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STORYTELLING FESTIVAL LAUNCHES BUSY AUTUMN SCHEDULE FOR CURATOR.IE

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 14, 2023 – 11:45 am

Listowel International Storytelling Festival kicks off a busy Autumn and Winter schedule for curaor.ie.

On Thursday 14 September Ciarán Walsh ‘curates’ The Bolex Boys: An Adventure in Storytelling in Film, a public conversation with filmmakers John Lynch & Michael Mulcahy. They created an extraordinary cinematic record of the changing social and cultural landscape of North Kerry from the 1970s onwards.

The Storytelling event marks the beginning of a collaboration with Kerry Writers’ Museum with funding from the Regional 2023 Museum Exhibitions Scheme. The project involves the digitisation of Lynch and Mulcahy’s 1978 film The Way I Remember It, featuring a soundtrack created by Eamon Keane. The film will be the centre piece of The Bolex Boys exhibition which opens in Kerry Writers’ Museum on 19 October.

In the meantime, Berghahn Books (New York and Oxford) will publish Ciarán Walsh’s radical telling of the story of Haddon ‘the Head-hunter‘ in Ireland. The book will be launched in the Royal Anthropological Institute in London on 31 October and Walsh will curate an exhibition of photography for the occasion.

Pages from Dixon photo album © National Library of Ireland

Haddon and the Aran Islands will be constructed around an ethnographic account of the Islands Haddon presented as a slideshow in 1890. Haddon used photographs Andrew Francis Dixon took under his direction. Walsh discovered Dixons negatives in 2014 and commissioned a new set of digitised images in 2019.

This exhibition is the first time this remarkable photographic experiment will have been shown in public. The exhibition will also include a critical review of Haddon’s influences and impact and will include the a scan of oldest surviving photograph of Skellig Michael (1868) and a photographJohn Millington Synge took in the Aran Islands in 1898.

A digital scan from the negative made in 2009 for Walsh’s groundbreaking exhibition John Millington Synge, PhotographerCourtesy of the Board of Trinity College, University of Dublin (2023).

curator.ie finds oldest surviving photo of Skellig

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on August 8, 2023 – 4:35 pm

Filed under Curatorial Projects, History of Anthropology, Photography

William Mercer, c. 1868, St Michael’s Church and Cell, digital scan of gelatine silver print. Permission of the Royal Irish Academy © RIA.

“Skellig provided J. J. Abrams with the perfect location for the birthplace of the Jedi. The challenge of filming Star Wars on a steep rock twelve kilometres out in the Atlantic has added enormously to the mystique of a place with a long tradition of pilgrims scaling its twin peaks. 150 years before Abrams landed on Skellig, Edwin Wyndham-Quin noticed a monastic complex on the first ordnance survey map of the rock and included it in his study of pagan forts, Christian hermitages and mediaeval churches. William Mercer photographed each site between 1866 and 1869 and the discovery in April 2023 of his print of “St Michael’s Church and Cell” provides an opportunity to revisit an adventure in photography that surpasses Abrams’ determination to film on the rock.“

For more on this story go to the Irish Examiner.

stolen skulls start the long journey home to Inishbofin

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on July 15, 2023 – 11:04 am

Filed under Curatorial Projects, Stolen Skulls

#stolenskullstcd start the long journey home to #inishbofinfuneral pic.twitter.com/LOQvyiV4dK

— Ciarán Walsh (@CiaranWalshnoe) July 15, 2023

Inishbofin burial: the most import anthropological event in Ireland since 1930s?

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on July 6, 2023 – 11:14 am

Filed under Advocacy and Activism, History of Anthropology, Stolen Skulls

Archaeological excavation at St Colman’s Monastery on Inishbofin in preparation for the return and burial of ancestral remains stolen in 1890 and held in the Anatomy Dept TCD since 1892 (photo: Marie Coyne)

The opening of a grave in a community burial ground marks the end of a ten-year campaign seeking the return and burial of the ‘stolen skulls’ of Inishbofin. Community representatives will remove the remains of their ancestors from the ‘Old‘ Anatomy Dept at Trinity College, University of Dublin at 11am on Wednesday 12 July and, following a funeral service at noon in the college chapel, will begin the journey home. The burial will take place at 1pm on Sunday 16 July. See www.inishbofin.com for details.

Christopher Day (top) making the coffin in the same way that his great grand uncle James Cunnane (bottom) made coffins in Inishbofin in the 1960’s (photos: Marie Coyne).

This is the first repatriation project of its kind in Ireland and is probably the most important anthropological event since the Harvard Anthropological Mission to the Irish Free State in the 1930s. To begin with, the story of the ‘stolen skulls of Inishbofin’ captured the public imagination in the wake of a resurgent Black Lives Matter Movement and generated extensive media interest in the history of anthropology in Ireland. Furthermore, the controversy triggered a critical engagement with the idea of anthropology at a community level and this will have a major impact on how institutions deal with communities in relation to colonial legacies. For instance, the Colonial Legacies Review Working Group at TCD contested the use of ‘repatriation’ to denote ‘return and burial’ because, ironically, of its unwelcome colonial connotations in an Irish context. The debate that followed clarified important aspects of the legislation governing the retention of human remains, not least (a) the distinction between archaeological and ethnological collections from the colonial era and (b) the automatic right of return for burial in the case of the latter. The controversy also raised serious questions about the ‘evidence based’ methodology employed by the Colonial Legacies Review Working Group, which ultimately had to concede the unconditional right of communities in Inishbofin, Aran Islands and St Finian’s Bay to have ancestral remains returned for burial.

The Inishbofin remains will be buried as close as possible to St Colman’s Monastery, where they rested until Haddon and Dixon stole them in 1890. The site was chosen because of the low risk of disturbing earlier, unmarked burials – the source of the remains – or any settlement associated with the monastery. Nevertheless, archaeologist Franc Miles from Archaeology and Built Heritage supervised the opening of the grave by Ryan Lash, John Burke, John Cunnane, John Michael Coyne, Ryan Coyne and Máirtín Lavelle.

Marie Coyne documented the process in the following slideshow.

Masterclass at the 2023 Atlantic Anthropological workshop on 23 April .

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on April 21, 2023 – 4:13 pm

Filed under Anthropology | Curatorial Projects, Conference

I will present a masterclass at the 2023 Atlantic Anthropological / Antraipeolaíochta Atlantach workshop at the Sacred Heart Dingle Campus in Daingean Uí Chúis, Co. Kerry. Convened by Dr. James Cuffe (University College Cork) and Dr. Fiona Murphy (Dublin City University), the workshop offers a multi-modal exploration of anthropology in its broadest sense, an objective that resonates profoundly with historical and contemporary themes in my research, which Berghahn Books will publish in September 2023.

To explain: In 1895 Haddon called for the study. of anthropology in its widest sense, challenging restrictions placed on the investigation under the name of anthropology of a variety of social, philosophical and political topics, a doctrine enforced by anatomists who advocated a politically conservative construction of evolutionist biology. In 2020, I completed my doctoral research on Haddon’s involvement in the skull measuring business in Ireland, when a similar debate was happening in anthropology and sociology. That focussed my attention on what, practically speaking, becoming an anthropologist means nowadays, especially as I come from a visual arts background, and becoming an anthropologist was somehow accidental. As contradictory as it sounds, that is the theme of my masterclass.

The Stolen Skulls of Inishbofin. Photo, by Marie Coyne (2022) of Inishbofin Island off the coast of Galway in Ireland. The ruin of St Colman's Monastery provides a backdrop for the contemporary burial ground in the foreground. Haddon and Dixon stole thirteen crania (skulls without jaw bones) from the monastery in 1890, and gave the collection to Trinity College Dublin. Marie Coyne and Ciarán Walsh began campaigning for their return in 2012.

a small book that will change a lot: a very English savage takes a step closer to publication …

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on April 21, 2023 – 2:53 pm

Filed under Anthropology, Curatorial Projects, Publications

Haddon, a radically modern anthropologist, sits next to Dr Rev Dr Samuel, President of the Royal Irish Academy in the cover photo of the book Alfred Cort Haddon, a very English Savage by Ciarán Walsh, a curator who completed a PhD in the history and philosophy of anthropology in 2020. The cover indicates that the book is part of the series called Anthropology's Ancestors, which is edited by Aleksandar Bošković for Berghahn Books of New York and Oxford. The cover is a detail of a photograph taken in 1885 of a group of natural scientists on board a research vessel chartered for a survey of fishing grounds off the south west coast of Ireland. Haddon cuts a striking figure. He is dressed like a pirate amongst suited academics, a man of action whose natural domain was fieldwork. Sitting to his left is the Haughton, a fellow home rule supporter with a shared who shared a family history of anti-slavery and humanitarian action.

Prof Alfred Cort Haddon sits next to Dr Rev Dr Samuel, President of the Royal Irish Academy, and a fellow home rule supporter who also shared a family history of anti-slavery and humanitarian activism (with permission of the Royal Irish Academy © RIA).

Berghahn Books has just provided me with a typeset copy of my book on Haddon, which is due out in September as the fifth volume in the series on Anthropology’s Ancestors edited by Aleksandar Bošković. Details are available on the Berghahn website, and I discuss the choice of title and other aspects of this project in my Ballymaclinton blog.

Anon., Dredging party, 1885, with friends [plate 16] sitting, left to right: A. C. Haddon (in front of light suit), S. Haughton, W. S. Green, C. B. Ball; standing: Sir D’Arcy W. Thompson (light suit), Sir R. S. Ball (yachting cap), Valentine Ball (at end of trawl), 1885. Digital scan of silver gelatine print. Permission of the Royal Irish Academy © RIA.

An Island Funeral, Inishbofin, 16 July 2023.

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on March 29, 2023 – 10:25 am

Filed under Curatorial Projects, Repatriation Projects, Stolen Skulls

St Colmans’s Monastery and burial ground, Inishbofin. Photo Marie Coyne.

Inishbofin community representatives and repatriation campaigners met with Eoin O’Sullivan and Ciarán O’Neill of TCD last night (28 March 2023), and agreed in outline arrangements for the return and burial of ancestral remains held in the Haddon Dixon Collection; in accordance with island traditions and community archaeology guidelines.

The remains will be handed over to the community at a ceremony in TCD and taken by an undertaker to Galway before being transferred by boat to the island, where they will be buried on Sunday 16 July 2023, one hundred and thirty three years to the day after they were taken.

It seems that this will serve as a model for the return and burial of the remains taken from St Finian’s Bay and Oileán Árann.

It’s been a long and, at times, difficult process, but the motto of the cooperative movement in Ireland is ní neart go cur le chéile (with unity comes strength) and we thank all of our supporters. This would not have happened without them.

We also thank Andrew O’Connell of the Provost’s Office in TCD. His intervention was a turning point in our negotiations with TCD. We especially thank Eoin O’Sullivan and Ciarán O’Neill, who got the deal across the line. Also, thanks to Mobeen Hussain and Patrick Walsh of the colonial legacies project TCD.

Marie Coyne and Ciarán Walsh

on behalf of the

The Haddon Dixon Repatriation Project

Marie Coyne, Inishbofin Heritage Museum.

Dr Pegi Vail, NYU, anthropologist, filmmaker, and community representative Inishbofin.

Cathy Galvin, poet and journalist.

Deirdre Casey, Comhlacht Forbartha an Gleanna (St Finian’s / the Glen).

Niamh Cotter, anthropologist, geographer, and community representative, Inis Mór, Árann.

René Gapert, independent forensic anthropologist.

Dr Fiona Murphy, Anthropologist.

Máirtín Ó Conceanainn, community representative, Inis Mór, Árann.

Pádraig Ó Direáin, community representative, Inis Mór, Árann.

Pat O’Leary, Comhlacht Forbartha an Gleanna (St Finian’s / the Glen).

Ciarán Walsh, curator and anthropologist.

Inishbofin Community and Friends

Inishbofin Development Company

Tuuli Rantala, Community development Co-Ordinator

Tommy Burke

Ryan Lash

Pauline King

Aoife King

Every person who attended the public meeting on Inishbofin on 4 November 2022, those who signed the petition on Inishbofin and online, and made submissions to TCD on our behalf.

Eamon Ó Cuiv TD

Deaglán O’Mocháin, Dearcán Media.

Ana Ivasiuc, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures.

All the journalists who covered the story in the media.

Teampall Cholmain 2023 – 1890

A composite photograph by Ciarán Walsh of St Colman's Monastery, showing Marie Coyne's 2014 colour recreation (left) of the photograph of A. C. Haddon's black and white original (right), recording the location of the skulls (bottom right corner) he and Dixon stole under cover of darkness on 16 July 1890. The photographs show the eastern gable of the mediaeval monastery, and in Haddon also recorded the scene in an identical sketch in his journal, and that sketch illustrates a vivid account of the theft.

A composite photograph of St Colman’s Monastery, showing Marie Coyne’s 2014 recreation (left) of the photograph of A. C. Haddon’s original (right), recording the location of the skulls (bottom right corner) he and Dixon stole under cover of darkness on 16 July 1890. Haddon also recorded the scene in an identical sketch in his journal, and that sketch illustrates a vivid account of the theft.

TCD to announce return of ancestral remains to Inishbofin

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on February 22, 2023 – 11:40 am

Filed under Curatorial Projects, Stolen Skulls

Marie Coyne, 2022, St Colman’s Monastery and burial ground.

It is expected that the board of TCD will decide today (22 February 2023) to return to Inishbofin the ancestral remains Haddon and Dixon stole in 1890.

We were unable to achieve the return of the Árann and St Finian Bay remains as part of this deal, but there is now a procedure in place in TCD to submit claims in respect of these remains:

It should also be stressed that this document focuses specifically on the Inishbofin case though it has potential relevance for future requests from other communities of origin in Ireland seeking the return and reburial of other human remains in the Haddon/Dixon collection including those collected from Finian’s Bay, Co. Kerry and the Aran Islands as well as other human remains’ collections at TCD.

https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/trinity-college-dublin-launches-legacies-review-working-group-/

It’s been a long campaign (link to AJEC blog) that is now drawing to a close, and, on behalf of everyone involved, I thank you for all your support and work.

Ciarán Walsh, curator.ie

Blogging resumes on Ballymaclinton: An Irish giant, 24 stolen skulls, one colonial legacies project and a slave owner named Berkeley.

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on January 13, 2023 – 12:56 pm

Filed under Comment, Public Engagement, Research

I suspended work on my Ballymaclinton blog while writing my book on Haddon for Berghahn Books New York, but the announcement that the Trustees of the Hunterian Museum in London have withdrawn the skeleton of Charles O’Brien – an Irish giant known and Charles Byrne – from public display brought the resumption of blogging forward by a couple of weeks.

The ethics of such displays were an important part of my research and the subject of a previous blog on Cornelius Magrath, another Irish giant. It seemed like a good time to resume blogging and An Irish giant, 24 stolen skulls, one colonial legacies project and a slave owner named Berkeley is the first of a new series of blogs that feature aspects of my recent research and current activism.

Preview:

Brendan Holland in the Anatomy Museum TCD during the filming of The Giant Gene for BBC. Photo Chris Nikkel. Chris Nikkel and Brendan Holland filmed part of their documentary The Giant Gene in the museum and a key question for Holland, as a contemporary Irish giant, was whether he would like his bones to go on public display like Magrath in Dublin and O’Brien in London.

What does the removal of the skeleton of Charles Byrne from public display in London mean for Trinity College Dublin with regard to its retention of 24 skulls stolen from community burial grounds in Inishbofin, the Aran Islands and St. Finian’s Bay, Kerry? The repatriation of these remains has become a test case for the colonial legacies project initiated by Prof Ciarán O’Neill in 2020 and the question now is whether the issue of human remains in collections in London and Dublin tells us anything about the impending judgement on Berkeley’s involvement in slavery. …

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Is the TCD statement on the stolen skulls of Inishbofin a missed opportunity?

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on December 14, 2022 – 6:25 pm

Filed under Advocacy and Activism, Stolen Skulls

The statement issued by the Board of TCD in relation to Inishbofin is welcome for the fact that the Board finally considered the question of what to do with stolen human remains held by the college. However, the statement falls far short of the islanders’ petition seeking the immediate return of the remains of their ancestors and it is clear that TCD is determined to deal with this as a matter of de-accession by request rather than repatriation by right, ignoring all the evidence submitted to TCD in recent weeks by the repatriation project and its supporters.

A spokesperson for TCD has confirmed to media sources that a decision has not been made to return the skulls. TCD is busy trying to spin this as a major advance in its plan to deal with colonial legacies, but the decision merely restates the blocking strategy the School of Medicine adopted in August. All the rest is spin and the colonial legacies project looks incapable of getting its agenda adopted in the face of opposition. We will continue to press for the immediate return of the remains.

Read on:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/12/14/ireland-skulls-inishbofin-trinity-college/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/14/trinity-college-dublin-considers-returning-inishbofin-skulls

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/2022/11/19/saga-of-the-inisbofin-skulls-we-just-want-to-bury-our-dead-in-the-traditional-way/