Twenty Years A-Growing: An International Conference on the History of Irish Childhood from the Medieval to the Modern Age

This conference on the History of Irish Childhood will take place  at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin, 9-10 June 2014.

Dr. Anne MacLellan, Director of Stair will be giving a paper on The Penny Test: Tuberculin Testing and Paediatric Practice in Ireland, 1900-1960:

The historiography of tuberculosis in Ireland has paid considerably more attention to the adult form of the disease than to childhood forms of tuberculosis. In adults the disease primarily affected the lungs; in children, tuberculosis commonly infected other parts of the body including bones and joints, the abdomen and the membranes surrounding the brain as well as being disseminated throughout the body in millet-seed-sized nodules in a form of the disease known as ‘miliary’ tuberculosis. In 1922, the year the independent Irish state was founded, the deaths of 611 children under the age of 15 years were attributed to tuberculosis.

Diagnosis was not always straightforward: this paper will discuss the use and neglect of tuberculin testing for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in Irish children. It will address the consequences of the relative neglect of this test by the Irish medical profession in the first half of the twentieth century. Children who were wrongly diagnosed as tubercular had to endure prolonged periods of bedrest, often in institutional settings, while children whose tuberculosis went undiagnosed were denied rest and treatment.

The increased focus on tuberculosis in children rendered paediatricians and their work visible. This paper will argue that the validity provided by addressing the needs of tubercular children contributed significantly to the development of paediatrics as a separate clinical specialism in Ireland. In particular, the paediatricians Robert Collis and Dorothy Price were active in highlighting the problem of childhood tuberculosis and in promoting the use of the tuberculin test. They were also founding members of the Irish Paediatric Club, the forerunner of the Irish Paediatric Association. Price’s chairmanship of the Consultative Council on Tuberculosis and the National BCG Committee ensured paediatrics and childhood tuberculosis were visible in Ireland at national level.

FOR MORE INFO SEE: http://irishchildhood.wordpress.com/ 

Ireland in the medieval world, AD400–1000 reviewed in the Irish Times

Edel Breathnach's recent publication Ireland in the medieval world, AD400-1000: Landscape, kingship and religion has been reviewed in the Irish Times this week:

The foundations for this splendid book have been laid down over many years of research and the publication by the author of numerous papers that prepared the way for this substantial statement. Edel Bhreathnach combines historical, archaeological and environmental evidence with insights from anthropology, cognitive science and critical theory to give the reader a fresh portrait of the landscapes of Ireland. It is particularly effective in marrying the large amount of new archaeological evidence for settlement with history, placelore, law, literature and genealogy....

For full article click HERE

World Within Walls Community Day

World Within Walls Community Day ran at the Monaghan County Museum last Saturday. This day was the launch of the community outreach strands of the World Within Walls project which is funded by the Health Service Executive. We were delighted with the turn out.

World within Walls is a project which aims to remember the histories of St. Davnet’s former psychiatric hospital in Monaghan town. The project is funded by the HSE and is being delivered by Stair: An Irish Public History under the guidance of the HSE steering committee. The committee is comprised of former senior staff, representatives from the local historical society, mental health practitioners and representation from the National Archives of Ireland.

Talks were given by members of the Stair team about the various aspects of the project. Dr. Anne Mac Lellan’s talk on her research so far at St. Davnet’s was particularly well received by the crowd attending. Anne told of how the patients were separated by gender and the different roles they were given, the women mostly worked in the laundry and sewed, whereas the men often worked on the farmland. As well as being given work to do the patients were provided with amusements of varying kinds from Christy Mistrals in 1872 to the cinema and trips to Blackrock in the 1900s.

Anne also touched on the strikes which took place at the asylum most notably the 1919 strike which was lead by Peadar O’Donnell. It is said  he declared the asylum in Monaghan town a ‘Soviet’ and raised the Red Flag.

There were lots of questions from the audience but also, as the team had hoped there was a lot of information sharing. There is a great wealth of knowledge in the community about St. Davnet’s and we are delighted that so many people have signed up to become involved in the oral history project.

The oral history project will be an opportunity to tap into the human stories that exist in the community. It is important to capture this unwritten history before it fades away. It will also give an alternative perspective on the story of St. Davnet’s as many of the records housed in the archives are clinical in nature and do not go far enough to capture the lived experiences of the staff and patients.

The craft actives on the day were also very well received. Many people young and old turned their hand to some glass painting and our garden of beautiful unique flowers has begun to bloom. There are 850 flowering plants in Ireland which was the average number of patients housed at St. Davnet’s at anyone time. If you know a group that would like to get involved in making flowers for the project we would love to hear from you. We would love to reach our goal of having 850 flowers to display at the 2015 exhibition on the history of St. Davnet’s.

If you couldn't make the day and have information or a story you would like to share please do get in touch with the team through stdavnets.www@hse.ie. You can also loan objects or images for inclusion in the 2015 exhibition by contacting Monaghan County Museum.

Dorothy Stopford Price: Rebel Doctor by Anne Mac Lellan

Arguably the most significant figure in Ireland’s fight against TB, this sensitive and compelling biography tells the fascinating story of Dorothy Stopford Price. Unjustly forgotten, Price made heroic efforts to rid Ireland of tuberculosis and was responsible for the introduction of the BCG vaccine to Ireland. MacLellan recounts a remarkable life, offering a fascinating insight into Price’s Anglo-Irish background, her startling involvement in the struggle for Irish independence and her brilliant and controversial medical career in the newly-independent state.

Read more here: http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/dr-dorothy-price-the-rebel-doctor-written-out-of-our-history-265331.html

Buy your copy here:
http://irishacademicpress.ie/product/dorothy-stopford-price-rebel-doctor/

Pop-up Malaria Museum

Malaria Museum

Let’s Make Malaria History

The stars must have aligned just right when Marco Herbst met Andrew Lewis and Graham Fry  of the Tropical Medical Bureau. With Marco’s collection of malaria artefacts looking for a good home, and TMB’s wonderful top-floor space, it was too good of a coincidence to pass up. Vanessa Breen, with wide-ranging experience from her career in film and television, brand communication, and event organization, came on board to head up a team of creatives who will make the museum a truly unique experience, and Vincent Kenny, of Volunteer Missionary Movement lent his own experience have curated a similar project in the Royal College of Surgeons in the 80’s, the stage was set.

While the pop-up museum will coincide with World Malaria Day, on April 25^th, making Dublin part of a Global conversation about malaria, the Malaria Museum website will remain a permanent virtual space to bring together the different voices from around the world that are working to end malaria.

The Pop-up Malaria Museum, on the top floor of TMB’s Grafton Street headquarters, will take visitors into another world, far from the grey skies of Dublin. The story of malaria is a fascinating one; how far it once spread throughout the world, the mystery behind the disease, once thought to be caused by the bad air around swamps, and how that mystery was unravelled. The malaria museum will combine scientific information with a unique, off-beat visual style, to educate and entertain visitors in the life cycle of the parasite, the history and medications used to combat it, and the exciting future, with ground-breaking innovations promising a malaria vaccine that could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the very near future. The museum will aim to entertain, to educate, and, above all, to engage visitors and get them interested in the actions they can take to help in the worldwide fight against this disease.

Work by artist Fiona Byrne will form part of the exhibition.
Fiona is also a project manager for Stair: An Irish Public History Company

Malaria still kills hundreds of thousands each year, and though those numbers are dropping, there is much to be done. The Malaria Museum is a not-for profit organization, whose ongoing mission is to make malaria history. Working with corporate sponsors, and highlighting their vital work, we will curate the online space, growing it into a virtual community where ideas can be generated, shared, and refined. As we continue to expand the collection of artefacts, the pop-up museum will provide an ephemeral physical space to engage ever more people, 

and get them talking about malaria, and how

 we can come together to save lives.

Ancora Imoaro: I am Still Learning by Noel White and Anne Mac Lellan

The AMLS was founded in 1974 and this year will celebrate it's 40th anniversary. Ancora Imoaro: I am Still Learning  is a History of Medical Laboratory Science by Noel White and Anne Mac Lellan. It will be launched on the 29th of April. 

Irish Museums Association Conference 2014

by Fiona Byrne


The recent Irish Museums Association conference was held in the historic town of Waterford. The conference focused on museums and memory. The speakers ranged from those in charge of national collections to oral historians. However there was surprising consensus over the two days; engagement and community involvement in the act of remembering was championed by all. The realisation that our audience needs to be part of the process might not be a revelation and many are already on this track . It was however reassuring to see such a wide range of people all standing up for inclusion of public voices within our national collections. It seems the future will involve a lot more facilitation and a lot less dictation which in my view can only be a positive thing for museums and galleries in their mission to grow audiences.

Judith Mc Carthy began the two days by asking ‘How do we remember and what have we learned?’ She presented her version of ethical and shared remembering. She stressed that it is paramount that we realise we remember what we have been taught, not everyone will be happy with what we remember and that people make assumptions about what we remember.

Within this framework she allows for multiple viewpoints allowing for people to disagree. She draws attention to the importance of language and how the words and phrases we use are very important. We should always remember that history is personal history as well as national or community history and should be approached with awareness and sensitivity.

Emma Libreri asked us to reflect on the role of the institution in remembering and how the memories they contain may differ from the memories of the community. These alternative dialogues can challenge historical knowledge but this does not mean they should be dismissed. The role of communities is becoming more and more critical in the development of world heritage strategy. She poses the question: what constitutes national memory and how is collective memory formed?Consultation, integration and interaction are the key words Libreri  uses to deal with the curation of history.

Niamh NicGhabhann spoke on the place of performance in commemoration and memory. She looked at the relationship between the festival and the museum space. Though the act of festival proceedings might be temporary they have the ability to produce a communal experience which can perhaps have lasting community meaning. This may be one route to achieve the memorable experiences Raghnall O’Floinn called for in his talk, when he expressed a need for galleries to provide firsthand experience with original materials.

Another way for communities to become integrated into the process of collection is through oral history projects. This method has gained popularity in recent times and during the conference Alice Feldman conducted a workshop on the topic. Feldman takes a ‘story based’ approach avoiding the term oral history. Although I must admit this sits a little uncomfortably for me, the subjects covered in the workshop shed light on the complexities of this methodology.

She spoke about the perception of memory as anecdotal and how this can lead to a ‘fiction versus fact’ comparison with written records. However each of these methods of research offers a different perspective on history. These perspectives should not be compared under the same criteria as they each hold their own sense of authority. It should not be forgotten that written history as well as oral history is by no means free from contextual bias.

Feldman sees ‘story-telling’ as an integral part of existence, enabling ‘sense-making’, and allowing the interviewee to place themselves into a larger historical narrative. We need to accept both these narratives, the personal and the macro narrative, as being correct and allowing them to co-exist even with their possible contradictions.

She talked about the importance of stories as a resource which can enrich history as well as educate and attract audiences. The involvement of members of the community also promotes a feeling of shared ownership within projects. This is hugely important as often there is much information ‘held’ within communities and they are unlikely to share this information if they feel it will be taken away from them, processed and used as the researcher sees fit. As Feldman points out everyone taking part in a project should be able to ‘see themselves reflected in the finished project’.

Raghnall O’ Floinn Director of the National Museums of Ireland also advocated for shared history and shared past. He cited openness, inclusiveness and respect as being the cornerstones of a museums policy.

During his talk he illustrated this point by looking at the list of suggested celebrations on the decade of centeries.ie and the disproportionate weighting between social and economic commemorations (two out of forty) and policical, military, legal and constitutional which make up all the rest of the suggestions. In this way a simple list has the potential to skew our picture of the past. Selective remembering is a must for a museum but we need to be aware of how we select and what picture we portray through curation.

He asked us to consider the purpose of a museum as a storehouse for memory and question whose memories get stored, is there really such a thing as collective memory, what is it’s connection to ‘History’ and where is the room within these institutions for the personal narrative.

Dr. Luke Gibbons spoke on this topic in his talk about the museum, meaning and micro history. He discussed the museum as a place where professional history meets cultural tourism. The difficulties within this space are numerous but one of the main difficulties with being a ‘store house for memory’ is that memory is fluid and constantly changing.

Gibbons reflects on the preformative aspect of the museum space and how it is affected by its own context, materials and physicality. Within  the space the act of curated remembering occurs.

He argues that objects don’t speak for themselves. It is only by virtue of their context they speak to us. Taking this idea he expanded it to portray the object as an utterance but emphasised that objects do not speak with a singular voice.

Taking this view point means that a truly objective view of history is impossible as materials always require mediation through a contextualised source. He encourages us instead to be aware of this inherent bias and look at not only what is said with our institutions but what is repressed.

The conference (as you may have seen from the ever growing list of questions throughout this article) brought up more issues than it solved. However the two days were thought provoking and many of the questions raised are ones which each individual or institution need to answer for themselves becoming ever more self-aware in the process. In this way we can develop a more inclusive policy for dealing with remembering the past and allow ourselves to embrace multiple narratives without feeling the pressure of absolute truth, which seems to be an unobtainable goal.