Dark Tourism, Dime Museums, Statues – Memory & Commemoration

I had a hectic few days in Dublin last week where I helped launch an exhibition, spoke at the Royal Society of Antiquaries, spent a day in a convent archive, heard three fascinating papers at the National Museum of Ireland, saw three exhibitions and had a really nice chat with Neil Delamere about Dark Tourism on Neil’s Sunday Best on TodayFM

We did a very quick (and very partial) world tour of Dark Tourism sites, but mostly focused on sites in Ireland. My interest in Dark Tourism has grown out of a number of separate projects that have allowed me to look at Dark Tourism from several angles. My involvement in the development of sites such as Spike Island has has strong impact on developing my interest in Dark Tourism but so too has my research for books and articles on nineteenth-century America. One aspect of Gilded Age America that fascinated me was the growth of Dime Museums which were often complete with Chambers of Horror.

A talk in Dublin, 25 January

Next Thursday evening (25th Jan) I’ll be talking about Spies, Informers, Invasions, Murder and Graverobbing at the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin. The talk begins at 7.30pm and it’s open to the public.

Dark Tourism – Marian Finucane Show

It was great to get an opportunity to talk about Dark Tourism in Ireland on the Marian Finucane Show yesterday. There was only time to scratch the surface of the topic, but I’m thinking of patenting my idea for tours of ‘Ireland: The Dark Side’. I’ve already a grand tour planned!

Despite ‘Dark Tourism’ being an subject of academic interest for several decades almost no attention has been paid to Ireland which has a myriad of Dark Tourism sites. A summer of touring and note-taking awaits me!

You can listen to the Dark Tourism part of the show here

Nano Nagle’s Georgian Convents

‘”I am building a house”: Nano Nagle’s Georgian Convents’ was written by Jessie Castle and I after completing research for the Heritage Centre at Nano Nagle Place in Cork. It was apparent that very little had been written about the two convents that Nano built in the 1770s for the Ursuline and Presentation Sisters. Given her very close (and enthusiastic) involvement in these projects (and the fact that almost nothing had been written about Irish convent architecture) we decided to write about the convents using information from Nano Nagle’s letters, the Annals and Account Books of both convents alongside the physical evidence from the convent she built in 1771 and other sources including newspapers and photographs. In telling the story of the two convents we’re not just telling a story of bricks and mortar, but one of the determination and resilience of Nano Nagle as she strove to realise her dream of improving life for poor Catholic children in Cork and providing a safe home for both Ursuline and Presentation Sisters. In doing so she defied the Penal Laws, many local Protestants and, at times, even the Catholic hierarchy. Her achievement is really quite exceptional.

The article was published by the Irish Georgian Society in their journal Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies.  The Society kindly gave permission for the Presentation Sisters to make the article publicly accessible as part of the tercentenary of Nano Nagle’s birth and it is available here. (click on the link at the bottom of the Presentation Sisters’ page)

Following on from writing about the convents built in the 1770s Jessie and I are continuing our research and focusing at the moment on the convents that were built in Ireland prior to Catholic Emancipation in 1829 (over time we hope to expand the project to include later convents). We have visited some of the earliest convents, and hope to visit more in the future in order to record the buildings and gardens  – those aspects of Irish architectural and landscape history that have been most overlooked. We are very interested in hearing from anyone who has photos or memories of pre-1830 convents in Ireland as many of these have been demolished, or are no longer in use as convents. We have also realised that Nano Nagle wasn’t the only ‘sister builder’ (a term borrowed from Ellen Skerrett and Rima Lunin Schultz) and other women were involved in the design and building of the convents – for example Sr Magdalen Sargent in Clonmel and Sr Baptist Frayne in Wexford. If anyone knows of other remarkable Sisters who were involved in the building and design of the convents (from any period) we would be very interested in hearing those stories.

I can be contacted by email at g.p.obrien@ljmu.ac.uk or via this website.