The gruesome tale of Inishbofin's stolen skulls and their long-awaited return after over a century

Haddon and Dixon went on the clandestine mission as part of their research into craniology and then theories about the Irish race. They were given to Trinity College, where they remained until a campaign last year saw them being brought home and reburied.

The saga of the stolen skulls of Inishbofin and how they were returned home after 133 years is told in a new Irish language documentary. TG4’s Iarsmai (Remnants) recalls how 13 skulls were robbed from a graveyard on the Co Galway island by British anthropologist Alfred Haddon and his Irish medical student sidekick Andrew Dixon in 1890.

Haddon and Dixon went on the clandestine mission as part of their research into craniology and then theories about the Irish race. They were given to Trinity College, where they remained until a campaign last year saw them being brought home and reburied.

The doc - which airs tonight - explains how the graverobbing was seen as a colonial era violation. It took 12 years to get the skulls back from Trinity College, which finally returned them in 2023 and apologised for the upset caused by retaining the remains. One of the reasons it succeeded was because of the global Black Lives Matter movement that sought to to decolonise universities.

Iarsmai focuses on Irish institutions as they wrestle with the decolonisation of historical collections acquired during the British colonial period. Trinity College historian, Ciaran O’Neill, said: “Inishbofin is a really fascinating case. It’s the best documented case we have of human remains that were taken in an Irish context. We have several pieces of evidence that prove they were taken without the consent of islanders.

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“Dixon was based at Trinity College Dublin in the 1890s as a graduate student. He later goes on to Cardiff and comes back as a professor of anthropology in 1903. So he’s a very important person with an important legacy.”

During a search of Haddon’s papers in Cambridge, it was confirmed he had given the collection of 13 skulls to Trinity College Dublin after a lecture on the craniology of the Aran Islands at the Royal Irish Academy. He would later follow this with a study of the skulls from the island in 1893.

At the time Haddon described how he saw his studies as an attempt to discover the origins of the so-called “Irish Race”. His theory was that variations in skull form evolved and became characteristic as migrating populations settled in an area and remained undisturbed for many generations.

Islander Marie Coyne, who eventually managed to get the remains brought back for burial on Inishbofin, first saw the images of the skulls in a photography exhibition. She said: “My friend and I went to have a look and were more than shocked about the whole thing.”

And she thought at the time how “They should be here on Bofin, were they wanted to be as that was their resting place.”

Ms Coyne said discovering the skulls were on a shelf at TCD was “heartbreaking. I got very emotional about it.” She started a campaign for their return with a petition from the islanders.

The skulls were finally taken back to Inishbofin and reburied at St Colman’s Abbey, where they had been taken from originally. All 13 were buried in one coffin, in a moving ceremony involving all the islanders.

The documentary also looks at aboriginal material in the Ulster Museum and a collection of looted Benin Bronzes in the National Museum in Dublin.

Iarsmai airs tonight at 9.30pm on TG4.

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