Post-colonial museums should return ‘plunder’ to Ireland, minister says

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

“Plunder” stolen from Ireland and stored in museums of former colonial powers should be returned, the Culture Minister has said.

Minister Patrick O’Donovan said there was a “compulsion” on former colonial powers to return “loot” taken from people against their will.

The minister was responding to questions from Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, who told the Dáil his father had returned such items to Ireland “without anybody’s permission”.

O’Donovan said restitution “cannot be a one-way street”, adding there was a need to see if there was anything in Irish institutions that was connected to, funded by, or associated with “colonial plundering”.

He told the Dáil on Thursday: “We cannot ask others to do as we say and not to do as we do.

“In a similar way, if other countries, particularly European Union and former European Union countries, have plunder from here, restitution needs to be examined.”

He said there were post-colonial museums “scattered all over Europe like feathers out of a bag” which “contain plunder from all over the place”, including from Ireland.

O’Donovan said: “There 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’s countries – that includes Ireland.”

Ó Snodaigh said countries – particularly England – were holding material belonging to Ireland that is “hidden away in museums”.

Ó Snodaigh said: “This material is sometimes surplus to the museums’ requirements.

“Such material has sometimes been given back by way of permanent loan rather than being returned outright.”

He added: “When he worked in a museum, my father managed to return some such items without anybody’s permission – these items now sit in a museum.”

The minister said the approach taken by Ó Snodaigh’s father might be “unorthodox” for a TD to be advocating, but added: “I do not disagree with the sentiment.

“If 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.

“That 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.”

O’Donovan said there were some museums that contain nothing belonging to the state it is in but rather a “mixum-gatherum of stuff that was literally stolen from all over the world”.

He told the Dáil: “In 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.”

They were discussing an upcoming report from the advisory committee on restitution and repatriation relating to culturally sensitive objects held in collections in Ireland.