’s very cute,” she says.
“I got that when I was on maternity leave with my first child and we took the last month of that to go down into France and Italy and that was one of the places we stopped. That was a lovely trip. There’s another one from Sri Lanka with a little elephant on it that stands out. That was one of the first trips I did when I started on my own and it was one of the most surprising and interesting places I’ve been to.”
For Henry “everyone deserves a bit of tack in their lives” and magnets are just the ticket.
Though Henry’s wife is not so keen on his avid collecting and would probably “just make them disappear if she could”, his magnets have recently come in handy.
“We recently bought a new fridge but we scraped it as we were bringing it into the house,” says Henry.
“We couldn't bring it back because we damaged it, not them. So thankfully we had the magnets to cover the scrapes.”
A memory of great times, a source of income for local artists, a kitschy keepsake, a spiritual totem, a bottle opener and a tool for hiding scrapes, the humble fridge magnet has you covered on so many levels.