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<\/p>\n\u201cPlunder\u201d stolen from Ireland and stored in museums of former colonial powers should be returned, the Culture Minister has said.<\/p>\n
Minister Patrick O\u2019Donovan said there was a \u201ccompulsion\u201d on former colonial powers to return \u201cloot\u201d taken from people against their will.<\/p>\n
The minister was responding to questions from Sinn Fein TD Aengus O Snodaigh, who told the Dail his father had returned such items to Ireland \u201cwithout anybody\u2019s permission\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Donovan said restitution \u201ccannot be a one-way street\u201d, adding there was a need to see if there was anything in Irish institutions that was connected to, funded by, or associated with \u201ccolonial plundering\u201d.<\/p>\n
He told the Dail on Thursday: \u201cWe cannot ask others to do as we say and not to do as we do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a similar way, if other countries, particularly European Union and former European Union countries, have plunder from here, restitution needs to be examined.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said there were post-colonial museums \u201cscattered all over Europe like feathers out of a bag\u201d which \u201ccontain plunder from all over the place\u201d, including from Ireland.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Donovan said: \u201cThere is a compulsion on European Union countries that are funding museums they know to contain loot that was taken from people against their will to recover it and return it to those people\u2019s countries \u2013 that includes Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr O Snodaigh said countries \u2013 particularly England \u2013 were holding material belonging to Ireland that is \u201chidden away in museums\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr O Snodaigh said: \u201cThis material is sometimes surplus to the museums\u2019 requirements.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch material has sometimes been given back by way of permanent loan rather than being returned outright.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWhen he worked in a museum, my father managed to return some such items without anybody\u2019s permission \u2013 these items now sit in a museum.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been anecdotes of people circumventing rules around the transport of privately-owned cultural objects in the past and gifting them to national institutions.<\/p>\n
The minister said the approach taken by Mr O Snodaigh\u2019s father might be \u201cunorthodox\u201d for a TD to be advocating, but added: \u201cI do not disagree with the sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Donovan said: \u201cIf there are materials in other museums, particularly in countries that were formerly colonial powerhouses, including the one that occupied this State, in the modern world of 2026, there is a compulsion on them to look into their hearts and recognise that this stuff was taken against the will of the people from whom it was taken and that it really does not belong where it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is particularly the case where it is archived and shoved into presses or cupboards but it does also apply to stuff that is on permanent display that clearly does not belong to the country in question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Donovan said there were some museums that contain nothing belonging to the state it is in but rather a \u201cmixum-gatherum of stuff that was literally stolen from all over the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
He told the Dail: \u201cIn 2026, any right-thinking democracy needs to take a long look at itself and say that now is the time to begin the process of repatriation as part of restitution and an overall recovery package for what was done during colonialism.\u201d<\/p>\n
They were discussing an upcoming report from the advisory committee on restitution and repatriation relating to culturally sensitive objects held in collections in Ireland.<\/p>\n
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