#stolenskullstcd start the long journey home to #inishbofinfuneral pic.twitter.com/LOQvyiV4dK
— Ciarán Walsh (@CiaranWalshnoe) July 15, 2023
Category Archives: Stolen Skulls
stolen skulls start the long journey home to Inishbofin
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Filed under Curatorial Projects, Stolen Skulls
Inishbofin burial: the most import anthropological event in Ireland since 1930s?
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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.
An Island Funeral, Inishbofin, 16 July 2023.
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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 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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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.
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
Is the TCD statement on the stolen skulls of Inishbofin a missed opportunity?
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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/
