Connemara’s Inishbofin island is featured in a new documentary on decolonisation of historical collections.
The illicit collection of skulls taken by academics from the island’s graveyard is profiled in the documentary on TG4, along with the campaign led by Marie Coyne of Inishbofin heritage centre to have them returned.
The 13 skulls were removed from a graveyard attached to the medieval St Colman’s Church on the island by Trinity’s Old Anatomy Museum academic Prof Alfred C Haddon and external researcher Andrew F Dixon in 1890.
Prof Haddon admitted smuggling them off the island and depositing them in Trinity College Dublin, as part of an 18th and 19th century practise of taking body parts for craniometry (measurement of the cranium) and anthropometry (scientific measurement of individuals).
The skulls were repatriated to the island in 2023, following work by the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group.
Aboriginal material in the Ulster Museum, and a collection of looted Benin Bronzes in the National Museum in Dublin are also examined in the documentary entitled Iarsmaí, due to be broadcast on TG4 next week.
The documentary explores what decolonisation means, and why “Black Lives Matter” protests helped to encourage the decolonisation movement.
Iarsmaí is directed by Damian McCann, and produced by Dearcán Media and Tua Films for TG4 & BBC with support from Coimisiún na Meán and Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund.
It will be broadcast on TG4 on Wednesday, October 9th at 9.30pm.
