IRISH MUSEUM ‘CANCELS’ RACIST EUGENICIST

by Jules Gomes  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  August 3, 2020 

DUBLIN (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Dublin museum dedicated to Irish emigrants will remove a prominently displayed photograph of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger after a Catholic philosopher complained about her racist and eugenicist beliefs.  

"When I heard that Planned Parenthood had removed references to Sanger from their facilities, I simply asked EPIC, the Irish emigration museum, if they would do the same," Dr. Angelo Bottone told Church Militant in an exclusive interview Sunday.

The main exhibit on Sanger that caught Bottone's attention 

Seen on the Street

Bottone, a philosophy lecturer at University College Dublin said he passes "by the EPIC museum almost every day. A big picture of Sanger is displayed on one of the external windows on its facade at the Custom House Quay (CHQ) building in Dublin's docklands."

"I have never been inside the museum because there was never a proper occasion but also because it is quite 'woke.' It hosts exhibitions or book launches with a clear 'progressive' message and I don't like that," observed Bottone, a member of the Irish Philosophical Society.

Bottone said he was aware that the museum had an exhibition dedicated to Sanger, both of whose parents were Irish, and that an American visitor had complained to the museum about the racist eugenicist in 2018.

The complainant expressed "amazement" over EPIC's "displays about the rainbow movement regarding homosexuality/gay marriage and another about Margaret Sanger, the eugenicist who tried so desperately to rid the U.S. of those most undesirable through the introduction of abortion into poor areas with minority populations."

"Many poor areas had lots of Irish, it should be noted!" the complainant added, noting that the "unnecessary information was an assault and disappointment to those of us who visited the museum expecting to be more informed about the tragic situations experienced by the Irish as they tried to survive the extermination method (starvation) being used by the British against them."

Initial Pushback

However, in a 500-word response, the museum defended the exhibition on Sanger, "who advocated for the use of contraception" as an emigrant of Irish descent "leading political and social change around the world."

"We are aware that she held controversial views on eugenics. We do not advocate for those views, but we share her story in our museum as a member of the diaspora," the museum management replied.

On July 21, Bottone tweeted: "Will the @EPICMuseumCHQ in Dublin remove the large portrait of racist and eugenicist Margaret Sanger from their window?" 

I would be cautious about the renaming of venues or the removal of statues of historical figures who held views we now consider controversial but were generally adopted in their time.Tweet

Bottone's initial complaint was followed by a Twitter exchange with museum authorities. On July 22, the museum told him they would take a decision soon.

"After a week I asked them about the decision. They replied that the 'photograph on our front vaults will be removed.' They said nothing about the exhibition but, to be fair, I only asked about the picture," Bottone said.

Pleased But Cautious

"I was delighted and a bit surprised by their reaction," the philosopher, who is also a research officer at the Iona Institute, told Church Militant.

Bottone emphasized he was not in favor of the "cancel" culture. "I would be cautious about the renaming of venues or the removal of statues of historical figures who held views that we now consider controversial but were generally adopted in their time."

"That would be anachronistic and it should be done only after a proper public debate, never by a mob," he stressed.

Planned Parenthood Disavows Founder

"Nonetheless, this is different because Sanger, who only died in 1966, actively promoted eugenics, which was opposed by many in her own time. There is no excuse here. Even Planned Parenthood acknowledged this," Bottone explained.

Catholic philosopher Dr. Angelo Bottone

On July 23, Church Militant reported that Planned Parenthood in Manhattan was dropping Sanger's name because of her "her public support for the eugenics medical philosophy, which was rooted in racism, ableism and classism."

The abortion giant stopped issuing the Margaret Sanger Award after 2015. The award was conferred on contraception advocates and pro-abortion politicians, including Hillary Clinton in 2009 and fake Catholic Nancy Pelosi in 2014.

'Recontextualizing'

Nathan Mannion, senior curator at Epic, confirmed to The Times that Sanger's poster had been placed there "temporarily," but would be taken down because it was an "uncontextualized image, with no accompanying background or material."

Mannion said the museum is "going through everything with a fine-tooth comb" in light of the recent controversies over slavery and racism to decide if any exhibits need to be "recontexualized."

"We want to make sure that we are getting it right, and everything is up to date," Mannion commented. "This does not mean there will be dramatic changes. We don't want to shy away from contested histories. A museum is not a sanitized space, and the past is as complex as society today."

We are aware that she held controversial views on eugenics. We do not advocate for those views, but we share her story in our museum as a member of the diaspora.Tweet

EPIC, which tells the story of Irish emigration over 1,500 years, has exhibits related to 340 Irish emigrants. It seeks to explain why 10 million people left the historically Catholic island nation.

Bottone, originally from Italy, has published works on John Henry Newman, Paul Ricoeur, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Étienne Balibar. He also lectures at the School of Arts of the Dublin Business School and is involved in pro-life activism.

Birth-control icon Margaret Sanger blanked by Dublin's Epic museum for ‘racist past’

Epic, the Irish emigration museum, is to remove a photograph of Margaret Sanger from the front of its building after a complaint about her racist and eugenicist views.

Sanger, both of whose parents were Irish, was recently “cancelled” by Planned Parenthood, the US birth- control organisation she helped to establish. Its clinic in Manhattan removed Sanger’s name, saying her “racist legacy” and “deep belief in eugenic ideology” could no longer be denied.

Following the announcement, Angelo Bottone, a University College Dublin philosophy lecturer and a research officer at the Iona Institute, asked Epic whether it would remove a poster of Sanger from its facade at the CHQ building in Dublin’s docklands.

Epic tweeted back to Bottone on July 22 that it would “review this as a matter of priority and make a decision soon”. Last Wednesday it told him Sanger’s photo would be removed.

Nathan Mannion, senior curator at Epic, said the poster had been placed there only “temporarily”, but would be taken down because it was an “uncontextualised image, with no accompanying background or material”.

The decision followed the Shelbourne hotel’s removal of four statues from the front of its premises following suggestions that they depicted slave girls in shackles. Some art historians pointed out that the “manacles” might in fact be ankle bracelets.

Mannion revealed that the Epic emigration museum is conducting a detailed audit of its exhibition, “going through everything with a fine-tooth comb” in light of the recent international debate about slavery and migration. Curators are to decide whether any exhibits need to be “recontexualised”.

“We want to make sure that we are getting it right, and everything is up to date,” Mannion said. “This does not mean there will be dramatic changes. We don’t want to shy away from contested histories. A museum is not a sanitised space, and the past is as complex as society today.”

Epic has exhibits related to 340 Irish emigrants. These include people who were involved in the transatlantic slave trade, but also some who campaigned against it, and others who were indentured slaves in the Caribbean. Mannion said the museum’s aim is to ensure the stories it tells are properly representative and not one-dimensional, and amendments will be made if necessary.

Removal of an exhibit or story would be a “nuclear option” and curators would prefer that all the information about a person was presented to visitors. “We accept there is a contested history and most people are not heroes or villains, but have a greyer existence,” he said.

Two years ago some visitors to Epic took issue with Sanger’s entry in the museum, and it was changed to emphasise the more controversial aspects of her birth-control philosophy.

Born Margaret Higgins in New York in 1879, Sanger opened America’s first birth-control clinic in 1916. Five years later she founded the American Birth Control League, which later became the Planned Parenthood Federation. Its “highest honour” is the Margaret Sanger Award, recognising leadership in the reproductive health movement. Previous recipients include politicians Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, and actors Jane Fonda and Kathleen Turner.

Though still a feminist icon, Sanger’s support for eugenics is now increasingly criticised. In 1921 she wrote that “the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective”. In removing her name from its Manhattan clinic, Planned Parenthood cited Sanger’s “harmful connections to the eugenics movement”, which at the time promoted selected breeding among black and disabled communities.

Karen Seltzer, chair of Planned Parenthood in New York, said the removal of Sanger’s name from the building was “both a necessary and overdue step” to acknowledge the organisation’s contributions “to historical reproductive harm within communities of colour”.