THE first part of last Thurday’s Prime Time (RTÉ ONE) was about a breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. Although that part got most of the airtime, it was the second (and shorter) item on statues that carried questions for us all.
In what has become known as ‘cancel culture’, statues and symbols from the past are sometimes seen as inappropriate today. With the witty sub-title of ‘Moving Statues’, this part of the programme looked at people who were once honoured figures but now are a bit more iffy. As ever, Professor Diarmaid Ferriter was called on, this time to address the question of Trinity College’s library. It was known as the Berkeley Library, and TCD was proud to promote and honour George Berkeley as a graduate who became a renowned philosopher. It now emerges that Berkeley had black slaves working on his Rhode Island estate. In view of this, Trinity has covered over his name and is busy figuring out whether to be proud or ashamed of him.
The second dubious person dealt with on this part of the programme was John Mitchel. He was from Newry and wrote trenchantly about An Gorta Mor. The historian and author Anthony Russell told the camera how Mitchel was tried and sent to Van Diemen’s Land but escaped and made his way to the US. He became “an outspoken supporter of the confederacy side in the American Civil War” and made no bones about his support of slavery and his enthusiasm for resumption of the transatlantic slave trade. There’s a statue of him in Newry and Anthony Russell was clear that no such statue would be erected today. In addition, many GAA clubs are named after Mitchel.
The notion of cancel culture is far from new. I was living in Dublin in the early 1960s when some republicans took it upon themselves to blow up Nelson’s Pillar in O’Connell Street. The hyper-civilised department head under whom I worked at the time tut-tutted and lamented such an act of vandalism. Meanwhile, the Dubliners cut a jokey record called ‘Up Went Nelson’ and it went straight to No.1 in the hit parade.
Many great artists, many great people, are repulsive individuals. One example: Kevin Spacey, who has won two Oscars, is on trial for sexual abuse. If he’s found guilty, does that mean ‘House of Cards’, a brilliant TV series, must be incinerated? Will they take back Spacey’s two Oscars? Has the world gone mad?
