As well as the recently toppled statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, the statue of Robert Milligan has been removed in London's docklands. Now I discover there are calls for removal of a statue of slave trader John Mitchel in Newry in Northern Ireland. He lived in Newry for most of his life.
Queens University student Patrick Hughes and the former head of Anti-Slavery International, Aidan McQuade, are demanding the removal of the statue. They also want John Mitchel Place to be renamed.
John Mitchel (1815-1875) was a contradictory character. Although he was an Irish revolutionary famous for his paper The United Irishman, he was also fiercely racist. He supported enforced slavery and white supremacy and wanted to resume the transatlantic slave trade that was abolished in 1807.
Aidan McQuade first wrote to the local council about the statue in 2007. The council still refuses to remove it on the grounds that "19th century figures can't be held to 21st century views".
But he points out that there were radical abolitionists in the mid 19th century who found Mitchel's views repulsive at the time.
He thinks a more informative plaque isn't enough. The statue should be moved to a museum and set in an explanatory anti-slavery context.
The council has now decided that an Equality and Good Relations Forum later in June will discuss the matter.
I know there's an ongoing debate about whether such statues should be disposed of or left as relics of an earlier time, maybe with updated plaques. Personally I think statues of public figures are totally unnecessary and I'm happy to see controversial ones pulled down. Why should a statue that offends hundreds of local people stay put?
Pic: Patrick Hughes and the statue
PS: The University of Liverpool is to rename a building named after former prime minister William Gladstone due to his support of slavery
I can see how a statue could be offensive if it's purpose is to honor the person. The real issue is that the vast majority of people in history would be considered racist, homophobic, etc. by today's standards, including all of our ancestors. Should be spend our energy being angry about it or should we move forward?
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Indeed, many people in the past had questionable attitudes we would condemn today. We can't do much about that, but we can at least remove the physical reminders of those attitudes.
DeleteMs Scarlet: Your comment somehow disappeared, but I've retrieved it. "I think all this focus on statues is distracting from the real issues, but I don't mind if they are taken down and put in a museum to remind people that the UK does have a chequered history."
DeleteMs Scarlet: I disagree. Objecting to statues with slavery connections emphasises the way black people have been treated in the past. I don't think it distracts from the Black Lives Matter campaign.
DeleteI've had enormous problems with this patriarchal statue business for many, many years. Only now, well the last 50 years say, honouring women. I'm not in the mode of burning down reminders though but I believe there should be equal recognition given to aboriginals, blacks and other POC from those eras to give context to the time and place.But I don't get my knickers in too much of a knot. We can't erase the past horrors and racism. But we can today. And We're not. These marches? Don't make me laugh.
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www: I don't see the need for statues at all. As you say, what's needed is simply equal recognition of black people (and women). Do you think marches are a waste of time? They've led to demands for police defunding and removal of offensive statues, which surely is positive? Of course there is plenty more work to be done....
DeleteI like the idea of putting the statues in museums and focusing our energy on making our societies more fair now.
ReplyDeleteJean: Absolutely. Statues in museums can be properly explained and will also get more thoughtful attention than street statues.
DeleteI think all statues commemorating such people should be removed and relegated to museums.
ReplyDeletePolly: As I said to Jean, I think museum visitors would give more thought to what they're seeing. It's easy to pass a street statue without even noticing it.
DeleteI would leave them as they are...they form part of the history of the place...who they are, why they are there, who put them there and when.
ReplyDeleteIt may not present the place, or the time at which the statues were put up, in a very pretty light at times, but history is not all sweetness and light and having a reminder of that might just help to try to make our own epoch somewhat nicer to know.
Fly: Certainly history is not all sweetness and light, far from it. But statues that don't make it clear the person was involved in the slave trade are not giving us an accurate version of history.
DeleteOn those ines we'd better do away with the Nobel Prizes too...armament manufacture is not particularly pretty either. Slavery is not the only ill in the world.
DeleteFly: Well, yes, some of the Nobel Prizes have been very controversial too. And the astronomical spending on weapons around the world is stunning, especially in the USA.
DeleteApparently, I am too sensitive to racial issues to be able to respond quietly. I want to yell about the way the US has treated, and continues to treat, native people as well as blacks. We can't rewrite history but we can describe it in museums to help us all understand what happened in hopes that we won't repeat or continue it. But, of course, the people who most need the lessons are the ones least likely to visit such a museum.
ReplyDeleteLinda: Yelling is a very natural response to the way black and indigenous peoples are treated. As you say, we need something more than museums to change people's thinking about those folk "who're not like us".
DeleteOff his plinth, I say!
ReplyDeleteJoanne: Off with his head! And off with the rest of him!
DeleteI don't care if the statues are removed. They would be better in museums anyway. But the way they are being defaces and pulled down is not right. The rioting and all that is going down is wrong. All of the people who are defacing private property, pulling down statues and such should all be held accountable for their actions. There's a right way of doing things and then there's this way.
ReplyDeleteMary: Pulling down one statue doesn't bother me, but systematic defacing of statues across the country is mindless and does nothing to undermine the everyday racism that so many black people endure. Likewise all the violent rioting. Hopefully what will influence schools, the police, employers and all those who perpetuate racism is the sheer number of people protesting.
DeleteI like the idea of moving those statues to a museum setting in an exhibit about the evils of enslaving other humans. That would both preserve history and be a fitting placement. I know people argue that it was a different time and so on, but I saw something this morning that really explained it clearly. It was something like, "If someone stole your child and sold him/her, where would you want the statue of that person to be?"
ReplyDeleteAgent: People are trotting out this argument that it was a different time with different values etc. but the fact is that slavery has been vigorously opposed for centuries. Your hypothetical situation hits the nail on the head.
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