Earlier this month, Trinity College Dublin returned 13 skulls to the island of Inishbofin, Co Galway. The skulls were stolen by academics Alfred Haddon and Andrew Francis Dixon in 1890, before the pair later gifted them to the university.
In rural Antrim, a particularly notorious and ruthless gang known as the “Connor Body Boys” operated around the villages of Kells and Connor close to Ballymena. In response, cemeteries in Ballylinny, Donegore, Connor and other areas built stone fortifications known as “mort houses” or “corpse houses” to protect dead bodies from theft.
A favourite technique involved digging a straight narrow hole down behind where the corpse’s head was and smashing in the top of the coffin with a “coffin crowbar”. A rope could then be fixed around the neck of the body in order to pull it out. Although unsubstantiated, there is one peculiar story that stands out. According to local lore, Marjorie McGrath was accidentally buried alive in Shankill Cemetery.
As anatomists were generally willing to pay a premium for “fresh” corpses, it was more profitable for Burke and Hare to kill their victims rather than exhume their bodies from the grave. Their first dealing with the sale of corpses came when an elderly co-tenant of Hare’s died of natural causes, still owing £4 in rent.
The Burke and Hare murders inspired a series of copy-cat murders throughout Britain known as “Burkings”. In an attempt to quell the demand for corpses, Parliament passed the Anatomy Act of 1832. This resulted in Byrne growing to over 7ft 7in according to skeletal studies, however, some accounts refer to him being over 8ft. As a teenager, Byrne left for Britain where he became an instant celebrity, earning the moniker “The Irish Giant”. He toured the country, entertaining paying audiences as a curiosity.