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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.

circle of texture grey back ground with the words www.curator.ie embossed on it. designed by Ciarán n Walsh

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.

circle of texture grey back ground with the words www.curator.ie embossed on it. designed by Ciarán n Walsh

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.
The Skull Passage, TCD. Photo by Walsh (2016) of Victorian Display cases containg the Anthropological Collection of the Anatomy Museum in Trinity Colledge Dublin (TCD), which incudes a collection of 24 crania (skulls without jawbones) Haddon and Dixon stole from monasteries in the west of Ireland in 1890, and gave to TCD. The photo shows a narrow corridor lined with display cases . The stolen skulls from Inisshbofin held in the deisplay case in the foreground and are labelled ‘Inishbofin, Haddon & Dixon’ Marie Coyne and Ciarán Walsh began campaigning for their return in 2012.
Peadar Mór, Ciarán Walsh and Muiris Ó Conghaille taking a break during filming on Inis Meáin, 2014.
Gearóid Cheaist Ó Catháin, the last child to live on the Great Blasket Island with Dáithí de Mórdha, The Great Blasket Centre,  in front of a photograph of Gearóid with his Grandfather Maurice Mhuiris Ó Catháin, taken by Dan MacMonagle after the Island was evacuated in 1953.
A photograph of an article by Ciarán Walsh, www.curator.ie of an article published by him in the Irish independent. The article relates to the activities of Charles R. Browne (1867-1931), an anthropologist who was active in the west of Ireland between 1891 and 1900. Browne is the subject of a major project by Ciarán Walsh / www.curator.ie and a touring exhibition that is on a nationwide tour, from Dingle to the Aran Islands to Connemara and the National Museum in Mayo. The photo also contains a skull, a reference to Brownes habit of collecting skulls as anthropometric specimens, the origin of the projecta title: The Irish Headhunter.
circle of texture grey back ground with the words www.curator.ie embossed on it. designed by Ciarán n Walsh

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.

circle of texture grey back ground with the words www.curator.ie embossed on it. designed by Ciarán n Walsh

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
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.

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.

circle of texture grey back ground with the words www.curator.ie embossed on it. designed by Ciarán n Walsh

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
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.

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

circle of texture grey back ground with the words www.curator.ie embossed on it. designed by Ciarán n Walsh

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. …

Read More

circle of texture grey back ground with the words www.curator.ie embossed on it. designed by Ciarán n Walsh

The Ann Doherty Collection goes on show

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 29, 2022 – 7:32 am
Filed under Archive Projects, Curatorial Projects, Photography

The Ann Doherty Collection is an archive of photographic material, typescripts, and print journalism generated by Ann Doherty while working as a social-documentary photographer and photojournalist between 1997 and 2005. Donegal County Council Archives Service acquired her collection in 2018 and, with the assistance of the Heritage Council, employed Ciarán | curator.ie to catalogue the entire collection and digitise 100 images for exhibition in the County Museum. “A Common Humanity: Full Circle” opened in Letterkenny on September 22, 2022 in preparation for Culture Night.

“Head-hunting” in TCD: negotiations begin on the repatriation of the Haddon Dixon Collection.

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 6, 2022 – 9:31 am
Filed under Curatorial Projects, Public Engagement
Group photograph showing PatO'Leary, St Finian's Bay, Cathy Galvin, journalist and poet, Pegi Vail, anthropologist at NYU, Ciarán Walsh, curator.ie, the main square in Trinity College Dublin ahead of a meeting with Provost Linda Doyle to negotiate the return and burial of the Haddon Dixon Collection, a collection of skulls stolen from community burial grounds in the west of Ireland in 1890 and held in the "Old" Anatomy Museum in the University.

The Haddon Dixon Repatriation delegation gathers in TCD ahead of a meeting with Provost Linda Doyle and her colonial legacies team. L-R: Pat O’Leary, St Finian’s Bay community representative, Cathy Galvin, journalist and poet, Pegi Vail anthropologist and film maker at New York University, and Ciarán Walsh, curator.ie.

A delegation from the Haddon Dixon Repatriation Project (above) met with Provost Linda Doyle’s colonial legacy team to begin negotiations on the return and burial of the Haddon Dixon Collection, a collection of 24 skulls stolen from community burial grounds in the west of Ireland in 1890 and currently held in the “Old” Anatomy Museum in the University.

Pat O’Leary opened the meeting by presenting the community perspective on the repatriation claim. Cathy Galvin read a statement on behalf on Marie Coyne, Inishbofin Heritage Museum, who initiated the claim in 2012. A large contingent of community representatives attended via zoom. Eoin O’Sullivan, Senior Dean in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, and Ciarán O’Neill, Ussher Associate Professor in Nineteenth-Century History, responded and the discussion that followed marked the commencement of a public engagement process that will inform a decision on the repatriation claim, which is expected in December 2022.

Photograph showing a sign that reads "Inishbofin, Haddon & Dixon." Visible in the background are a series of skull wrapped in plastic and stored on shelves in a glass-fronted cabinet, one of the display cases in the "Old " Anatomy Museum in Trinity College Dublin.

Ann Doherty | A Common Humanity

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Posted by Ciaran Walsh on August 24, 2022 – 1:56 pm
Filed under Archival/Curation Projects, Photography

The first phase of the Ann Doherty Project is complete.

Working with County Archivist Niamh Brennan, Ciarán Walsh and Ann Doherty selected and digitised 75 images from the Ann Doherty Collection. The focus now moves to the County Museum where Caroline Carr and Judith McCarthy are putting the exhibition together. The exhibition is titled A Common Humanity and is scheduled to open on September 22, 2022.

Meanwhile, work begins on cataloguing the collection and putting it in online alongside other collections in the archives.

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STORYTELLING FESTIVAL LAUNCHES BUSY AUTUMN SCHEDULE FOR CURATOR.IE


curator.ie finds oldest surviving photo of Skellig


stolen skulls start the long journey home to Inishbofin


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