Limerick woman to fulfill late father's wishes to repatriate African and Aboriginal antiquities
The 19th-century objects includes spears and harpoon heads. Picture: Isabella Walsh
A Limerick woman is making efforts to return a number of African and Aboriginal artefacts to the countries of origin.
Isabella Walsh has been hoping to repatriate the 19th-century objects according to her late father's wishes.
Larry Walsh, who was an archaeologist and curator of the Limerick Museum for around 25 years, had a keen interest in African and Aboriginal cultures. Mr Walsh loved pre-industrial societies and indigenous cultures, his daughter recalled.
While at auctions looking for items for the museum, Mr Walsh picked up these items—spear and harpoon heads, a shield, and some wooden clubs—for his own personal collection. It is likely that the 10 items were purchased at the auction of the Bourke estate at Thornfield House.
"Back in the 80s, a lot of the big houses around the county were being sold off—house and contents," said Ms Walsh. "So, my dad would have been going around particularly collecting Limerick silver for the museum."
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While he enjoyed living with his collection, it was important to Mr Walsh to know that they would be returned to their cultural origins and hopefully be housed in the national museums following his passing.
It was something he specified in his will and determined to fulfill his wish, Ms Walsh has been making attempts to figure out the whole process in the years since he died.
It was not until she happened upon an article in earlier this year that things were finally set in motion.
From the article, Ms Walsh learned of two other people in similar circumstances who sought guidance from a man called Dr Christos Tsirogiannis.
Dr Tsirogiannis has an impressive history with repatriating items having identified over 1,700 looted objects and alerting the relevant governments and authorities.
When Ms Walsh reached out, Dr Tsirogiannis was only too happy to help. He required no payment but simply asked that the Limerick model maker allow the story to be published.
Not one to seek the spotlight, Ms Walsh agreed as it was thanks to another person sharing their story that she found Dr Tsirogiannis.
"It is great to have found a way to be able to fulfill dad's wishes because that has been a big weight on my mind knowing that dad wanted these to go home and not really knowing how to do that," she explained, happy to pay it forward and maybe help another person in the same situation.
So far, Ms Walsh has contacted the relevant organisations in Sudan, South Sudan, South Africa, and Australia and has received responses from all but one.
"They have all been very positive and very happy," she reported. The South African embassy remarked that it was "a lovely gesture" for the Walsh family to seek the return of these special artefacts.
