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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Alexandra Topping

‘He did not want this’: one man’s two-decade quest to let the ‘Irish Giant’ rest in peace

Crystal Gallery, Hunterian museum. The Royal College Surgeons, Lincoln's Inn, London. Charles Byrne
The skeleton of Charles Byrne (centre) on display at the Hunterian Museum in London before a six-year revamp which will see his remains removed to storage. Photograph: David Gee/Alamy

Thomas Muinzer recalls the day when, as a bored student in Belfast learning about property law, a few sentences about the 18th century “Irish Giant” Charles Byrne caught his eye.

“I saw a footnote about a celebrity Irish giant from present day Northern Ireland whose remains were stolen on the way to his funeral – querying whether or not that was the theft of property, because it was a dead body,” he says.

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