11 October 2017

Trump, Brexit and Denis O’Brien:
Civic Trust lectures bring
public debate to Limerick

This half-age news report is published in the newspaper ‘Limerick Life’ on 11 October 2017 (p 4):

Trump, Brexit and Denis O’Brien: Civic Trust
lectures bring public debate to Limerick


Jodie Ginsberg of Index on Censorship speaks with Canon Patrick Comerford (Picture: Cian Reinhardt/ilovelimerick)

Limerick Civic Trust is bringing a new sense of public debate and engagement to the city with its autumn lecture series. For the second year in a row, the Civic Trust is hosting speakers whose views have often sparked controversy and who are willing to share their experiences and expertise with the public. The lectures are held in St. Mary’s Cathedral, an imposing Medieval venue, which has opened its doors to all comers.

One of the most talked-about events so far was the visit of Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship, which took place on 28 September. Ginsberg is controversial herself, as her organisation has defended speech some considered blasphemous and insulting. A media furore about Kevin Meyers’ planned appearance did not deter a crowd from hearing Ginsberg discuss the dangers of censorship with Canon Patrick Comerford.

Speaking during banned books week, Ginsberg, who is a former Reuters’ journalist, warned that outrage at certain opinion – such as Holocaust denial and racism – can lead to an impulse to censor people. She warned that this a ‘slippery slope’ that could easily have ‘authoritarian use.’

Ginsberg, ironically speaking from the pulpit, criticised ‘self-appointed spokespeople for offended groups’ who are impinging on freedom of expression.’ “Rich individuals can influence politics and mould the narrative to suit their ends.” She later made clear that she would have ‘no self-censorship on Denis O’Brien’ and criticised Rupert Murdoch for ‘hypocrisy on free speech.’

She noted that Ireland had a ‘very concentrated media market’ and that Ireland’s blasphemy law is a model for countries keen to crack down on religious dissenters, though she welcomed the Government’s move to hold a referendum on the subject.

“It is clear that something is going wrong at universities,” Ginsberg said, referring to campus protests against invited speakers and online campaigners to ‘no platform’ guests whose views some students consider dangerous.

On 5 October, former Irish Times Washington Correspondent Simon Carswell took centre stage, discussing his thoughts on Donald Trump, Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election. Carswell, who attended Crescent College Comprehensive in Limerick, referred to Trump as a ‘slick salesman’ and criticised Hillary Clinton for not appealing to a wider range of voters. He compared Trump favourably to Bill Clinton, however. He also drew parallels between Trump’s victory and the successful campaign for the UK to leave the European Union, citing the feelings of people who have been ‘left behind’ by contemporary political institutions, as well as economic anxiety and a desire for political leaders to feel their voters’ anger.

The Civic Trust will hold two more lectures this autumn. Ian Ritchie, a renowned international architect, will visit St. Mary’s on 12 October. That talk will be moderated by LIT President Dr Vincent Cunnane. And on 16 October, property developer Roger Madelin will share his insights about urban regeneration. Madelin worked on the refurbishment of King’s Cross Station in London and has toured Limerick personally in recent weeks, giving him a chance to fully analyse the state of regeneration in the city.

Does Brexit bring hope for
the Parthenon Marbles
returning to Athens?

The Parthenon in Athens … half the frieze is still in the British Museum in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

I spent time yesterday [10 October 2017] putting the finishing touches to my monthly column for two church magazines, the the Church Review (Dublin and Glendalough) and the Diocesan Magazine (Cashel, Ferns and Ossory).

In my column next month [November 2017], I am describing my visit to the Ac ropolis in Athens and the new Acropolis Museum in August.

The new Acropolis Museum is the best Greek answer to British refusals to return the Parthenon Marbles to Athens from the British Museum in London.

But is Brexit going to have any impact on either the Greek demands or the persistent British refusals?

Last week, when President Prokopis Pavlopoulos of Greece met a delegation from the Ionian Islands that briefed him on an initiative for the repatriation of all elements of culture around the world and asked for his support.

During those talks last Friday, President Pavlopoulos said Greece’s first priority is the return of the Parthenon Marbles. ‘There is no other monument in the world that broadcasts these symbolisms,’ he said.

Greece is threatening to sue Britain for the return of the Elgin Marbles, which it says are stolen property.

Two years ago, the newly-elected government of Alexis Tsipras turned its back on the recommendation of a London-based team of human rights lawyers acting for Athens, including Amal Clooney, to help to settle the decades-old dispute.

But the Greek Minister of Culture, Lydia Koniordou, told The Times of London in a recent interview: ‘Greece is determined to break the deadlock caused by the continuous refusal by the British government to return the Parthenon sculptures to their country of origin. We are using both diplomatic channels and alternative means … without excluding the use of judicial means.’

About half the frieze, many metopes, and half of the pediment statues are now in the new Acropolis Museum in Athens. But most of rest are in the British Museum in London, with other parts scattered across Europe in other museums, including the Louvre and the Vatican.

The legal team hired by the International Parthenon Sculptures Action Committee includes Amal Alamuddin Clooney.

The committee is chaired by Alexis Mantheakis, who seems to agree with the suggestion from the legal advisers that sculptures could be traded for the Greek parliament’s ‘Yes’ to Brexit when the EU asks the parliament of each 27 member states to consent to the Brexit terms when they are agreed with Brussels.

It seems Scandinavian countries are prepared to say ‘yes’ only in exchange for new rules on fishing in the North Sea. There is a prosecco war is on between Italy and Britain. And Spain is claiming sovereignty over the Strait of Gibraltar. So why should Greece not make its own demands?

‘Here’s the solution we’ve been looking for for decades!’ Mantheakis told the Athens newspaper Kathimerini earlier this summer [7 August].

‘This is the first chance we have to claim the return of the marbles with the support of international diplomacy. We will tell them – gentlemen, we support you; the only thing we ask for is to empty a room in your museum.’

The Greek government has argued that EU mediators negotiating with Britain should protect Europe’s cultural identity, symbolised by the of the Parthenon marbles, pointing out that Athens is the cradle of Western civilisation.

The British Museum replied: ‘The Acropolis Museum allows the Parthenon marbles to be admired against the background of Athenian history. The sculptures displayed in London are important representatives of ancient Greek civilisation in world history.’

At a recent match in Cyprus between Tottenham Hotspur and Apoel Nicosia, Greek-Cypriot fans unfurled two banners proclaiming: ‘History Cannot Be Stolen’ and ‘Bring The Marbles Back.’

Recently, TripAdvisor invited travellers and tourists to rank the ten most attractive museums in the world. The Metropolitan in New York heads the list, the Acropolis Museum in Athens is in eighth place … and the British Museum in London does not appear on the list.

The funeral and missing body
of Thomas Johnson Westropp

The Westropp reredos in the South Transept in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)

Patrick Comerford

Last week [5 October 2017], after retelling the stories of how the bodies of the Earl of Mayo and JJ Murphy were brought back to Ireland for burial, I came across a similar story about Thomas Johnson Westropp in Saint Mary’s Cathedral.

Richard Southwell Bourke (1822-72), the 6th Earl of Mayo, a former Governor-General of Mayo, became known as the ‘Pickled Earl’ due to the circumstances surrounding his state funeral. A similar funeral story involves Jeremiah James Murphy (1795-1851), who died in Pisa. He was part of a prosperous and adventurous merchant family in Cork involved in the Murphy distillery in Cork.

I told the story of both Victorian funerals last year in ‘Bringing the bodies home: JJ Murphy and the ‘Pickled Earl’,’ which was published as Chapter 40 in Death and the Irish: a miscellany, edited by Salvador Ryan (Dublin: Wordwell, 2016), pp 151-154.

But the funeral of Thomas Johnson Westropp and the whereabouts of his body tell a similar Victorian tale of mystery.

Thomas Johnson Westropp was the son of Thomas Westropp of Ross House, O’Briensbridge, Co Clare, and his wife Anne (née Rose). The father, Thomas Westropp, was the fifth son of Ralph Westropp of Clonmoney, Co Clare, and Attyflin, near Patrickswell, Co Limerick, and was High Sheriff of Limerick (1807-1810). His wife, Anne Rose, was a daughter of John Rose and was the widow of John Keating before she married the elder Thomas Westropp.

Thomas Johnson Westropp, their only son, was born in 1818. When Thomas died in Madeira in 1839 at the age of 20, his mother directed that his body should be brought back to England to be buried in Cheltenham, where she was living.

Many years later, as a memorial to Thomas Johnson Westropp, the south transept in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, was restored in 1862 and a reredos on the east wall and a stained-glass window were erected in memory of Thomas. The south transept is also known as the Chapel of Saint James and Saint Mary Magdalene.

The Westropp reredos depicts three scenes: the Agony in the Garden, the Burial of Christ, and the Resurrection. The Westropp Window was designed by William Slater, and made at the stained glass works of Clayton and Bell in London. The five lights or panels of the window depict Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Solomon.

The story is told that when Anne Westropp died, the chest supposed to contain her son’s body was opened once again for her funeral. But it was empty and it contained no human remains.

The story of the funerals and the missing body was first told by his kinsman and namesake, the historian Thomas Johnson Westropp, who also points to a number of mistakes on the memorial in the cathedral. He notes that his name was Thomas Johnson Westropp, and not Johnstone as given on the brass, and that he actually died in 1839, and not in 1830, in Madeira.

The later Thomas Johnson Westropp (1860-1922) was a noted antiquarian, folklorist and archaeologist.

This Thomas Johnson Westropp was born at Attyflin Park, Patrickswell, Co Limerick, and studied engineering at TCD. While surveying the field monuments of Co Clare, he became fascinated by the variety and descriptiveness of the folktales he heard being recited by local people. He published these tales in a series of articles in Folk-Lore: Transactions of the Folk-Lore Society, in 1910-1913. His writings provided the foundation for the work of the Irish Folklore Commission.

In 1916, he was the President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (RSAI). A collection of his photographs depicting Dublin that year in the wake of the 1916 Rising forms part of the new Digital Repository of Ireland.

His 40 photographs, taken on 17 and 18 May 1916, show the damage and destruction left by the Rising. Westropp had the photographs developed and bound, with multiple copies submitted to Dublin institutions, including the Royal Irish Academy and TCD.

The Westropp window in the South Transept in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)