ARCHAEOLOGY & EUGENICS: Harvard, Celtic skulls and eugenics in de Valera’s Ireland

The Harvard Archaeological Mission to Ireland, 1932–6.   By Mairéad Carew The driving force behind the Harvard Archaeological Mission to Ireland was eugenics, now considered a pseudo-science and a variant of scientific racism. It was then regarded as the science of better breeding for human beings and had been established as a discipline in several … Read more

Time to decommission ‘Wolfe’ Tone at Bodenstown?

By Sylvie Kleinman This year marks the 220th anniversary of the United Irishmen’s proclamation of a sovereign and democratic Ireland, which so inspired the 1916 generation but was almost totally overlooked in 2016. Unlike Fitzgerald and Emmet, Theobald Wolfe Tone’s final resting place was both known and publicly accessible. The authorities released the traitor’s body … Read more