Real Irish Giant

A British museum is being urged to release the skeletal body of a real “Irish Giant” so he can have his dying wish to be buried at sea – over 200 years after his death.

Michael Brennan from The Neale in Co Mayo (43) is calling on the Irish government to help free the 8ft 2in skeleton of Charles Byrne (1761 -1783) from its glass display case at London’s Hunterian Museum run by England’s Royal College of Surgeons.

“Charles didn’t want to be dissected and put on display – this is not right and must stop,” said Mr Brennan.

Charles Byrne was one of a few famous 18th century “Irish giants” who were among the group of human curiosities who had celebrity status in London theatres making fortunes from people who would pay just to see them on stage.

He is believed to be originally from Cork, but emigrated to London to earn a living and died at just 22 due to excessive drinking shortly after having his life savings stolen from him.

He is said to have made a dying wish to be buried off the Irish coast and left a large sum for this to be done, as he did not want to become a specimen for anatomists.

However, British anatomist John Hunter is said to have bribed the undertaker and took Byrne’s body against to dissect it and put the skeleton in the museum where it remains to this day.

Tree surgeon Michael Brennan – who is himself around 6ft 6in – has already had his requests turned down by the British authorities, but is now getting help from Michael Ring TD and Sinn Fein MEP Mary Lou McDonald.

McDonald said: “In this day and age it’s a bit vulgar for the retention of a body like this – which went against the Irish man’s wishes on his death bed.

“The man wanted to be buried at sea and it’s not too late to respect that now.”

Michael Brennan’s request was refused by the board of trustees of the Hunterian Collection in February last year – which he said was because he was of no relation and because it was stated that the skeleton still possessed scientific and medical significance.

However, Michael believes the “Irish Giant” is being kept their as a “freak show” for people to gawk at – which was what the man did for a living before his death.

He wrote to the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission last September claiming this was an equality issue – but they said it would be up to a county court to resolve the issue.

He again wrote to the college of surgeons who are now due to discuss the matter again with the museums board on April 1.

Michael has forwarded his correspondence to the Foreign Affairs Minister, President Mary McAleese and to Michael Ring TD, who has is also helping with the campaign.

He said he feels a connection with the “Irish Giant” due to his own tall height and because he also emigrated to London to seek employment during hard economic times.

He saw a documentary about Charles Byrne on a cable channel and was “saddened” by his story.

He is calling on anyone out there who believes they might be related to Charles Byrne to make contact with him.

Michael has suggested that the museum make a plaster cast copy of the skeleton.

“Charles deserves to have his last dying wish so that he can be put to rest,” he said.

Barlonyo Massacre

Ayugi Sylvia was breast feeding her newborn when it was cruelly taken by a rebel soldier and swung against a wall until it died.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel then through her husband to the ground, held him down while beating him before cutting off his head with a machete.

The rebel then threatened to cut off Sylvia’s head when someone said she could be useful carrying equipment for them, which is what she did.

She said: “They beat my child against a wall and then lay down my husband and chopped off his head.

“I carried their bags for a week before the other side rescued me and brought me back to the village.”

These were two of 301 people butchered by LRA troops at around 5pm on February 21 2004 after they defeated the 11 man Amuka militia protecting the displacement camp of Barlonyo 26 km north of Lira town in northern Uganda , which had a population of 11,000.

A band of mostly women LRA soldiers overpowered the government reserve troops and fled leaving the people to be burned alive in their huts – with anyone who left being hacked to death.

The 800 others ran for their lives to inform the government army who got their recruits to the scene hours after the LRA had gone with the loot of 200 kidnapped boys and women slaves to carry their equipment.

Sylvia used to own the land were now 301 innocent people from the Barloonyo displacement camp, are buried in a mass grave.

She said President Museveni told her during his visit to the sight that he would compensate her, but she is still waiting for it.

A memorial now stands where the massacre occurred at the height of LRA brutality – which has seen tens of thousands of people killed, raped and abducted.

Chairman of the camp Odongo Patrick said the plaque on the monument incorrectly reads 102 deaths by the LRA terrorists – because he was there and saw 301 bodies.

It is believed the government tried to play down the number of deaths.

Patrick said the LRA came from three different directions to attack the small barracks – defeating the government troops within five minutes.

He was first to be told to flee so he and others ran for their lives.

He said: “When some rebels reached the camp they told people to stay in their houses.

“Then they started to set fire to them and were using pogs and machetes to hack anyone who got out, and then would throw them back into the fire.

“Anyone who remained in the camp was killed.

“[Government] reinforces came at 10pm but by that time the rebels had already left.

“In the morning we found bodies littered everywhere – some were burned. Those who got serious injuries were taken to hospital.

“After the attack the president came and made several promises that were never fulfilled.

“They included building schools, nurseries, a medical centre and to repair the road leading to the camp.”

Patrick lost his 56 year old mother, 72 year old father and 36 year old sister when they were killed by the LRA in the attack.

His two children were abducted to become child soldiers, but they later returned.

“People were heartbroken. They had no hope,” he said.

Since then the camp has been re-built itself into a happy community, but one that that very few services.

Trocaire are funding a new campaign for the camp next month that will includes providing animals, crops, seeds and could also include the introduction of solar lighting – as they have no electricity and rely on candle light at night.

The Ugandan government believe they have identified the LRA leaders in the Barlonyo massacre – and one of the suspects was shot dead by LRA leader Richard Kony.

Kony shot him when he returned to him with the terms of a peace agreement he did not like.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a mob of barbaric killers led by Joseph Kony, who was part of a rebel group in the mid-eighties.

Kony has said he wants to rule Uganda under 11 commandments that are mix of his own psychotic thoughts with the Muslim and Christian faiths.

His commanders have amassed an army of tens of thousands of young boys abducted from their homes since around 1996.

They are trained through fear and intimidation to kill with knives, machetes and guns.

Often they are abducted, trained and then brought back to their home village where they are ordered to shoot or hack to death members of their own families and village.

The LRA are notorious for their sick barbaric methods of killing people.

The actions of the LRA, which escalated to enormous scales at around 2004, resulted in the Ugandan Government deciding to force all innocent villagers up north to move to special “displacement camps.”

Almost 2 million people were put in these camps and today, despite a ceasefire in Uganda, just about half have returned home, only to find their villages and land in ruin.

The majority of the rest fear a return of the LRA.

The LRA are currently held up in a jungle hideaway in the DR Congo, where just before Christmas 2008 combined forces of Ugandan, Sudanese and Congolese soldiers attacked them, which resulted in the LRA deputy leader Okot Odhiambo being injured.

This has also resulted in the LRA attacking innocent villagers in the DR Congo and Sudan as they flee.

These military operations are being assisted by a small group of US military liaison officers appointed before George Bush junior ended his presidency.

Entebbe Incident

The terminal where the famous Entebbe Airport hostage rescue occurred in 1976 still stands today near the new terminal in Uganda।

The rescue by the Israeli defense forces was a huge embarrassment to dictator Idi Amin, who blamed Kenya by accusing them of colluding with the Israelis and ordered the murder of hundreds of their civilians in Uganda।

The crisis began on June 27 1976 when four Palestinian militants seized an Air France flight, flying from Israel to Paris via Athens, with 250 people on board।

The hijackers - two from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and two from Germany's Baader-Meinhof - diverted the plane to Entebbe, where it arrived on June 28।

The hijackers demanded the release of 53 militants held in jails in Israel and four other countries।

Idi Amin arrived at the airport to give a speech in support of the hijackers and supplied them with extra troops and weapons.

On July 1 the hijackers released a large number of hostages but continued to hold captive the remaining 100 passengers who were Israelis or Jews।

Those who were freed were flown to Paris and London।

The crew were offered the chance to go but chose to stay with the plane।

The remaining hostages were transferred to the airport building with the hijackers backed up by Ugandan soldiers।

The hijackers then set a deadline for 11am for their demands to be met or they would blow up the airliner and its passengers, but their plan was foiled।

Ugandan soldiers and the hijackers were taken completely by surprise when three Hercules transport planes landed after a 2,500-mile trip from Israel।

About 200 commandos ran out and stormed the airport building।

During a 35-minute battle, 20 Ugandan soldiers and all seven hijackers died along with three hostages and the leader of the Israeli assault।

The Israelis destroyed 11 Russian-built MiG fighters, which amounted to a quarter of Uganda's air force।

The surviving hostages were then flown to Israel with a stopover in Nairobi, Kenya, where some of the injured were treated by Israeli doctors and at least two transferred to hospital there.

Idi Amin

Many would know Idi Amin from his portrayal by actor Forest Whitaker in the hit movie The Last King of Scotland – told through the story of a young Scottish doctor who becomes one of his close advisers.

He is one of the world’s most famous crazed tyrants – having become ultra paranoid, he killed over 250,000 of his suspected opponents and brutally tortured tens of thousands more.

His love of anything Scottish is the reason why today visiting true Scots are advised not to wear Scottish jerseys, because Amin is the dictator that Ugandan's try to forget.

One of his former wives was found with her limbs dismembered in the boot of a car.

Amin ordered that they be sewn back together with the torso so that he and her children could go and see the body.

Members of his chief justice, ministers, even church leaders were taken away by special guards – never to be seen again.

Henry Kyemba, Amin’s former Health Minister, said that he performed blood rituals on many of his victims.

Amin once boasted to him that he had eaten human flesh, and it is said he kept the heads of some victim’s in fridges.

Idi Amim began his climb to power while Uganda was under British rule.

He was a commissioned officer when Uganda won independence in 1962 – despite being a concern to the British military because of his illiteracy or lack of any schooling.

He was recruited by the British in 1946 to serve as a trainee cook in the Kings African Rifles.

British officers admired his loyalty – and his successes in sport, which included being the national heavy weight boxer and as a rugby player.

He was posted to Kenya as a corporal during a British campaign where he excelled in his brutality during the torture of prisoners – and rose again to sergeant major.

After murdering three tribesmen in Kenya Amin faced a court martial, but the prime minster Milton Obote merely reprimanded him allowing Amin to keep climbing until he eventually became one of Obote’s top officers.

Amin eventually seized power from Obote while he was away at a commonwealth conference forcing him into exiule in Tanzania.

Amin’s 1971 coup met little resistance and the new president became a national hero – touring the country making many promises of good times ahead.

He feared a counter attack from Obote so established death squads to eradicate opponents – which saw the mass killing of the Langi and Acholi tribes people he thought supported Obote.

“It was impossible to dispose of the bodies,” recalled a former Amin minster.

They were dumped in the Nile instead.

These massacred tribes would face further attacks from the Lords Resistance Army years later.

Amin had no idea how to run an economy and would routinely order banks to just print cash when his budgets ran out.

As the economy plundered under his rule he ordered the expulsion of all Asian’s – in an attempt to boost his popularity.

A total of 50,000 left, including many doctors, dentists, businessmen, technicians and professors – resulting in government revenues being cut by 40 per cent over night.

Among his self awarded titles were president for life, conqueror of the British empire and “the true heir to throne of Scotland.”

He often tried to impress African diplomats by mocking the British,.

At a UN meeting he praised the Palestinians who killed Israel’s Olympic participants and even said Hitler was right to kill six million Jews.

The end of his tyranny came in 1979 when he ordered the invasion of Kagera salient in northern Tanzania – allowing his troops to loot and plunder at will.

Tanzania responded with 45,000 troops and decided to invade Uganda forcing Amin to flee to Saudi Arabia where he died in 2003.

His rule left Uganda broke, lawless and ravaged and with a death toll of over 250,000.

Obote regained power in 1980 in disputed elections plunging Uganda in an anarchic civil war –and the further death of an estimated 300,000 civilians.

By the time Obote lost power in 1985 Uganda was amongst the poorest countries in the world.

Visiting Kineni camp

The road to Kineni used to be one of the most dangerous in all of Uganda up until about three years ago, Michael Caritan of the Trocaire funded Caritas organisation tells me as we approach the parish camp.

“You could not drive here without being shot at by the LRA who hid all along either side,” he said.

The red dust road, like most in Uganda, is covered in obstacles like massive bumps and deep potholes, so four wheel drive vehicles are essential – yet many Ugandans somehow manage with  old cars in dire need of repair.

Many Ugandans cycle bicycles on which they also manage to carry large wood, grass and water.

Women walk along roadsides with big heavy bags of potatoes, seed or water balanced perfectly on their heads – and they somehow manage to keep their composure.

There are 2,500 people living in the Kineni camp in north Uganda while they wait patiently in hope of moving back to their original homelands.

While driving, Michael points in the direction where 30km away just four years ago the LRA cooked a man alive before forcing his other family members to eat pieces of him.

“They inflicted fear by using methods such as these,” he said.

At the camp about 50 small children, many with large malnourished bellies, surround us, staring at the “mono”, which is white person in their language.

A girl of about four stands shyly with the group, with a plastic wrapper on her head in the shape of a crown.

A little boy of about three years approaches us “mono” slowly, but just as one of the group says hello, or foyer matek (which means thanks) his face drops into tears and he scatters in search of his mother, erupting the whole camp into laughter.

Scores of people approach is in what is like the meeting area of the camp to shake our hands and welcome us.

“You are very, very welcome, thank you for coming,” said one of the English speaking members of the camp council.

This is copied by the children who put up their hands for them to be shaken.

The camp is made up of around 520 round houses of clay with straw roofs, that have inside them one or two old mattresses with pots, tools and water containers scattered around and clothes drying on lines or on top of the straw roof.

Between the homes goats and wild dogs walk about, some sleeping in the shade from the scorching hit midday sun.

Children run laughing and playing and women press seeds and cook pea soup or some other food - similar to how you would imagine it was done at ancient Viking and Celtic villages.

One group of boys play a game like marbles with rolled up pieces of dried mud, and others use sling shots trying to kill birds.

The Acholi tribe people are very polite and courteous, and very open and frank in their responses to questions during interviews about their lives.

As I make my way through the camp every single person acknowledges me, and some ask that I photograph them.

Heading back to the meeting area I hear drum beats, women singing and people clapping.

The entire camp is sitting around a dancing circle of women, most wearing what look like second hand charity clothing.

We are sat at a front row of seats with Sean Farrell of Trocaire and the guys from Caritas.

The women continue to dance to loud beats made by two men, one banging a drum, the other the end of a plastic container.

Michael Caritan of Caritas tells me that the dancing is a huge part of the Acholi way of life – each dance having a meaning.

“This is a dance for women, moving in their own way to the beat in a circle. It is a welcoming dance,” he says.

Suddenly a drunken man gets up from the ground and starts to dance with them – moving as the women do – erupting the gathered camp into laughter.

They make gestures for him to sit down.

When he gets in the way of the movement of the dance, two women pull him away while trying to control their laughter.

After the dancing, there are formal introductions, which start with the camp elders and council members who are in charge of different areas of the camp.

Each one stands up and says his or her name before telling us their ranking in the group.

When they are finished, it is our turn.

I tell them that I am Kevin Jenkinson from a land afar away called Ireland where people care very much about the needs of the Acholi people and where they want to know about the suffering they have gone through.

I thank them for their courteous welcome and sit back down while they clap their hands.

Sean Farrell of Trocaire then asks them if there is anything they would like to discuss – and they respond in turn with issues such as a lack of drinking water and land mines preventing them from going to their homesteads.

A woman with a walking stick who had feared the Trocaire solar lights would electrocute her to death, thanked Sean for the light.

She said it doesn’t catch fire to her cotton, like her old paraffin burner, and also allows her son to read his school books.

After agreeing on the small €2 contribution to the €20 solar lamps – Sean responds to their problems by telling them “We are here for the long term.”

“These are a brilliant people with so many needs who have gone through unspeakable hardship and tragedy,” he told me after speaking to the camp.

They offer to continue dancing for us, but it’s getting late and being on a road at night time can be fatal.

A rare thing also occurs for this time of year as we explain we must leave. It starts to rain, but it it is very brief and not enough to water a field of dry seeds or crops.

As we get up to leave the entire camp gathers around us waving goodbye and shaking our hands.

We are told we are “most welcome” to visit again.

We leave knowing that all the worries people talk about in Ireland are nothing compared to the needs of these incredibly tough and friendly people.

Simple Needs

Artificial light, safe drinking water and good food are just some of the simple needs of
northern Ugandan’s – who are millions of miles away from having an economy that could afford to have a recession like Ireland’s.

The world recession has affected them - but only by the cuts in foreign aid budgets, which the people here would be devastated without.

These are a friendly and hugely polite people, who worry about just being able to live each day in the severe hardship and poverty they are in – and many young children are very malnourished.

They rely so much on NGO organisations like Caritas Pader, who are funded by Trocaire, to help them return to their homesteads and to get the things they need to become self sufficient once again.

Almost two million of them lived peacefully with their own crops and animals to provide food and money, but since 1996 they were all put into “displacement camps” by their government because of the war with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

The government destroyed their homesteads so that they would not return during the conflict and their food and animals were stolen.

The Acholi tribe in north Uganda dominate the remote Pader district where myself and photographer Noel Gavin met with the people of two “return camps” that provide them with more space and services than the displacement camps – and are located near their homesteads, where they all intend to return to.

Pader was the location of the first rehabilitation centre for escaped child soldiers from the LRA, because it was so close to where the LRA operated their reign of bloody terror in Uganda.

All over the region there are people building huts in their former homesteads, but there remains hundreds of thousands of people living in camps, some of which are very cramped with bad sanitation.

Everyone here has lost someone to AIDS or from the war with the LRA.

Atto Christine (20) of the Lagwai parish camp in Pader, who has one child of her own and mothers the five children of her dead sister, spoke to me outside her house wearing an old Arsenal FC polo shirt.

Most Ugandan's support the big English soccer clubs and gather around any available TV in their hundreds in a town or city every weekend to see the games.

She described how a simple solar powered lamp has hugely improved her life.

She lives in a straw roofed hut in the middle of an entire region that has no electricity – so at night it is pitch black.

She said through a translator: “The solar light does not produce any smoke, so that is good for us inside our home, and I don’t have to spend money on paraffin for a lamp.

“There were incidents of houses going on fire and children being burned.”

Christine hopes that the light, which lasts six years and is provided by Trocaire, will enable her one year old child, Okello Francis, to read safely when he is attending school.

She said her sister died from AIDS – which is still very endemic in Uganda.

Sean Farrell of Trocaire, who regularly visits the people he helps in Uganda to see what need’s they have, said they hope to provide these solar lights to more camps, as well as goats, seeds and assistance in getting their original homeland back.

He told a large group of malnourished and poverty stricken, yet hugely hospitable and friendly people from the Kineni camp: “Trocaire are here for the long term.

“I’ve been to many villages. The demands are many and we will do what we can. And we keep our promises.”

Odokonyera Jackson (28) from Lagwai explained how a goat he got from Trocaire will enable him to give at least one of his eight children an education.

“The goat can deliver young who I can sell and get money for things like education and medical care.”

Jackson has four of his own children, but he also cares for the four children of his sister who died from AIDS and whose father was killed by the LRA.

In Uganda a child is orphaned when at least one of the parents dies, and usually the aunt or uncle will care for the children.

Jackson said he wants to go home, but he still fears a return of the LRA and there have been reports of rogue armed groups roaming the area.

Widow Akongo Naekolina (43), who is HIV positive and who is a mother of seven is one of the people who has returned to her homestead.

She said she is happy to be back, but because of her health and the death of her husband, who was a Ugandan army soldier, she must rent out some of her land to afford food and other needs.

The clearance of land mines also remains an issue in the Padar region.

Dad of one Okemy Bosco (22) said at his home in the Kineni return site, where 2,200 people live, that until three mine fields are cleared he will never return home.

“Hopefully we can go home, but there are three mapped areas of unexploded mines in that area,” he said.

In the same camp an elder, Otting Santina (65), said it is difficult for her to return to her homestead and provide for herself because of her age and the frail condition of her 80 year old husband.

She was once beaten by the LRA who forced her at gunpoint to fetch them water during a raid and killed five of her close relatives.

She remembered a time when every village was happy with plenty of crops and animals.

Santina said: “I’m not certain for the future of the country. For the youth, if war ends then it will be good, but not otherwise.”

Michael Caritan of Caritas thanked Irish people for helping them provide simple needs like solar lights, goats and seeds to the impoverished people living in camps.

He said: “We are very grateful for what the community on Ireland have done for the people in Pader.

“It is our appeal that more support should be given to continue to support these people.”